From the article:
When we went to our seats, the wait staff let us know that despite the fact that the previews were playing, we wouldn’t know until the movie actually started whether we could see the film or not. If it didn’t work, the screen would just turn black. Luckily, the film went through without a hitch.
The staff commented “we can only know if it works when the movie starts”, and this sentence is let me thinking “expensive royalties would be automatically paid every single time the play button is pressed”