IMHO, and based on my own experience as an employee and a manager, if you have staff that are paid to solve complex problems, pay attention to detail, or manage technical processes, then anything you can do to help them minimize distraction and interruption will pay off in accuracy and productivity. Individual offices would be the ideal, but headphones and partitions can accomplish much the same for a fraction of the cost.
Movies are probably a bridge too far, but for certain especially creative and productive individuals, especially if they were on a major project in progress and had some downtime waiting on something or monitoring something, I’d let it slide and even condone it.
Of course, I’m in IT, which is a field that is still largely merit-based and new enough to not have ossified as some others have. And we often work long hours at weird times and places in order to minimize adverse effects on the core business. Finding people who can and will do that, and are competent, often requires some flexibility other business functions can’t or won’t offer.
I am not IT—but I have one of those jobs that requires a lot of complex analysis and concentration.
My office was so loud that the only way I could concentrate was to put on headphones with heavy metal music.
But—once I discovered that little trick life has been good...
Bam bam bam (too bad I can’t hear about single mom Leticia’s son in trouble with the law again....) ;-)