By the late 1970s costs of making movies continued to rise , AIP 's tactic of moving into bigger budgeted quality pictures was not paying off at the box office .
Arkoff began to think of merging the company .
By the late 1970s costs of making movies continued to rise , AIP 's tactic of moving into bigger budgeted quality pictures was not paying off at the box office , and Arkoff began to think of merging the company .