In the past year, every major studio in Hollywood has celebrated or will be celebrating its 100th birthday Just in the first half of 2024, both Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hit this important milestone. Similarly, Disney and Warner Brothers both recently celebrated their biggest birthday in 2023. But this is more than just a celebration: the 100th milestone anniversary only underlines the development and lasting effects of the movie industry in the United States.

A Brief History of Hollywood 

The 1920s were a time of development for Hollywood and change for the film industry as a whole. Many studios were moving to the West Coast — specifically Los Angeles — to escape the strict limitations under Thomas Edison’s East Coast-based monopoly from 1911 onwards. By the mid-1920s, Hollywood was shaping up as the powerful entity we know today. Columbia, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros, and most of the big players in the industry were taking over the film industry in the United States. 

  

In less than 20 years, Hollywood was born. And soon enough it developed into a fully-fledged industry, headlined by the studio system. The system was a method of filmmaking where production and distribution were controlled solely by the movie studios. The studio system is often heavily associated with Hollywood and, more specifically, its Golden Age from the end of the 1920s to the late 1940s. During this time, the production and distribution of films were controlled by eight studios, the so-called Big Five and Little Three.  

The studio system would not have existed without the control of production, distribution, and exhibition or, in other words, Hollywood’s vertical integration. This was not only pivotal to the studio system, but it also allowed each studio to take control of at least two – if not more – stages of the supply chain of movies. More specifically, the Big Five – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros, Paramount, 20th Century Fox and RKO – owned and controlled the production, distribution, and exhibition of all of their products. 

This lasted until 1948 when the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Paramount that the studios were violating anti-trust laws, forcing every studio to end vertical integration and separate the distribution and exhibition of their films.

100 Years Later

The historic era of the studio system may be over, as the link between movie production and theatrical distribution is broken, but its legacy hasn’t died. For example, Warner Bros. has always been at the pinnacle of innovation in the film industry and remains a major player. The same can be said for other studios that survived despite facing financial difficulties and various changes in ownership, such as Columbia and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

When we talk of the Big Five today, it means something a little different than it did during Hollywood’s Golden Age. The names of the studios might have changed ever so slightly, but Warner Bros. has maintained the elements of transformation and growth within the industry that has always characterized it.  Four years after it was founded, Warner Bros. produced the first film with synchronized sound,1927’s The Jazz Singer, marking the beginning of the end of the silent era. Today, that legacy of innovation and expansion is still very much alive as the company has expanded in various business units, including DC Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, their Television Group, Live Theatre Ventures, and Studio Facilities.

Most recently, Columbia and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entered the 100 Club. After a few non-successful years in Hollywood, Columbia Picture Corporation was reorganized under its current name on January 10, 1924, by two brothers, Harry and Jack Cohn, and their best friend, Joe Brandt. They went on to produce some of the most popular films and series today: the Spider-Man movies are only one of the many examples. 

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, best known for groundbreaking films such as The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939), remains one of the biggest players in the industry to this day, honoring its official motto “Art for art’s sake.”

The Studio System Today: Challenges and Legacy

Today, everything looks different in Hollywood. The once stable monopoly of the major studios is currently at risk due to the significant rise in popularity of independent studios like A24, which has now established itself as a powerhouse in independent filmmaking, arthouse films, and contemporary horrors. After all, the distributor has dominated the award season in recent years with A24 sweeping all the acting categories in the 2021 Academy Awards. This may seem worrying to the bigger companies as A24 and other smaller independent companies are generally known to shun the style championed by the major film studios. 

And yet, if a lot of the big studios have reached 100 years, there is clearly something lingering from 1920s Hollywood. Times have changed but the major studios manage to remain iconic as they are still the symbols of what Hollywood once was. While the climate is very different today than in 1924 Los Angeles when Columbia and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were born, the studios still survive 100 years later. Admittedly, they look very different today. For starters, one of the ways that they survived is through mergers with other, more powerful, companies. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is the perfect example of that phenomenon, as it has recently been acquired and absorbed into Amazon Studios.

The key to their ongoing success and long-term existence also lies in the studios’ willingness to innovate. They have all somehow turned their eye to the newest obsession in Hollywood: streaming platforms. For example, Metro-Goldwyn Mayer is not just a production company anymore. Thanks to the integration with Amazon and their streaming service Amazon Prime Video, it can control both the production and distribution of its digital content, such as The Handmaid’s Tale (2017) or A Star is Born (2018). In many ways, this could suggest a return to the vertically integrated model that Hollywood used to be known for in its Golden Era but with streaming platforms instead of theatres.

However, when it comes to theatre distribution, not all is yet lost. In 2023, Amazon was reportedly looking to buy the world’s largest movie chain, the AMC Theatres. While this has not happened – or at least, not yet – the fact that Amazon is interested in owning a theatre chain is proof of the fact that a traditional mode of vertical integration may be making a comeback. 

Only a few months ago, Sony Pictures purchased their very own cinemas, the dine-in movie theatre chain called Alamo Drafhouse, thus once again highlighting that big studios are still very interested in controlling distribution, production, and exhibition. This would not only allow for a significant amount of revenue in all areas of the film industry, but it also means that studios would have full control of what films are shown to their audiences, as well as when and where. 

It is not entirely clear what the way forward may be – whether it lies in the streaming platform or in acquisitions from a parent company or both – but whatever the future holds, it seems safe to say that the Big Five can handle it. As the past 100 years have shown, the major studios are ready to adapt and take on whatever challenge may come their way. As the media landscape constantly changes and evolves, we can only wish for Warner Brothers, Columbia, or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to one day celebrate their 200th anniversary as well.

Article Courtesy of Clotilde Chinnici


Image Credit to Thomas Wolf via Wikipedia