A “Studio System” is a method of film production dominated by a small group of major film companies. Historically, a Studio System refers to the large movie companies’ practice of large motion picture studios in 1920-1960.  Before the 1920’s, every film was silent. Musicians hired by cinemas would typically play the piano or electric organs as background sound in these films. Films in the 1920’s were typically enjoyed by the public despite no talking being involved; however in 1927, “Talkies” were introduced. A “Talkie” is a disc of audio with people speaking, separate to the silent film. Then, popular movie companies would add the talkie over the film to create movies with dialogue. This time period is known as “The Golden Age of Hollywood”.

During 1920 in Hollywood, the major film companies were Warner Brothers, Paramount, Fox, and MGM in which they mainly focused on the genres of cowboy movies, detective stories, comedies and romantic drama movies; which succeeded in interesting movie stars to take part. Most silent films before Talkies were under the genre of Drama. Since the public enjoyed the dramatic silent movies, the famous film companies decided to create that genre into a talkie. Two of the movie companies used different types of technology to produce the sounds of talking – Warner Bros used Vitaphone, and Fox used Movietone. Vitaphone was proven to be less effective as the discs would become easily lost or scratched.

Overall, the studio system affected the movie industry because the popular fads were used as a way for the popular film companies which dominated the studio system to compete with each other; therefore leading to successful and more developed films to come out. Some of the public preferred silent films, especially in the genre of Drama, however some preferred the talkies.