Studiosystem

The term studio system or Hollywood system refers to the successful oligopole economy, the major Hollywood studios in the 1920s to the 1940s. Although the term implies that studios, so accounting for the production of films, the decisive factor in the film business. However, the term refers here to a few large companies, which controlled at that time production, film and television program distribution and film screening.

Vertical Integration

The actual switching remained for most companies namely New York, but grew the company with production facilities in Hollywood to an enormous size zoom. Through mergers and acquisitions, a powerful oligopoly formed in 1920 out gradually. The competitive film industry in Europe has been significantly weakened by the First World War and as the American studios took the opportunity to largely meet the demand for films themselves. The weakness of the monopoly Edison ( MPPC ) was the lack of integration of the various functional areas. It is precisely this rendered the new large enterprises. Their economic power was because they took over the production of films, distribution or film distribution and the Exhibition or the operating theater itself, and thus the functional areas vertically integrated.

The oligopoly

For oligopoly included five large companies, the majors or Big Five, and three smaller companies that Little Three. The majors were Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Metro -Goldwyn- Mayer ( MGM), Warner Bros. and RKO Pictures (Radio Keith Orpheum ). Also integrated in the oligopoly were the Little Three, Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures and United Artists. Since these did not own movie theater, but they only had less influence.

The Big Five controlled the market, they had the largest and most beautiful movie palaces. About 15 % of all movie theaters were in their possession, but they threw about 70 % of total revenue at the box office of the USA from. Only in the largest American cities, the Big Five were competing directly with each other. Otherwise, the country was divided into areas in which entertained only one company each cinema. A film that was not given access to these cinemas could not have much success with the public. Together attended the majors in the 1930s and 1940s for 90 % of American film production and 60 % of global production. Due to the vertical integration of the functional areas of production, distribution and exhibition premieres were held in movie theaters of the oligopoly of course.

An independent production company, for example, Republic Pictures and Monogram Pictures were in business. Their main task is to produce B-movies that filled the cinema program, usually in a double ( Double Feature ) with a complex, produced by a major studio A- Movie. Was

The movie theater

The cinemas were hierarchized by agreements according to their importance. In Los Angeles or New York, the films had their premiere in the rule, and then ran for a certain time only in the local movie palaces, which was designated as the First Run. In the largest, centrally located cinemas of other large cities, the second series of demonstrations took place subsequently, the Second Run. Then a movie was also in the smaller theaters in the neighborhoods, the nabes, and finally, in fourth place, in the rural areas and in seedy cinemas, the Grind House. Between the runs, there was one time, typically a month in which the film was not shown. The status of a movie theater was dependent on the position in the sequence of phased demonstration periods and was determined by certain geographical zones and territories.

Independent cinema owners could no individual Hollywood films at will show, but had to book an entire package of films en bloc. To offer a large program and earn profits, theaters were forced to book such film packets, even though this often meant to buy a pig in a poke, especially since some films had already booked before they were shot. An umbrella organization of major companies was the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc. ( MPPDA ). Established to prevent government intervention into the film business, the Association was known primarily for his censorship, the so-called Hays Code.

The filmmakers

In the early years of the film industry in Hollywood after 1910 production costs in relation to New York were low. In the film industry did not yet exist unions and so the salaries were kept low. After 1914, then organized a large part of the American film workers. However, there were several unions, which at times also worked against one another. The trade union and professional organization was an important part of the high degree of division of labor in the film industry and therefore a cause of exceptional performance and high output quality movies of Hollywood. However, the period specified division of labor provided in connection with the entrenched studio system for a certain standardization of the Hollywood film. Highly specialized and difficult to replace forces such as cinematographers, screenwriters and actors with celebrity status were more likely members of specific guilds. Exports to other countries were then as now an important source of income.