Ok, I'm diving back in. While I agree that 5.1 for movies is vastly superior to 2 channel, I would advise doing it in a stepwise fashion, or, at the very least, don't let the two channel audio get pushed to the backburner by getting some boxed ready-to-go 5.1 setup. If you happen to be the only person ever to step foot in these forums with self-control when it comes to budgeting for audio and $2500-3000 is your absolute limit, I'd do this: Set a $200 max on surround speakers, pick up a beefy receiver used and try to limit it to under $1000 (which will get you quite a bit in a used receiver). Cambridge Soundworks has very inexpensive center speakers which really aren't all that bad for dialogue--used, easily under $100. Spend the rest on the front pair of speakers. With your budget and criteria, this will provide you with the best 2 channel possible and I really don't think your movie experience will suffer at all. In addition, if (who are we kidding...when) you decided to upgrade, replacing the surrounds or the center won't be a hard hit and you will have a solid base (your front speakers) to build off of.
For what it's worth, this is the route I took at the beginning. A decent receiver ($800 new--I didn't know about used audio then), $1500 Vienna Acoustic Bachs, $250 Cambridge Soundworks Center (Used, sub $100 now), $200 Boston Acoustic dipole surrounds. It was really quite entertaining for movies and sweet sounding for two channel all things considered.
For what it's worth, this is the route I took at the beginning. A decent receiver ($800 new--I didn't know about used audio then), $1500 Vienna Acoustic Bachs, $250 Cambridge Soundworks Center (Used, sub $100 now), $200 Boston Acoustic dipole surrounds. It was really quite entertaining for movies and sweet sounding for two channel all things considered.