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Chapter 7

Chapter 7. MOVIES and Hollywood. EARLY HISTORY OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY. Highly competitive with easy access for new business: interchangeable products smallness of buyers & sellers in relation to market absence of artificial restraints accessibility of resources .

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Chapter 7

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  1. Chapter 7 MOVIES and Hollywood

  2. EARLY HISTORY OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY Highly competitive with easy access for new business: interchangeable products smallness of buyers & sellers in relation to market absence of artificial restraints accessibility of resources

  3. EARLY HISTORY OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY The Lumiere Brothers (1895) Employees Leaving the Lumiere Factory Arrival of the Express at Lyons Edwin S. Porter (1903) The Great Train Robbery

  4. THE MOTION PICTURE PATENTS COMPANY (MPPC) • Thomas Edison formed MPPC (the “Trust”) in 1908 as a PATENTS POOL • cooperative of leading U.S. and French film companies • dominated the film industry from 1908-1915 • Successfully excluded small companies from the market

  5. WHY did the MPPC fail? • Could not meet product demand • Some independent producers bought film stock from overseas • Some independent producers moved operations out of the NY and NJ area, eventually to California • Independent distributors set up a non-MPPC distribution network • Declared a monopoly in 1915 as the result of a 1912 anti-trust case brought by Fox

  6. THE RISE OF THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIO SYSTEM (1925-1948) From Monopoly (the MPPC) to Oligopoly (the Studio System)

  7. The “Big Five” or the Majors: Warner Brothers Paramount 20th Century Fox Loew's (MGM) RKO(owned by RCA) The “Little Three” or the Minors: United Artists Columbia Universal The “Big Five” and the “Little Three”

  8. How did the Big Five control all three levels of the industry? VERTICAL INTEGRATION of: -production -distribution -exhibition

  9. How did the studios control exhibition? • Run • First, second, third • Zone • Geographic coverage without overlaps • Clearance • Elapsed time between runs • Block Booking • Rental in packages of assorted films

  10. High Sierra: A Case Study • An A feature, starring Bogart and Lupino • Starts first run on January 25, 1941 • Studio-run theaters in 100 large cities • Ticket price=$1.00 to $1.25 • Second run in May, 1941 • Second run theaters (smaller cities) • Ticket price=$.40 to $.75 • Third run in Fall, 1941 • Neighborhood and rural theaters • Ticket price=$.25

  11. HOLLYWOOD STORYTELLING THE CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD STYLE

  12. Three Key Elements: • Narrative • Technology • Genre

  13. Technology: Behind the Art of Movies • The movie industry is dependent on developing new technologies • As an example, let’s consider sound • The Jazz Singer (1927) • Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

  14. GENRES: How Films Are Sold • GENRE= category in which conventions regarding similar characters, scenes, structures and themes reoccur • Regulated Difference: genres benefit the industry by allowing both product standardization and product differentiation • What are some Hollywood genres?

  15. WHAT UNDERMINED THE STUDIO SYSTEM? No one thing : four large factors came together in the late 1940s: • The House Committee on UnAmerican Activities • The Paramount Decision of 1948 • Postwar Changes in Society • The Rise of Television

  16. THE RED SCARE AND HUAC HEARINGS • Cold War paranoia about Communist messages in mass entertainment • Congress formed House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) • 1941 and 1947 HUAC hearings were "witch hunts" to remove so-called subversives from the industry (led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy)

  17. EFFECT OF HUAC HEARINGS • blacklisting of talented members of Hollywood community • tarnished the Hollywood “Dream Machine” image • created a climate of fear and dampened creativity within the industry • wounds continue even today (e.g. 1999 Elia Kazan Oscar controversy)

  18. THE PARAMOUNT DECISION • In 1948, Supreme Court ruled the studios in violation of Sherman Anti-Trust Act, restricting fair trade • Court ordered the Big Five studios to divest their theatre chains • EFFECTS: studios cut their film production by half; opened the way for independent producers, though that opening was short-lived

  19. returning soldiers baby boom suburbanization and new lifestyle nuclear families with young children changing patterns of consumption less disposable income decreased attendance at downtown movie palaces POSTWAR CHANGES in SOCIETY

  20. THE RISE OF TELEVISION • decline in motion picture attendance • film industry’s technological gimmicksto emphasize the spectacle of the big screen • film industry cooperation with TV • movies on TV became a continuous competitor with theatre for film customers

  21. HOLLYWOOD TODAY • marriage of TV and movies: watching movies now takes place on the home VCR and DVD player as well as at box office • new Hollywood studios produce TV shows as well as feature films • 80-90% of new movies flop at box office, but losses recouped through video market

  22. Sources of studio income today • box office revenues • video sales and rentals • distribution of films globally • studio distribution of independent films • product placement in movies

  23. Entertainment Industry Consolidation: the modern movie oligopoly Ronald Reagan deregulates the industry in the early 1980s, allowing a new “Big Six” to emerge • Warner Brothers • Paramount • Twentieth Century Fox • Universal • Columbia • Walt Disney

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