Hollywood Dominance of the Movie Industry

Hollywood Dominance of the Movie IndustryThere are many contributing factors to how Hollywood became such a dominant business. about of these factors rely on the history of Hollywood and how the hit companies that founded it adapted. Hollywoods dominance masterminded to grow in 1915. This was when the foundations were laid for studio apartment apartments such as Paramount, Fox, Universal, MGM and Warners. These companies would form the core of the Studio dodging from 1930s onwards.During this time Hollywood promoted itself by promoting the war. January 1916, the Hollywood film community made an alliance with Washington, DC to try and raise awareness of the war through film.Hollywood was able to get involved in the War effort by do films to educate the community, producing entertainment features with patriotic, morale-boosting themes and messages about the American way of life. later World War 1, Hollywood put a structure in place that would dominate for 40 years and more. Infl uential producers like Adolph Zukor set up vertically integrated companies. He was part of Paramount Pictures of which he served as president until1936when he was made chairman. He revolutionized the film industry by organizing reapingion, distribution, and show within a single company. Zukor was also an accomplished director and producer. He retired from Paramount Pictures in1959. Also after the war, budgets rose 10 times pre-war levels, so Hollywood then became a national industry.During the so-calledGolden Age of Hollywood, which lasted from the late1920s to the late 1950s, thousands of movies were issued from the Hollywood studios. The start of the Golden Age was arguably whenThe Jazz vocalizerwas released in 1927, ending the silent era and increasing box-office profits for films as sound was introduced to feature films. Most Hollywood films stuck closely to this method -Western, slapstick comedy,musical, sprightly cartoon and biographical picture.AfterThe Jazz Singerwas rele ased in 1927,Warner Bros gained huge success and was able to obtain their own army of movie theatres.By the 1930s, closely Americas theatres were owned by the Big Five studios -MGM,Paramount Pictures,RKO,Warner Bros and20th Century Fox. These Major studios owned 75% of first-run picture shows.Thestudio administrationwas a means of film issue and distribution dominant inHollywoodfrom the early 1920s through the 1950s. Some have compared the Hollywood studio system to a factory. Their product output in 1937 surged to over 500 feature films. By the 1980s, this figure dropped to an average of 100 films per year. During the Golden Age, the studios were remarkably consistent and stable enterprises.The rise of the studio system also relied on the treatment of the stars of Hollywood, who were created and exploited by the studio to reflect their image and agenda. Actors and actresses were bound by contracts to one studio for several years, and the studio usually had all of the power. The se stars were loaned out to other studios. Studios also had the power to force actors into bad roles and control their image.Directors were to make sure the actors hit their marks while the photographic camera was track(Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, p.19)However, studio heads realized that they couldnt repeat movie storylines and roles and still make a profit. This resulted in different studio styles as they essay to differentiate themselves from other studios.Falling attendance and theParamountdecision broke apart the studio system, depriving the studios of the financial controls that made sure of regular profits, paid the studio overhead, and thereby restructured their factory-based operations. The major studios survived by adapting the system, fundamentally changing the ways they did business and establishing methods (still in use today) that reduced their controls of production. This stopped the system of mass movie production that had occupied Hollywood for decades. Es sential to the studios survival was their collective control of distribution, the one aspect of their monopolistic operations not affected by theParamountdecision, and their willingness to function control of filmmaking with independent producers, top talent, and talent agencies. Simply stated, the studios became primarily financing-and-distribution entities, reviewing projects that were developed and packaged by the growing ranks of independent producers, then in the event of a green light, leasing their production facilities and providing a portion of the production cost in exchange for the distribution rights-and, frequently, for the eventual ownership of the completed film. The studios themselves began producing fewer, big pictures-biblical epics and big-screen westerns-during the 1950s, precursors of the blockbusters that now tower the industry. The studios shared control of film production not only with independent producers and freelance directors, but also top stars whose marquee value gave them tremendous leverage. And because nearly filmmaking talent operated freelance by the 1950s, talent agencies like William Morris and MCA (Music Corporation of America) also became a major force in postwar film (and television) production.The major studios ab initio resisted but soon came to terms with television in the 1950s, selling or leasing their older films to TV syndication companies while revamping their factory-based production operations for telefilm series production. By the sixties, movies were running nightly on prime time television and the studios were turning out far more hours of telefilm series than feature films. Meanwhile, movie attendance continued to erode, contempt rapid population growth, and the studios gambled on senior high school-stakes blockbusters likeCleopatra(1963) andThe Sound of Music(1965) but relied primarily on television to pay the bills. Studio fortunes by the late 1960s were at an all-time low, rendering them prime acq uisition targets, and many were swallowed up by large conglomerates like Gulf + Western (Paramount), Transamerica (United Artists), and Kinney Services (Warner Bros.), as hale as real estate tycoon Kirk Kerkorian (MGM). The MCA-Universal merger in 1962 was the first and by far the some successful alliance at the time, due to its sagaciousness integration of film and television operations and its maintenance of at least a semblance of the old studio-based mode of production.After the fall of the studio system and the influence of Television, Hollywood adapted to become New Hollywood, a term used to describe a new generation of directors who had taken inspiration from atomic number 63 in the 1960s. These new directors influenced the types of films that were produced, how they were produced and how they were marketed. This impacted the way major studios approached filmmaking.Jaws was devastating to making artistic, smaller films. They forgot how to do itPeter BogdanovichOne of the f ilms that changed Hollywood forever was Jaws. This film elevated the bar for New Hollywood. Released in June 1975, at 460 theatres simultaneously, on an unprecedented wave of TV advertising, Jaws was everywhere at once. The film needed only 78 eld to surpass The Godfather as the top-grossing movie of all time (at least until 1977, and Star Wars).Jawswas regarded as the father of the summerblockbuster filmand one of the first high concept films. Due to the films success in advance screenings, studio executives decided to distribute it in a much wider release than ever before.The Omenfollowed in the summer of 1976 and thenStar Warsone year later in 1977, cementing the notion for movie studios to distribute their big-release action and adventure pictures (commonly referred to astentpole pictures) during the summer.By making Jaws, Universal spurred the movie industrys recovery with its phenomenal success that spawned a new breed of blockbusters likeStar Wars(1977),Grease(1978), andSup erman(1978), summer releases launched via nationwide trade that resulted in record box-office profits and were the dominant, defining products of the New Hollywood. The success of these blockbusters reinforced an economic recovery in the industry that continues today, and it enabled the studios to regain some of their lost trust as well, as they became increasingly adept at transforming blockbuster hits into entertainment franchises-multimedia product lines comprised of movie sequels, TV spinoffs, video games, theme-park rides, soundtrack albums, music videos, and an endless array of license merchandise. Hollywoods recovery accelerated during the 1980s, fueled by a range of factors that complemented the studios burgeoning blockbuster mentality. One factor was the rapid growth of new media technologies and new delivery systems, most notably home video and pay-cable television (i.e., subscription movie channels like HBO), which proved to be as hit shoot forn as the box office. ex otic markets were equally receptive to Hollywood blockbusters, and thus the studios international distribution operations grew steadily during the 1980s, going into high gear in the 1990s, when the fall of the Soviet juncture and the concurrent economic reforms in China created a truly global market for Hollywood films.The Hollywood that we know today has been shaped by its history, the drive to produce movies that make a profit. Studios now focus on relying on very expensive blockbusters to remain profitable. Studios now also rely on star power and large advertising campaigns to market every new up-coming movie and attract a huge audience.In conclusion, Hollywood has become the dominant cinema producer in the world and has retained its pre-eminence by changing and adapting to its audiences. It must also be remembered that Hollywood is a business, therefore to survive it has had to make broad(a) business decisions to continue making a profit.