Taking a Look at the American Film Industry

Hollywood today spends more money on movies than ever before, with an average budget of $140 million per movie. ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’; the most expensive movie ever made; cost approximately $378.5 million and that was five years ago. This isn’t surprising since history is witness to a rising trend in money spent on movies, however, even after adjusting for inflation, their impact on the industry isn’t as large as their budgets. Over the years, lower cost productions like B-Movies have played a major role in carrying the industry forward by keeping it stable, moving and profitable in times of trouble. B-Movies came to be the need of the hour after The Great Depression and World War II. Money was tight everywhere and Hollywood could not continue making extravagant movies therefore they turned to low budget commercial films. These movies not only have an economical significance in Hollywood, they have made more than one contribution to the industry. These low risk movies provided directors, writers and producers with a wide scope for experimentation and led to the creation of many genres and sub-genres. The origins of B-Movies are humble but over the years that they grew in Hollywood, they became more significant and successful, yet their progress from “Rags to Riches” remains more a behind-the-scenes heroic act than a superhero effort.

The world was once a sweet dream we so dearly held close to our hearts, but this country we now live in is only the reality we failed to see as children. Women are seen as objects, toys, things to be messed with and manipulated. What we fail to see is that we are misusing our women and victimizing them in a game society forced them to play—a game in the media. Daily, our minds are flooded with images of scantily clad women, vulgar sex scenes, and women being shamed for living their own life the way they want to live. Movies, television, and social media are platforms which serve as a hanging place for women, and where morals and judgement on what women do are taken as facts rather than opinions.

Australian film industry had good and bad times or 'boom and bust' (Stratton, 1990) in period of last 100 years and that is why it can be called a fragile industry. If we look at the history, era before 1914, we find out that Australia was counted as one of the biggest film making countries of the world. This Australian film industry took the honor of being first to produce world's first feature film in 1906, The Story of the Kelly Gang.

The motion picture industry is a competitive business. More than 50 studios produce a total of 300 to 400 new motion pictures each year, and the financial success of each motion picture varies considerably. The opening weekend gross sales ($millions), the total gross sales ($millions), the number of theaters the movie was shown in, and the number of weeks the motion picture was in the top 60 for gross sales are common variables used to measure the

The film industry is a large industry derived from Hollywood. The major film industries; Metro- Goldwyn Mayer Inc, Paramount Pictures, Sony Picture Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Co., Warner Brothers, and newcomer Dreamworks SKG headquarters are all located in Hollywood

A studio system is a method of film production and distribution dominated by a small number of major studios in Hollywood. This term was used mainly from 1920-1960s Hollywood. The studio system became challenged in 1948 and with the growth of television and the huge audience that it got it ended in 1954.

If a movie studio were to approach me about the use of my music in a movie there are several terms that would have to be outlined. These include payment, exclusivity, use, territory, and time (The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division para. 35).

The film industry has developed and changed dramatically since 1945 in relation to technology, actors, quality, acting style, morals, storylines and recognition. Always changing the morals involved in popular culture. Since 1945 the entire world’s way of living has changed, the technology has advanced greatly and people now create films that can appeal to the way people think and feel in today’s life. More and more people are getting into the film industry resulting in the development of more films, making it a billion dollar industry. America has had the biggest influence on the film industry throughout the entire world. All of these elements have contributed to the development of new films today and everything that is involved in each movie

The decline of the American film industry was marked by two very important events that date back to 1947 – 1948: the Paramount decision and the Hollywood blacklist. Prior to each event, the production studio companies reaped the benefits of monopolizing every facet of the entire life-cycle of movie production: from development thru release. They were “too big to fail” or for that matter “too big to be challenged”. However, the Supreme Court had other plans in mind. In 1938, the Department of Justice initially challenged the studios to break up their trust entities but very minimal action resulted from it. It was not until ten years later that, the studios were taken back to court to face anti-trust violations. The result was devastating to

“The Last Golden Age of American Cinema and the Advent of the Blockbuster Film.” – Filmsite.org

The film industry has grown and evolved rapidly since its inception in the early 1900′s. The roaring 1920′s gave us five major movie studios from the Hollywood area. These studios included Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Paramount, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and RKO Radio. Movies also play an important role as advertising grounds Companies pay large sums of money for their product names to appear in movies. This form of advertisement is very popular and works because people see their favorite actors

Competition stays greater when there are more films operating at the same level. The constant but not perfect competition in an oligopoly leads to a semi-favorable outcome for the consumers, as prices are kept lower than a monopoly, but not as low as in perfect competition. A perfect competition exists when no one company, is strong enough on its own to set it’s own terms and conditions on the market. In an oligopoly, the main players have an incentive to collude and keep prices higher as high prices translate to higher revenue for all the

In a film market that is saturated with mindless multi-million dollar blockbusters, a seemingly thematically ambitious one like Elysium can stand out amongst the clutter. Blomkamp has tackled allegory before with his acclaimed debut District 9. Though it by all means isn’t a perfect film, District 9 stood out for its approach at sci-fi allegory, mixing documentary-like filmmaking with spectacular action set pieces while thoughtfully tackling themes of racism and xenophobia. However, Elysium does not reach the same level of sophistication as Blomkamp’s previous work. Elysium is a film with great potential for social commentary through science fiction storytelling, that is unfortunately marred by shallow Hollywood spectacle, clichés, and plot contrivances that discredit the film’s themes.

After the breakdown of the studio system the leading film companies started to buy each other on a conglomorate scale in order to increase their quality and income during the production or distribution of the film. Conglomorate ownership has been in the business for very long time and has shaped the industry. Most companies in hollywood are economically driven rathern than artisticly driven, therefore whilst making films it is in the company’s best interest to make more money. For the better understanding of the issua it is important to look at the history of the conglomoration throughout the film history and then to use a case study for futher more detailed research. Marvel Cinematic Univerves can serve as a great case study to

The media industry is expected to grow in line with the overall GDP growth and with the introduction of new and innovative technologies to consume media resources. Accessing more international markets is one of the major drivers for the growth potential and the major players are expanding their reach in markets like China which is the second largest movie market outside North America with 3.6 billion USD revenue in 2013. (Hoovers Industry Research, 2015) The developing markets are also contributing to the growth of global box office through the proliferation of multiple movie screens in those countries and hence, Box office revenue is expected to grow to about $46 billion by 2018 (PWC, 2015), up from about $36 billion in 2013.