Maybe it's a case of both. What I do know is that movies have changed. When I was a kid, going to the movies was an every weekend event, right up there with church and fried chicken on Sunday. Going to the movies didn't cost much, and it didn't even matter what was playing. We just went.
Movies just fit in nicely on our simple agendas, in simpler times.
There wasn't much concern back then about the evil influence that violence in the movies might have on our little Eisenhower-era psyches. Blood letting on the silver screen was kept to a white-washed minimum. Now, John Wayne would, on occasion, bust a seedy villain in the chops with the butt of his rifle, but it was always provoked, and the bad guy was left with no scars, barely a trickle of blood on his chin. It never had a safety lock. Didn't need one.