Studio System

            The fact that the studio system survived so long when it was full of vertical integration companies is somewhat puzzling. With the majority of business coming from the ‘Big Five’ (MGM, Paramount, 20^th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and RKO), an oligopoly was formed that made a large amount of income. With that, each made a name for themselves in respect of the type of a movie.

            Because the major studios owned everything, from celebrities to directors to movie theaters, the companies were able to do whatever they wanted. Due to there being five of these corporations, they would come together and lend certain aspects of filmmaking from one to another. This included big stars, writers, and directors for specific movies. There were also the ‘little three’ studios, including Columbia, Universal, and United Artists, who did not own their own theaters. These companies had to collaborate with the ‘big five’ in order to screen their movies. Having the ability to trade with another company, each corporation took on a specific genre. Just as John Wayne became affiliated with the genre of western, these studios became affiliated with stars and genres. Most major companies had a ‘house style’ that helped promote their films, meaning that each studio had a specific genre they tended to stick to with the same big actors to insure their success at the box office.

            In the 1940s the huge genre was film noir. A huge name of that era in movies is Humphrey Bogart. His most famous films are Casablanca (1942), The Big Sleep (1946), and The Maltese Falcon (1941). Along with Humphrey Bogart’s name tied to the noir genre, Warner Bros. is linked with them as well. As Bogart rose to fame he took Warner Bros. with him. Most famous noir films have Humphrey Bogart as the leading male, often costarring with Lauren Bacall. Although the story lines would change, the two had chemistry that was hard to match. After the positive reviews of their first film together, To Have and Have Not” (1944), the couple became a figure of Warner Bros. as well.

A close equivalent to this is modern Disney. Although they don’t own stars, the actors on Disney Channel tend to appear in only Disney titles. Disney also owns all sorts of steps in the production process. And furthermore, Disney has horizontal integration when it bought big networks like ABC and ESPN.