Blockbusters: Hollywood Film Vs Independent Film

To begin with, some background information on movies and Hollywood in the 1920’s. In the 1920’s, movie attendance soared (The Rise of Hollywood par. 4). As stated in the introduction, with the influx of money in the American economic system, the average person also had an influx of time on their hands. The normal solution was to spend that time on entertainment and movies were the perfect way to do that. By the mid-decade, movie attendance rose to fifty million and only increased from then. The five main movie studios were Warner Brothers, Paramount, MGM, RKO Radio Pictures, and 20th Century Fox (Dirks 1). Before these studios were formed, every aspect of making movies was separated into different companies. The aspects may include filming, editing, or distributing. With the spark of interest in movies, these five companies took it upon

By the 1960s the studio system was all but over. Many cinemas were closed down and several of the production back lots sold. Society had changed dramatically particularly with the rise of youth and the youth market, and the old Hollywood product seemed stale to the rising youth audience. Times were changing and the industry had to change with it. The studio system had declined rapidly in the 1950s and by the late 1960s was all but over. The audience had segmented into different social groups with increased leisure options rather than the mass habit audience of the golden age. Many of the films the studios produced to compete with television seemed to many people old fashioned and part of a different world which led to a significant drop in

The development of the motion picture industry was brought to you by many directors and writers through out history. Movies are a very important part of American culture, people went to the movies to escape the humdrum of their everyday lives. They were a way for people to put themselves into the lives of others and in situations they would usually never find themselves in. Simply put movies were a way to escape into a new more exciting world, even if just for a little bit. In the beginning there were a few production companies that would put out movies in an almost factory setting and manner. There were hundreds of workers, set designers, camera men, and other crews. With this amount of man power, companies would come out with hundreds of films a month. This is were directing and writing began to develop a style and narrative that would be carried into today's movies.

Variety magazine wrote: "The wonder is not the scarcity of outstanding, smashing film hits, but that under the present system of industry operation there are any hits at all." (Hollywood Renegades (Archive, Hollywood in slump 1938: Variety. 12/14/1938, accessed 6/8/17). By 1947, the United States Supreme Court Anti-Trust law split the Studio System from its distribution component, which led the way for independent theaters. By 1947 the Sherman Anti-Trust Law put an end to the studio system by dissolving the relationship between the theaters and the

All of these films were very successful that resulted in record box-office revenue. The New

In this book, King examines the Hollywood “Renaissance” from the late 1960s to the late 1970s as well as some of the industrial factors that shape the current dominance of the corporate blockbuster. King begins by stating that there are two distinct periods when addressing “New Hollywood” including the Hollywood Renaissance and the New Hollywood. Geoff King analyses new Hollywood dynamically and accessibly in his text and discusses diverse films, film makers and film companies apart from concentrating on the interactions between the film texts, social contexts, and their producers by using examples across Hollywood and its genres. He further discusses how positions of studios within media conglomerate, and the relationship between production for big and small screens as well as the influence of television, advertising and franchising on the New Hollywood have been transformed the form of the films (King 137-140).

The United States vs. Paramount decision changed the filmmaking business by making block booking illegal. It also made the ‘Big Five’ movie studios sell their movie theaters. The ‘Big Five’ consisted of Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and RKO Radio Pictures.

During the 1920s, American Film was at the peak of its glory. 1920s Film was the biggest form of entertainment and a weekly pastime for millions of Americans, regardless of race and social background. Silent films continued to improve and innovate the film industry. Hollywood established themselves as an American force and produced hundreds of silent films. Also, Hollywood became the birthplace of “movie stars” such as Janet Gaynor, Rudolph Valentino, and Charlie Chaplin. Movie studios such as Warner Brothers Pictures, RKO, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, and 20th Century Fox owned thousands of theaters and received public acclamation for hundreds of films produced. The 1920’s American film industry is the epitome of the ascension of Hollywood and the innovation era of film.

Such drastic change proved detrimental to the studio system, starting the path to its demise. “As production costs rose and an assured market was lost with the breakup of vertical integration, American studios produced fewer movies,” no longer feeling the need to have a frequent program change to encourage repeat theater visits since studios could not own theaters anymore (Bernstein 199). The system of long-term contracts binding actors to a specific studio also started fading, as “the structure of the studio system of the previous three decades ended… and [converted to] alternative methods of production and distribution, and stars, producers, and directors began to operate independently rather than contractually,” (McElhaney 146). Instead, talent agencies would find actors and a director and present them as a package for a studio to hire on a production (Kuntz, Lecture 10). Wihout block booking, each film had to be sellable on its own and therefore made the business very risky. Because every film was either a hit or miss, studios started looking for filmmakers and directors who would be unafraid of taking those risks, who tended to be

Just as the studio system did not appear from nowhere in 1930 it did not suddenly end in 1948. However, it’s a convenient date to signal the end of the golden age because of the Paramount decision. In 1948 the US supreme court ordered that the oligopolistic control of the majors was uncompetitive. The major studios were ordered to sell all their cinemas to allow fairer competition for films and to stop the system of block booking to allow other cinemas to negotiate for films. This of course meant that profits were reduced for the majors. However, this may have actually helped them as audiences began to decline in the 1950s for three major reasons: Competition from TV, Increasing affluence and Suburban living. During this period several stars

Everything essential was created and paid for by the production studio from start to finish. In order to make this happen all movies had to make a profit to ensure these production companies required movie theaters to buy a set of their movies for customers to view. After United States v. Paramount decision production studio was divided into sectors and no longer operated as monopolies. The movie industry today differs from Old Hollywood due to its many avenues of revenue. Movies, once done being shown at the movie theatre maybe shown on TV and bought on DVD. For example, according to Variety Magazine, Girls Trip brought in 137,348,394 at the worldwide box office and has now been released for DVD sale as of October 17, 2017. Another way Hollywood contrast sharply between old and the new age is the distribution method. Hollywood now sales the rights the distribute and or show the product typically done through a contract which states of the amount sold they get X amount of profits. The distributor in addition to being able to sell the product must then also provide an adequate advertisement to promote the sale of the

During the 1960s and 1970s many nations around the world had a film revolution where young filmmakers were making new and different types of movies, they called this movement a “New Wave.” Although Hollywood was was the film capital of the world, it also went through a movement where young directors were taking control of their films over the production studios, the films were reaching to younger audiences, and the films were generally more independent and had to be cheap. The reason for this “new wave” movement was because old Hollywood was losing money and it needed a new way of making films, it needed to be shaken up. Influence from all over the globe helped spark the American movement, the French, German, Latin American, and British New

In the second chapter of The Cultures of American Film, author Robert Kolker, dives into the emergence of studios and the evolution of stars. By the mid-1910s, individual operations of film production came to an end as companies merged together to form some of Hollywood’s largest and most profitable studios. With the emergence of studios, production of films became a whole lot faster, leading to much more distribution. The arrival of studios also gave viewers a closer look at their favorite actors and actress causing a rapid development of stars and celebrities. Audiences felt engaged during their favorite films leading to an intimate relationship between viewer and actor/actress. With studios publicizing their stars, viewers became devoted to actors and actress’s personal lives, turning stars into celebrities.

As the movie industry moved into the 80's and 90's a new and distinctive type of film emerged. This new style was the Hollywood studio blockbuster. As the studios began making more and more blockbusters a vacuum was created that independent film makers were happy to fill. Though opposites in style, they compliment one another in the main goal of Hollywood: making a profit. These two distinctive styles of film have simultaneously worked together to see the reemergence and recovery of the movie industry.

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