Will Texting and Smoking Weed Be Allowed Soon?

It’s time for moviegoing to get a makeover.

From selling pot along with popcorn to offering cellphone-friendly screenings, cinema owners could soon overhaul the way their customers watch films. These changes, many of them once considered sacrilegious, may give the box office a much-needed boost.

And there are plenty of people out there to entice, given that the majority of Americans these days aren’t regular moviegoers. While the U.S. population has grown steadily over the decades, there haven’t been many recent innovations drawing newcomers to the multiplex. The current crop of amenities are mostly luxe offerings that make the experience more expensive, like Imax or dine-in theaters, which could be a tough sell if the economy continues to teeter. Thanks, tariffs! Below are four ways theater owners could revive attendance.

Lighting Up Profits

Imagine how much better “Barbie” or “Deadpool & Wolverine” would be if you could see it with a bud?

Take Kev Jones, who was smoking a joint outside the AMC Times Square on a March weeknight before a screening of “Mickey 17.” “It helps to loosen me up and puts me in a sci-fi frame of mind,” he says, taking a big hit. “But honestly, I smoke before every movie.”

Jones, a member of AMC’s Stubs A-List, which allows moviegoers to attend several screenings a week for a flat fee, is a frequent guest, and he says he would come more often if he could buy and smoke pot at the theater. “How fun would that be?” he says. “They have a bar here so that people can relax and enjoy a drink. I’d love to relax on my own terms.”

Under New York law, marijuana became legal recreationally in 2021 and began being sold through sanctioned dispensaries in 2022. No movie theaters are allowed to sell weed, but according to Taylor Randi Lee, press secretary for the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, things could change.

“At this time, cannabis…