same here and i really hate when that happens. usually when a less promoted movie comes out here at the same time as some blockbuster, it plays for like 2 weeks and then it's gone (the second week is also like one screening a day at either 10am or 9pm). also all the a24 movies that film twitter and letterboxd hype up every year never end up being played in theaters where i live so i have to watch them at some piracy website instead. being a non-american cinephile is exhausting
For me the golden age of cinema movie watching was probably the 90s(and before tat maybe the mid to late 80s, tjo mostly I watched bootleg vhs tapes-even sometimes I'm the 90s).
But in the 90s I had to go to another country by a bridge type link(think New York from Brooklyn or Jersey except you need a passport so like if jersey was like calais [I think tats in France rite?] And new York was Dover maybe except its more like if marseille and London were on their countries coast opposite each other and there wasn't a euro visa free travel zone and also there's a bridge but no chunnel, and it's also quite short distance but with heavier and heavier traffic as time goes by where earlier it's quicker but lately traffic jam of hours during last week of christmas-imagineif London was New York and Paris/marseille was brooklyn/jersey and no euro visa free travel!it actually wasn't all bad in the 90s foe me coz I avoided the busy times.
Anyway, great movies like Camille,Japanese arthouse movies, asian/China arthouse movies and popular movies too(tho my then city was the equivalent of marseille/brooklyn/jersey and it eventually started showing most of the popular movies too, just not arthouse movies except one weekend I watched juno on I think Sunday but tat was in 2007 a decade later n eventually they decided not to show movies like juno I think. Only more popular money making movies mostly. One time in the morning
2019 2017(?) I went to a local movie at ard 10-11am but it wasn't shown at all. N I got a free ticket which I rmbr redeemed later to wast
star wars rise of skywalker Last jedi(?) So every where is messed up it's own way!