What were the Big 5 studios & what type of movies was each studio famous for?

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – The Wizard of Oz, The Thin Man

Warner Bros – Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood

Paramount – Double Indemnity, It’s a Wonderful Life

Fox – Les Misérables, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

RKO – King Kong, Citizen Kane

Explain what vertical integration and block-booking was?

Vertical integration is the term used to describe a business strategy in which a company takes ownership of two or more key stages of its supply chain so in film it’s when a Media Company owns different businesses in the same chain of production and distribution. Block-booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theatre as a unit.

Why and when did the original studio system collapse?

The studio system that thrived during Hollywood’s Golden Age died in the 1960s. Challenges in the form of pay TV, antitrust legislation, low admissions, and censorship had worn down the studios in the previous decade.

What was happening in America (and around the world) at this time?

The era was marked by the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and antiwar protests, countercultural movements, political assassinations and the emerging “generation gap.” It was also a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Western United States.