You think that’s wild? Before the release of Psycho in 1960, movies didn’t have show times. The theaters would just screen their programs on a rotating loop and people would come in whenever. Sometimes you’d come in at the middle, sit through the end and beginning, then leave when it came around to where you started (hence the cliche “this is where I came in). Hitchcock insisted people watch Psycho from the beginning in order to get the full experience. After that, it became the norm.

People did have bigger things to worry about in the 30s-40s.