You should know:

Lol. A funny mental image. Usually they’ll just ask you to leave- if you don’t, they may get a manager. Most people will listen at that point or at least leave the theater for the lobby to argue. If not- once a person is refusing to comply with basic directions and or “making a scene” they just call the cops and/or security.

But as you say- unless management is all over employees to check and enforce those sorts of rules- most employees usually aren’t going to care at most chains- maybe at a smaller or independent theater. But really- the odds of enforcement of many policies tend to be low as long as you aren’t being blatant or disturbing other guests.

You figure that even if you don’t “blow up” or cause a scene- the risk is there that you will- and as far as profit motivation goes- it’s just not good business to disturb 30+ innocent customers watching a movie to eject one who isn’t causing a problem but is breaking a rule.

If you’re flagrant about it- they’re more likely to do something. It’s not just a matter of perceived “disrespect,” but the fact that openly breaking rules without consequence tends to encourage others to do so when they see that it’s “ok” to do that. If you’re already disrupting the film- then they have good business reason to throw you out- since the disruption of ejecting you mitigates the disruption you are brining. And if what you’re doing causes a larger liability- yeah. They’ll be more likely to eject you as money saved>potential loss.