It appears the pandemic-fueled surge in home theater demand has leveled off for integrators as they assess the state of their cinema installation business in 2023. Indeed, integrators predict a miniscule 0.8% increase in their home theater work for the rest of this year, down from a 7.25% predicted growth rate heading into 2022. If you want to do the math, that represents a drop in demand of more than 1,100% in just one year.

Meanwhile, the demand for high-performance home cinema technology in a multipurpose or great room is outpacing the interest in dedicated theaters, which is the renewal of a trend that started well before COVID-19 came upon the scene. That changing demand is reflected in the wavering of the price points dealers are able to obtain for their home theater design and installation. Specifically, the median price for a dedicated theater fell by 13% to $43,750. On the flip side, the median price for a multipurpose room theater increased by 14% to $31,250.

Those are just some of the datapoints revealed in the 2023 CE Pro Home Entertainment Deep Dive Study that aims to gauge the state of the home cinema market among professional integrators. The exclusive CE Pro research report information is meant to help CE pros determine the resources they need to fulfill their clients’ home theater needs while at the same time provide some benchmark data.

Download the full 2023 CE Pro Home Entertainment Deep Dive Study HERE for FREE

While there appears to be a lull in the super-high momentum for home theater, the category is still overall on the rebound from where pundits saw it pre-pandemic. Dealers report installing a median of five dedicated theaters in 2022 and seven great-room theaters. That is two more than they reported in 2021.

Like many categories of equipment, the home theater category was bitten by the supply chain shortage. The category was especially susceptible to the supply chain crisis because there are so many individual components necessary to complete a professionally installed home entertainment system. Projectors, displays, AVRs, Blu-ray players, amplifiers, pre-amps, streaming media servers, active speakers with digital-to-analog conversion/built-in amplification are just some of the home theater components that were held hostage last year by the microchip shortage.

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But the supply chain crisis has subsided in terms of home theaters. When asked in this year’s survey, integrators reported they are no longer facing difficulty getting products. Last year’s survey respondents said they could have completed an additional four more home theater projects if they had the gear.

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