AppleTV and Airport Express Issue with Movies

Im shocked that this is an issue, but i connected my airport express so an amp and connected a couple speakers to get better sound when watching movies from my AppleTV. The sound from the TV speakers is pretty lousy so this seemed like an obvious upgrade.

Everything works great when listening to music or watching the WatcheESPN app, but when I stream a movie from my computer using AppleTV the sound only comes out of the TV and NOT the speakers connected via the airport express.

It seems this is a known issue but has anyone found a work around? I was very dissapointed, needless to say, and can't believe that Apple would allow this to happen with their products, which are meant to work seemlessly together.

I appreciate any advice or insight anyone can give. Thanks

The Apple TV is on one side of the room and and the speakers are on the opposite. Im trying to avoid having wires running all over the place and since i am only connected 2 speakers, i got a smaller amp that will do the trick. The Airport Express allowed me to keep wires to a minimum

I tried that and the audio was too low coming directly from the TV to the amp surprisingly. It does defeat the purpose of using the airport to play wirelessly.

I'm gonna see if i can use bluetooth instead as one option, or see if Plex will work