It’s not just that they were CRTs.
You can get an excellent picture from the CRT computer monitors of the '90s and '00s, with high resolution (up to 2048×1536—better than 1080p!) and color rendering that’s arguably better than modern LCDs.
CRT TVs had low resolution, and NTSC/PAL has pretty bad color fidelity as well, but one of those high-definition CRTs connected to an RGB component video input (like VGA) carrying high-definition content (DVD or Blu-Ray) is another story entirely.
Also, you can watch movies on your PC or phone now. If you’re watching by yourself, you don’t particularly need a big screen any more, just a normal screen and a good pair of headphones.
Provided your eyes can comfortably focus at such a short distance for 2 hours at a time, of course.