I think money was the ultimate factor, not time, and I don't think holding off for a year would have granted the eventual film a larger budget.szmigiel wrote:I think Toho shouldn't have made this film, instead fill the slot in the Champion Festival with a recut 60's film. Then spent more time making a movie that didn't try to reuse so much footage from past films.
In fact, time apparently wasn't a factor at all. According to Yoshimitsu Banno, Hedorah was shot over the summer of 1970 (released in July 1971) and a cast photo of Gigan shows the A-unit's principal photography was completed in November 1971, months before the March 1972 release. The Champion Festival films evidently weren't rushed to completion. Atragon, by comparison, was planned and shot and released in the span of about three months, and yet that's still one of the great Toho sci-fi productions.
What really hurt the Champion Festival films was that they were made during a very down time for the Japanese film industry. Toho dissolving the special effects department after Tsuburaya's death didn't help at all, either.