first time i played through while Kinda Knowing What I'm Doing I had most villagers (24+) maxed out on friendship by the end of year 1.
so by the time I finally got the Movie Theater up and running, I didn't really need it's help boosting anyone's friendship.
With the obvious exception of Kent, who needed a lot of help catching up in hearts to everyone else and getting a hold of his loved gifts was still far off to start (back in 1.5. no stardrop tea and no queen of sauce cookbook,)
So Kent became my farmer's designated movie buddy. So this old tradition/bias of mine has made Kent feel like my farmer (in all his iterations) 's best friend in town as he's the NPC my farmer actually does friend stuff with (as opposed to drive-by gifting everyone else on the way to the mines or whatever) and has given me a soft spot for Kent in general.
[Plus the Year 2 thing makes him feel kinda unheralded relative to the rest of the villagers as a "player base's favorite villager" and I love an underdog.]