Should movie theaters make phone-free screenings the default?

I am the customer theaters claim to want back: a mom who pays for the sitter, the tickets, and the popcorn. But I am also the emergency contact, and my sitter reaches me by phone. Lock my phone in a pouch for two and a half hours and I am not buying the ticket; I am staying home where the baby monitor works. On-call nurses, single parents, anyone waiting on a call about an aging parent, we all do the same math. A default that treats every customer like a teenager sneaking texts will quietly filter out the adults with the most disposable income. Make some screenings phone-free and I will happily pick those. Make all of them phone-free and you will never see me. The venue policies themselves admit the friction: Yondr's own FAQ has a whole section for guests who are on call or waiting on the babysitter, because even they know the pouch is a dealbreaker for those customers.