Hollywood in the Studio Era

Hollywood in the Studio Era.

During the height of the great depression, most of the workforce couldn’t find a job or ‘make ends meet’, during this time, Americans would use film as a means of escape for many people. Genre film became more popular (gangster films, musicals, westerns and comedy) 

Five Film studios ‘ran’ the industry during the Studio/Golden age, each studio would focus on its own type of film. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the biggest studio in the 1930s, They made big budget musicals, comedies, melodramas. As it was the biggest studio they were able to spend alot on sets, costumes and big actors. Paramount Pictures was known as the most ‘European’ studio because they lured a lot of film makers from Germany and the UK. The filmmakers were given more leeway to put their own stamps on the movies. Warner Brothers was branded as the studio of the working class, they created low-budget melodramas and gangster movies. 20th Century-fox which were known for musicals, westerns and crime films. RKO would create extremely popular Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals. They took a lot of chances with film unlike other studios. All five studios dominated the production, distribution and exhibition of film till 1948.

Aswell as the ‘Big Five’ there was the ‘little three’ which consisted of Universal Pictures (Thrillers, melodramas and westerns), United Artists (movies like 1960s James Bond) and Columbia (Adaptions of novels and stage plays). Columbia was the first to get into television as it owned no theatres to show the films created. 

These 8 ‘Majors’ controlled 95% of film in the US.