The Major Hollywood Studios Begin to Form

 The Major Hollywood Studios Begin to Form

                A row of open-air filmmaking stages at Universal City, c. 1915.

The MPPC
1)had dominated the American film industry between 1908 and 1911,
2)but it lost much of its power after a 1912 court decision rendered the Latham loop patent
   void.
3)Independent firms soon regrouped and expanded into a studio system that would form
   the basis for American filmmaking for decades.
4)Certain filmmaking roles
    a)chiefly the role of the producer—became central.
5)In addition, the star system gained full strength,
   as celebrities came to command enormous salaries
6)and even began producing in their own right.

Building the Hollywood studio system
1)The process of building the Hollywood studio system often involved the combination
   of two or more small production or distribution firms.
2)In 1912, independent producer Carl Laemmle, who had doggedly fought the MPPC, |
   was pivotal in forming the Universal Film Manufacturing Company,
3)a distribution firm to release the output of his own Independent Motion Picture Company
    and several other independent and foreign firms.
4)By 1913, Laemmle had gained control of the new company, and
5)in 1915 he opened Universal City, a studio north of Hollywood,
   forming the basis of a complex that still exists.
6)By that point, Universal was moving toward vertical integration,
   combining production and distribution in the same firm.

Warner
1)Other firms formed during the 1910s would be crucial in the industry.
2)Sam, Jack, and Harry Warner moved from exhibiting to distributing,
   founding Warner Bros. in 1913.
3)By 1918, they began producing but remained a relatively small firm until the 1920s.

William Fox - to become 20th Century-Fox eventually
1)William Fox, who had small exhibition, distribution, and production operations,
  merged all three in 1914 to form the Fox Film Corporation.
2)The new firm would be a major player in 1920s Hollywood (eventually being renamed
  20th Century-Fox in 1935).

MGM
1)Three smaller firms that would merge into MGM in 1924
  all began during this era: Metro in 1914 and Goldwyn and Mayer in 1917.

Paramount
1)A major challenge to Paramount’s growing power soon arose.
2)Paramount was releasing about hundred features a year and
3)requiring theaters to show all of them (with two programs per week) in order to get any.
4)This was an early instance of block booking, a practice that was later repeatedly
   challenged as monopolistic.

 In 1917,
1)a group of exhibitors resisted this tactic by banding together to finance and distribute
   independent features.
2)They formed the First National Exhibitors Circuit,
3)which soon was supplying films to hundreds of theaters nationwide.

Zukor
1)Zukor responded by beginning to buy up theaters for his own company in 1919,
2)preparing the way for one of the main trends in the industry during the 1920s:
3)the studios increased vertical integration by buying national theater chains.

Vertical integration
1)was an important factor that contributed to Hollywood’s international power.
2)During this same period, Germany was just beginning to develop a vertically integrated
   film industry.
3)France’s leading firm, Pathé, was backing away from vertical integration by moving out
   of production.
4)No other country developed a studio system as strong as that of the United States.