The threat of television domination that drove much of the film industry’s technical innovation in the Fifties was never fully realized until color television became ubiquitous in the 1960s. That’s when people really did start staying home to consume cheap entertainment. And after a decade or so of fumbling, TV really had gotten better in the sixties.
As a result, most big studios stopped producing the cheap stuff. And it fell to independent producers without studio financial backing or distribution to pick up the mantle of fast/cheap filmmaking. The drive-ins saw a decline in available product, and people stopped coming.
Also. The spread of daylight saving time (which became national law in 1966) cut into summer drive-in attendance…since dusk came later. And movies couldn’t start until at least 9…and sometimes later. Suddenly, the drive-in picture show became inconvenient.
The drive-ins themselves became increasingly difficult for their operators to maintain as the aged. Remember, the screen…the speakers for sound…these were exposed to weather year-round. So as the drive-ins aged, they became dilapidated, and many operators couldn’t care for them properly.
Some drive-in owners—with less product available to them and skyrocketing facility costs—sought to boost revenue by showing risqué movies…extremely exploitative movies: violent martial arts flicks, adult films, cult movies, drug-themed pictures. But this only hastened their demise. Neighbors, parents and police eventually drove such operators out of business. Many sold out to housing and shopping center developers.
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