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and then actually calls them

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Back in the days before theaters turned into mega-ludicrous-plexes, when someone would come to the theater and ask me if there was a way for their babysitter to get ahold of them, I would give out the box office line and find out where they were seated. I probably did that at least once a week for about 5 years (until cell phones became so commonplace) and I can only recall having to go find the parents twice. That could never work in today's complexes though.

Bear in mind, if theaters block cell phones for some reason, many people will NOT go to the theater and use Blockbuster instead. I would expect parents of young children to be at the top of that list.

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There was also a commercial from Nokia to promote their latest model, specifically made for cinemas, that said "Make yourself heard, but NOT at the theatre...".

The Kinepolis Theatres circuit also has a trailer for uneducated people who abandon their empty pop-corn bucket or drink cans on the seats or aisles after the show. It is an animated cartoon showing spectators eating and drinking during a projection, then throwing their empty stuff on the floor. The camera then shows the theatre screen where you can see a dragon in the film. The dragon suddenly peers at the audience and belches flames at the dirty spectators. Then you see the spectators completely black with burnt ruffled hair bashfully picking their trash and putting it in a garbage can near the theatre exit door.

There was this lady with a talk radio program in South Florida who was bitching to all hell about New York's phone law. (This was last year, btw) She was saying how her "business" relies on people to call in, and if a law like that passed in Florida where people aren't allowed to drive with cell phones, then her business is ruined! Well, she's been on the air since well before cell phones became mainstream, and seemed to be doing fine then. I don't understand why some people think that their cell phone is this lifeline that has to stay attatched. By the way, in the three hour program about the cell phone law, she got a total of only 4 calls from idiots on cell phones on the highway.

My old high school in Royal Palm Beach had banned students from bringing cell phones to school. Sound reasonable? One would think. SO MANY parents complained that they were not able to "Contact their child" because they weren't carrying their cell phone, that the school was forced to retract the rule. HELLO!!! Call the office and have them get your kid to the office phone. Not that important? Then you shouldn't be calling your kid in school.

Speaking of school, it seems college students lack the same manners. At least once a day, a professor for a class that I paid $350+ for is interrupted as some moron's phone plays some moronic tune over and over. The person who it belongs to is too embarrased to reach into their bag or purse to turn it off, so they leave it ring.... and ring... and ring.... Some even answer it to explain to the caller that they are in class. Perhaps it makes them feel important, like saying "I'm in a meeting right now".

=TMP=
Never owned a cell phone. Never will. Refuse to get a job that makes me carry one.

No! We have to pass laws, put up signs, make everything illegal and, if that doesn't work, we have to have some $1,000,000 technological solution to a problem that COULD have been solved by the utterance of seven simple words!

So, perhaps an approach would be to simulate this situation, by playing some EX-encoded sound that makes it appear that a number of phones are ringing all throughout that theatre, ideally without stopping the non-sync music. If it doesn't appear too contrived, then perhaps it would convince the audience to really turn off their phones, too.

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