Big Five studios of Hollywoods Golden Age

THE STUDIO ERA

The Majors ("big five" and "little three"): between 1930 and 1948, the 8 majors controlled 95% of films exhibited in US: a true oligopoly

Big Five

1. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

established in 1924, by merger of Loew's, Inc. theater chain with three production companies (Metro Pictures/Goldwyn Pictures/Louis B. Mayer Productions)
leader in stars, glamour, spectacle: consider Gone with the Wind and Wizard of Oz, both 1939
high pre-production investment (i.e., numerous writers and editors), and Irving Thalberg's tight rein on production through 1936
a "galaxy of stars": Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Judy Garland, Greer Garson, Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer; Mickey Rooney, Spencer Tracey, Clark Gable
effects of Depression: $15m profit in 1930, $4.3m in 1933. Never lost money.
purchased by Kirk Kerkorian, 1969; later MGM-UA; then briefly belonged to Turner, who kept the pre-1986 film library when he sold it back (hence Turner Classic Movies, which also owns UA and pre-1950 Warners films); owned by French bank Credit Lyonnias 1991-92;back to Kerkorian; Sony in 2004; bankruptcy in 2010; now part of MGM Holdings Inc.

2. Paramount Picture Corp

established as a distribution company in 1914, it was acquired by Adolph Zukor in 1917, who merged it with his production company, Famous Players-Lasky Corp., and then started buying theatres, making it the first fully vertically-integrated company
silent era stars: Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, William S. Hart, Fatty Arbuckle
directors: Cecil B. DeMille, Erich von Stroheim, Mack Sennet, D.W. Griffith, Dorothy Arzner (from 1927--one of few women directors in era)
comedy, light entertainment, occasional epics (like DeMille's Ten Commandments)
later stars: Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Hedy Lamarr, Barbara Stanwyck, Marx Bros., Bing Crosby, Bob Hope
produced 40-50 films annually in studio heyday
effects of Depression: $18.4m profit in 1930, $6.3m in 1931, -$21m in 1932: receivership in 1933, bankruptcy in 1935
heavily involved in television in 1960s
sold off 1929-49 films to MCA in 1958; acquired by Gulf and Western, 1966; acquired by Viacom in 1990s; now part of Viacom/CBS

3. Fox Film Corporation/20th Century Fox

established for exhibition in 1913 by William Fox; producing fims by 1915.
"20th C" after 1935 merger with production company headed in part by Darryl F. Zanuck, former Warners production head who had just left United Artists
known for musicals; westerns and crime films after 1948; The Robe (1953), 1st Cinemascope feature film
directors: John Ford, Elia Kazan, Joseph Mankiewicz
stars: Shirley Temple, Will Rodgers, Tyrone Power, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, Sonja Henie; in 1940s/50s Henry Fonda, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Gregory Peck
effects of Depression: $10m profit in 1930, -$4m in 1931, -$7m in 1932; founder Fox forced out in 1931.
owned by Rupert Murdoch/News Corp since 1985

4. Warner Brothers established in 1924 by Harry, Jack and Albert Warner

1st sound film: The Jazz Singer (1927)
fully integrated only by 1928-30, with acquisition of First National Pictures theatre chain (which had come into being in 1917 to resist Adolph Zukor)
effects of Depression: $14.5m profit in 1929, $7m in 1930, -$8m in 1931; thanks to “bloodletting” and assembly-line, rationalized, low-budget productions WB did not go bankrupt or become beholden to Wall Street
60 films per year in depression, 1930s: gangster films, backstage musicals, social realism
no "stable" but contact directors and stars: Raoul Walsh, Howard Hawks; Paul Muni, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Errol Flynn, James Dean, Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Lauren Bacall
also heavily into TV in 1960s; later Warner-Seven Arts, then Warner Communications, now part of Time-Warner

5. RKO Radio Pictures Incorporated

an immediate major, born of the 1928 merger of Radio Corporation of America with Keith and Orpheum theatres to exploit its "Photophone" movie sound system
"unit production" introduced by David O. Selznick (contracting with individual directors for a certain number of films, free of studio interference)
hence Citizen Kane (Welles), King Kong, Bringing Up Baby (Hawks), Notorious (Hitchcock)
associated with horror films and film noir in its B-movies; after 1940-42, B-movies became the chief product
effects of Depression: $3.4m profit in 1930, -$5.7m in 1931; forced into receivership
bought by Howard Hughes (1948), then General Tyre and Rubber Company (1955) then Desilu Productions (1957), which was later acquired by Gulf & Western, which merged it with Paramount, now owned by Viacom

Little Three

1. Universal Pictures

formed 1912 by Carl Laemmle Sr.
production facility in Universal City in San Fernando Valley, not Hollywood, 1915
Irving Thalberg among first chiefs of production (before joining MGM)
stars: Rudolph Valentino, Lon Chaney; later, after mid-40s reorganization, attracted James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Marlene Deitrich, Janet Leigh by offering percentages of profits in contracts
Frankenstein, Dracula (both 1931), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, 1st sound movie on WWI)
after 1948, thrillers, melodramas, westerns
effects of Depression: lost its theatres; Laemmle forced out in 1936 after the studio went into receivership
blockbusters : Jaws (1975), E.T. (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), all directed by Spielberg
taken over by Decca Records, 1952; part of MCA after 1962; bought by Matsushita in 1990 for $6.6 billion; sold to Seagram (1995); sold to Vivendi (France, 2000); sold to GE/NBC, 2004; now part of NBC Universal

2. United Artists (est. 1919)

breakaway company founded by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, distributing their films (most successful with Chaplin's)
only Chaplin still producing in 1930s; UA turned to distributing features of independent producers like Samuel Goldwyn and David O. Selznick
only a major after 1948 Paramount case: High Noon (1951), Marty (1955), 1960s James Bond films; three Oscars in a row in 1975-77 (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; Rocky; Annie Hall)
effects of Depression: lost money in 1932, but largely OK after that
overextended in late 1970s; part of Transamerica since 1967, sold to MGM in 1981(along with pre-1950 Warner film library)

3. Columbia (1924)

1930, produced and sold B-movies to "big five"
1932, Harry Cohn, one of the original founders, becomes president, with a tight rein
1934, It Happened One Night's great success led it to experiment with "A" pictures too; often these were adaptations of novels and stage plays
no stable, but associations with Frank Capra, Rita Hayworth; after 1948 William Holden, Broderick Crawford, Judy Holliday
effects of Depression: survived OK in part because it owned no theatres
first to get into television (Screen Gems, 1950--Dragnet); also backed foreign productions, e.g., Lawrence of Arabia, 1962)
sold studios, 1972; bought by Coca-Cola, 1982; bought by Sony, 1989