Towards Collapse
(1) TV
In 1965, 90 percent of households in Japan already had a television set (black-and-white). In 1970, 1/4 of households had a color television set.
The number of the movies produced and/or distributed by the major companies in 1966 was nearly a half of that in 1960, which would further decrease.
The number of attendance in 1970 was less than 1/4 of that in 1958 (the peak year).
(2) Violence and Sexuality for Sale
The number of productions containing violent and/or sexual content increased. This tendency was common to all major companies (especially Toei, Nikkatsu and Daiei).
The number of pink movies (soft core porn movies produced by small independent production companies) began to increase rapidly from around 1964. In 1970, the number of pink movies was nearly equal to that of movies produced by the major companies.
(3) Last Phase of Nikkatsu and Daiei
At the end of 1960s, Nikkatsu and Daiei had fallen into serious financial conditions. They could no longer provide necessary number of productions, by itself, for their exhibitors (theaters). Thus, Nikkatsu and Daiei merged their distribution networks, and, through the merged network, distributed programs consisting of a Nikkatsu production and a Daiei production.
However, it was a desperate attempt.
(4) ATG
In the Top_10_Movies lists in this period, the name "ATG" are found many times.
ATG (Art Theater Guild) was established in 1961 with the support of Toho. For the first several years, ATG mainly engaged in distribution of foreign masterpieces which had not been released in Japan yet. Around 1967, ATG began to distribute Japanese movie, too, and, further, to provide the funds of the Japanese movies in part.
ATG helped many independent production companies and directors, who had ambitious (and thus risky) projects which might be (or had already been) rejected by the major companies.
Through 1970s and 1980s, ATG would yield rich harvests.
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