London, Oct 30 (IANS): Even a smartphone with a small screen is enough to generate an intense cinematic experience if the surroundings are stimulating enough, found a research.

People are drawn to movie theatres primarily because of the surroundings, the researchers suggested.

"You begin to wonder why people continue to visit movie theatres when they can now watch everything at home. We believe that the effect of screen size as a factor is overestimated. It is not significant in statistical terms," said Andreas Baranowski from the Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) in Mainz, Germany.

When the researchers provided a computer screen the attributes of a movie theatre, the participants barely sensed a difference between it and cinema on a large screen.

Even a cell phone display performed relatively well in a cinematic environment.

For the study, the test participants were shown a ten minute excerpt from the film "Gulliver's Travels" in various screen sizes.