Source for that claim?? strapping on a headset doesn't seem like a great way to share a movie with friends, but that's just me.
I would be the first to say that of course seeing people in real life would be superior, but with the internet I'm finding that some of my closest friends are sometimes thousands of miles away. This is a way to keep in contact that's as good or better than something like facetime and far, far superior to buying a plane ticket just to hang out.
If I were working on any kind of VR software in the next five years, it would be a game, absolutely no question about it. (A game that does not involve the character walking around, by the way.) As long as the hardware requirements for a good VR experience are high, anything else is a novelty.
Serious PC gamers are your audience. Period. Alternative hardware that doesn't rely on a beefy GPU will (for now) be extremely limited and uninteresting.
And even after a few years, you're still going to need a very good reason to spend at least a few hundred dollars on a VR set. I will be very surprised if home users are buying them for something other than games.
* 360 film doesn't work well, with not being able to move around.
PS: Yes I get you could integrate the notifications stuff into VR. In fact if you want to get silly show a virtual tablet on your virtual coffee table in front of your virtual TV. Replying though will be an issue, at least for a while.