The Hollywood Film Industry

Announced for its glamour, richness and soaring cinema, Hollywood has managed to encapsulate respect from audiences worldwide for decades, all craving their next blockbuster hit.

Some critics argue that despite Hollywood being the main conglomerate of cinema it lacks in its artistic sense. Hortense Powdermaker (1946) stresses the point that “god is profits, and opportunism the ritual of worship” (page 9), and filmmaking must be either art or business, as the artistic censorship does not appeal to audiences.

Three decades later, Steven Bach (page 10) echoes the same idea and refers to ‘Heaven’s Gate’ (1980) and how it restores the imagery through pictorial effects but lacks in character and story. This failed as entertainment, bombing at the box office.

This along with ‘Studio System Hollywood’ (1917 – late 1940’s) presented itself with eras that where more concerned about financial benefits than making film explorative and art.

The major companies gave out decade long contracts to actors, directors and writers, to gain a guaranteed and continuous flow of known profits. They also had control over movie theatres, and had 95% of all film income, becoming very powerful, changing the American landscape.
Major Companies: Paramount, RKO, Warner Bros., Loews Inc., Fox.

Minor Companies: Columbia, Universal, United Artists.

With televisions becoming more paramount in people’s homes, ranging at around 10 million in the mid-1950’s, people no longer needed to go out. This had a negative impact upon cinema. Audience numbers plummeted from 60% in the 1930’s to only 10% in the 1960’s. This consistent figure throughout the 1960’s prevented production, and in 1963 around 120 movies where released, fewer than any year since the 1920’s.

Due to the impact of television, cinema had to do what TV couldn’t. The ‘Hollywood Epic’ was born, along with the ‘Hollywood Star’, major distribution companies decided to focus more on the popular periods of the year - Easter, Summer, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year - thus, creating the ultimate ‘summer blockbuster’.

With this the ‘New Hollywood’ era was created. Producers gave more freedom to filmmakers, resulting in more outgoing and innovative movies, encapsulating an audience often on a low budget. Films such as Jaws (1975), was a summer release, opening at 464 screens and being the first film to earn over $100 million in rentals. The gore was minimalistic, but the overall film satisfied the fear of the unknown. The camera angles dominated, presenting the point of view of the shark as it approached its victims, along with the classical score, allowing the audience to sense the danger. This prevented heavy censorship, opening the film up to a wide audience demographic.

Since Jaws, promotion and advertising became as important as the production, with advertising occasionally exceeding the cost of the production by the late 1970’s. Alien (1979), spent $15.7 million on advertising compared to the $10.8 million cost in production.

This trend often continues through ‘Modern Day’ Hollywood. Universal’s ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ (2018), spent $185 million on advertising compared to the $170 million cost of production, which was more than ‘Avengers Infinity War’ (2018) which spent $150 million on advertising.

Arguably however, 2018 was a fight for the summer blockbuster, with the build-up of ‘Avengers Infinity War’ over the past 10 years, ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ had to spend to stand out, as it was released just after Infinity War.