We still get asked for a home cinema price on the first phone call. A number given then is a guess, and guesses are how projects go sour. Here is what the price is actually made of, without a fake rand menu.
The room comes first. A dedicated room you are building can take a projector, a proper screen, seats and treatment in the walls. A lounge with a window and a sofa you already own wants a different design, often a television and sound that does not annoy the rest of the house. Those are not two rungs on one ladder. They are different rooms.
Sound costs more than people expect and matters more than the extra ten inches of screen. Speaker placement, a centre channel you can hear, and bass that does not belong to the neighbour are design, not a soundbar hidden in the quote.
Retrofit costs more in labour and sometimes looks like a retrofit. Cable routes, a cupboard for equipment, and a mount in a concrete slab are the unglamorous lines. If the ceiling is still open, call before it is not.
Control can be a simple remote or a system that also runs the lights. The second one is worth it when the room is used often. It is wasted money when nobody in the house wants another app.
The design visit is how we turn this into a scope. Johannesburg and Pretoria are both normal for that visit. Book it from the contact page and say it is a cinema, not a general enquiry.
The price moves with the room, not the brochure. Book a cinema design visit before anyone names a projector.