As long as movies have been around, people have wanted to view them in their homes. Watching movies at home wasn't possible, however, until the 1950s, when 8mm projectors became available and affordable. Most films of this time were made in 8mm film, whether it be Super 8 film or Super 8 with sound, almost all 8mm films could be played on a  standard 8mm projector. The projectors were still not entirely cheap, but cheap enough that a family could purchase and use it to play versions of movies that could be bought for home use.

While 8mm cine film was the standard, 9.5mm was the standard in France, so French movies had to be played on different projectors. These films projected were often without sound, but it was still notable for being the first development in having a home theater. While most films shown were home movies, commercial films were available.

For those that wanted a better, more dedicated home cinema, rooms could be set up with a projector and a screen, and larger projectors that took movie-style reels, usually of the 16mm or 35mm format. Super 8 film became popular for large and small home cinemas in the late 1960s and early 1970s, due to its abundance and general better quality than other 8mm formats. However, when VHS became a viable home video method, almost all formats that required projectors and cine films were killed off.

VCRs were invented in the 1970s, and caught on pretty quickly as they could be connected to a standard television and did not require any special equipment or rooms. For a while in the 1980s, VHS competed with Laserdisc, as Laserdiscs added whole new dimensions to home video, with better quality sound and picture. It was the 1980s where home design companies would start building furniture and rooms to the "home cinema" look, with nooks for large television, bigger speakers and better quality audio, and chairs and couches designed to be placed around the television. In the early 1990s, it wasn't unusual for most households to have a VHS or Laserdisc player, complete with collection of videos for easy viewing. Movie Night became a common pastime in many households.

The late 1990s brought the DVD, which brought whole new dimensions to home cinemas in that DVDs had several options for different sound, different languages, and simple scrolling menus. Plus, for anyone that suffered through having to rewind videos, it was nice that DVDs never had to be rewound. The digital format also had better picture and sound compared to VHS, and, overtime, completely killed the VHS format to dominate the market.

The 2000s brought more developments, such as larger televisions and better audio formats, and the development of high definition video. The BluRay format came to rival the DVD because of its better audio and sound, it has been predicted that the DVD would have been killed off completely, had not the Recession come in the late 2000s and forced many people to stick to their old video formats rather than invest in new players and discs. The future of home cinema seems that it will continue down the digital line, as many now are able to download video from the internet to smart televisions and watch it, even download rental videos for a time. The future seems to be about getting rid of a physical video format entirely, and turning all to digital files of movies for home viewing. A lot of video collections are now available in the cloud, on a multitude of devices, enabling you to take your videos wherever you go and view them anywhere.