Nitehawk is the latest ‘anti-phone’ theater to fall to the QR code

One of the most precious parts of the moviegoing experience in 2026 is the feeling of stealing some rare, mandatory time away from The Phones. (There’s a reason, after all, that so many people on the internet had at least a little bit of sympathy for the guy who pepper sprayed a gratuitous phone user at an AMC in LA last month.) And one of the stupidest day-to-day scourges in 2026 is being forced to pull out your phone to use a QR code at seemingly every turn. Unfortunately, some of the city’s most beloved and formerly anti-phone theaters seem to have lost the plot on all of the above.