"If there's still a reason to go to a movie theater -- call it communal dreaming -- exhibitors are chipping away at it to make their weekly payroll."
"Are Movies Dying?", Boston Globe, June 26, 2005

Was "communal dreaming" ever a reason to see a movie, I wonder?

The illusion of a horror movie might be heightened by people shrieking in the audience, but most other emotional reactions, other than laughter, are not audible.

In fact, the emotional reaction most often associated with dreaming is complete silence and absorption, for instance, where one is "transfixed" or "spellbound". Any audience noise would, therefore, intrude on the dream state, not enhance it.

If "communal dreaming" is not a genuine cinematic experience, the silver screen may, indeed, be fading, permanently, to box office grey.

http://snipurl.com/fz16

One might also ask whether there is any parallel between the communal experience in a cinema, and the communal experience in a church or other place of worship.

Personally, I would think not, as cinemas are darkened to deepen the immediacy of images on the screen, whereas places of worship are often flooded with natural light, through stained glass windows, for instance, to deepen the immediacy of 'spirit' [which we often associate, metaphorically, with radiating light].