I arrived in the DR on May 20, 1999, and didn't want to deal with the campers and long lines to see episode 4, which came out 1 day before.
It took more than a year for episode 4 to hit theaters here, and by then it was dubbed in spanish.
Episode 5 came out only a few months after the US/international release, and the theater in Plaza International had an english language subtitled version and a spanish version to choose from.
I have been told the delays vary depending on what distributor the local theaters are contracting with and what kind of relationships they have with the studio that owns the movie. I imagine the prints get cheaper to lease over time so delays would tend to favor the profitability of the local theaters.
So unless the distribution companies come up with a real good deal we will be waiting anywhere from 2-14 months for the DR theatrical release. (occasionally the DVD release is quicker)
If anyone is real impatient there is always P2P networking for those who like to watch movies filmed inside a theater with jittery camcorders in horrible resolution with terrible audio just to get a vague idea what happens.