During the Studio era of Hollywood, the studios had monopoly control over the entire industrial process and revenue stream of the filmmaking business. The big studios raked in nearly all the movie industry’s total gross revenues, which benefited both the corporate interests profiting form the business and the filmmakers that were under contract with the studios. The Big Eight Studios held nearly all the power in the industry and the government didn’t like that. Around the time WWII broke out, Hollywood began to change and the government became more involved. By the end of the war, Hollywood would be changed forever once the Paramount decision and the Hollywood blacklist altered the direction of the filmmaking business in America forever.
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In fact, the top three studios boasted annual revenues in excess of $100 million.” (Lewis 147). This complete monopoly of the business could not remain for long after the war started. A legal battle began just before the war and resumed shortly after the war finished in which the Justice Department filed a suit to demolish this complete monopoly that the studios had over the industry. This suit set into motion “the forced sale of major studio assets in the business exhibiting motion pictures, which the government accomplished when it prevailed in United States v. Paramount pictures, et al. (decided by the Supreme Court in 1948)” (Lewis 194). The Paramount decision targeted the “Big 5” studios and ruled to eliminate block-booking and blind-buying, which was how major studios had made most of their money. This ruling effectively ended the studio era and “threatened not only the system by which films were developed, produced, distributed, and exhibited in the United States but also the studios’ collective financial base” (Lewis 194). Further pressuring the film industry during this time, Congress decided to pressure Hollywood studios with a federal workforce …show more content…
Revenues decreased by over 20 percent over the next few years and studio profits drastically declined “from $120 million in 1946 to $31 million in 1950” (Lewis 197). This was in large part due to the fact that attendance for A-budget features in first run houses, where the studios previously made most of their money, was in a steep decline. At the time that Justice William O. Douglas stated that the studios were trusts and declared that they must give up their theatre chains, Paramount owned 993 theaters, RKO owned 187, Fox owned 66, Loew’s-MGM owned 21, and Warner Bros owned 20 (Lewis 195). Seeing as 70 percent of the first run theaters in the ninety-two biggest cities were associated with these Big Five, this decision was
In fact, the top three studios boasted annual revenues in excess of $100 million.” (Lewis 147). This complete monopoly of the business could not remain for long after the war started. A legal battle began just before the war and resumed shortly after the war finished in which the Justice Department filed a suit to demolish this complete monopoly that the studios had over the industry. This suit set into motion “the forced sale of major studio assets in the business exhibiting motion pictures, which the government accomplished when it prevailed in United States v. Paramount pictures, et al. (decided by the Supreme Court in 1948)” (Lewis 194). The Paramount decision targeted the “Big 5” studios and ruled to eliminate block-booking and blind-buying, which was how major studios had made most of their money. This ruling effectively ended the studio era and “threatened not only the system by which films were developed, produced, distributed, and exhibited in the United States but also the studios’ collective financial base” (Lewis 194). Further pressuring the film industry during this time, Congress decided to pressure Hollywood studios with a federal workforce …show more content…
Revenues decreased by over 20 percent over the next few years and studio profits drastically declined “from $120 million in 1946 to $31 million in 1950” (Lewis 197). This was in large part due to the fact that attendance for A-budget features in first run houses, where the studios previously made most of their money, was in a steep decline. At the time that Justice William O. Douglas stated that the studios were trusts and declared that they must give up their theatre chains, Paramount owned 993 theaters, RKO owned 187, Fox owned 66, Loew’s-MGM owned 21, and Warner Bros owned 20 (Lewis 195). Seeing as 70 percent of the first run theaters in the ninety-two biggest cities were associated with these Big Five, this decision was