George Brinan A2 Media
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The Hollywood Studio System
The hollywood film studios contributed massively to the success of film's as a whole. It allowed the largest studios of the time to control the majority of the film industry.
The largest studios were given the name of "The Big Five" which were MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO and Fox. Those with some power in the industry, but not as much as "The Big Five" were known as ‘The Little Three’ who were Universal, Colombia and United Artists.
The late 1920's are usually seen as the kickstarter of Hollywood's golden age in film production and the final major steps in establishing studio system control of the American film business by the largest studios. The first feature
length production called 'Jazz Singer' was the film that can be said to have boosted, at the time the medium sized Warner Bros. studio. They then went on to produce two new films called 'The Singing Fool' and 'Lights of New-York' The first was the follow up to 'Jazz Singer' and was the first all-talking feature film. The income they recieved from this film allowed them to purchase a semi-successful theater chain 'Stanley' in September 1928. In October they purchased part of another successful production company 'First National' who were slightly bigger than Warner Bros. at the time.
The final studio to join the big five was 'RKO' in 1928. The original company was the 'RCA' or 'The Radio Corporation of America' and was owned by General Electric. In January of 1928, General Electric acquired a sizable stake in 'Film Booking Offices of America' or (FBO), a distributor and small production company in the film market. Later that year in October 'RKO' went on to acquire the 'Keith-Albee-Orpheum' theater chain which allowed them to show their own films in their own theaters with no third-party influences. They decided to merge FBO and Keith-ALbee-Orpheum to create the 'Radio-Keith-Orpheum' corporation or 'RKO'.
With RKO and Warner Bros, joining Fox, Paramount, and MGM as major players, the Big Five that would stick around for thirty years were now in place.
An important part of the studio system was a method known as ‘block booking’. A studio would sell multiple films to theaters as a unit. This would typically include only one attractive, big budget movie that the theaters really wanted and the rest would be a mix of big budget pictures of dubious quality and lower budgeted B-movies. Due to block booking studios could make a large amount of movies, most of them with a low budget and of low quality, and still be sure that they would be seen in theaters. Most film blocks contained about 20 or more features, but some theaters complained that in the most extreme cases one block had predetermined the playlist for an entire year.
On May 4, 1948, in a federal lawsuit known as the Paramount case brought against the entire Big Five, the U.S. Supreme Court specifically outlawed block booking. The Paramount suit had originally been filed on July 20th 1938 due to the big five being united in their determination to preven any possible lawsuits being taken out against them.
Another vital part of the studio system was the fact that ‘The Big Five’ had controlling stakes in their own theater chains, which were exempt from block booking. In some cases, one studio would even control all the theaters in a city. This ensured that their films would be distributed, no matter the quality, this meant that firms would maximise their profits without it having to go through a 3rd party distributor. By 1945, the studios owned either partially or completely 17% of the movie theaters in America, accounting for 45% of the film-rental revenue.
The major producers used the technique of vertical integration to keep their money within their company throughout production, distribution and exhibition. This meant the company never paid out to a competing company for distribution or exhibition. The concentration of ownership by a few major production studios sustained market dominance in the Hollywood film industry.
MGM
MGM or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed in April 1924, by Marcus Loew, who orchestrated the merge of 3 smaller studios, Metro Pictures Corp., Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions hence the name Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. With Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg at the forfront of the company, MGM was a powerhouse of prolific artistry and filmmaking expertise that the studio famously said attracted "more stars than are in the heavens." Over a period of three decades from 1924 to 1954, the Culver City-based studio dominated the movie business, producing a Best Picture nominee every year for two straight decades. One of the more memorable years for MGM was in 1939 when both Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were both nominated for Best Picture. Gone With the Wind took home Best Picture that year, along with 8 other Oscars. The Wizard of Oz took home two Oscars.
Paramount
Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky and Cecil B. DeMille are known as Paramount's founders. The visionary Zukor laid the foundation for the company by acquiring the U.S. distribution rights to the silent French film Queen Elizabeth in 1914. Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation became the first successful nationwide film distribution company, releasing two to three new pictures a week between 1916 and 1921. It became a fully integrated company that controlled every aspect of filmmaking - production, distribution, and exhibition - until the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that it constituted a monopoly for motion picture studios to also own theatre chains. The year 1986 was particularly notable as Paramount captured a 22 percent share of total box office revenue, twice that of its closest competitor, and owned five of the year's top 10 highest grossing films.
RKO
RKO or Radio-Keith-Orpheum is a film production and distribution company. The Film-Booking-Office Of America was bought along with Radio Corporation of America to diversify the company so that there were several platforms available to audiences. The original RKO pictures ceased production in 1957 and effectively finished two years later. In 1989, the business along with its few remaining assets, trademarks and remake rights to the old RKO classics were sold to a new owner who now operate a small independent company called RKO Pictures LLC.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. is currently the biggest remaining studio that was part of the Big Five. They make up to 12.3 billion US dollars in revenue, a year, making it the richest film production company in the world. Warner brothers was founded by Harry, Albert, Jack and Sam Warner and was originally only a production and distribution company. However, now Warner Bros. expanded and spread into different platforms owning up to 10 companies including: Warner Bros Pictures, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Home Video,
Fox
20th Century Fox’s originated in a theater in New York City. In 1904, 25-year-old Hungarian, William Fox amazed audiences with his film productions. By 1915 Fox’s five-cent movie shows were very popular and his single screen grew into a chain of 25 theaters around New York City and then into a movie making business. Fox left New York in 1915 for. Merging with rising movie powerhouse Twentieth Century Pictures, the renamed 20th Century Fox began an unprecedented run of unforgettable movies that continue to this day.
