THE STUDIO SYSTEM 1920s –

The studio system (which was used during a period known as the Golden Age of ) is a method of production and distribution dominated by a small number of "major" studios in Hollywood. Although the term is still used today as a reference to the systems and output of the major studios, historically the term refers to the practice of large motion picture studios between the 1920s and 1960s of (a) producing movies primarily on their own lots with creative personnel under often long-term contract, and (b) dominating exhibition through , i.e., the ownership or effective control of distributors and exhibition, guaranteeing additional sales of through manipulative booking techniques such as .

The studio system was challenged under the anti-trust laws in a 1948 Supreme Court ruling

United States v. , Inc., 334 US 131 (1948) (also known as the Hollywood Antitrust Case of 1948, the Paramount Case, the Paramount Decision or the Paramount Decree)

By 1954, with competing for audience and the last of the operational links between a major production studio and theater chain broken, the historic era of the studio system was over.

The period stretching from the introduction of sound to the beginning of the demise of the studio system, 1927–1948/1949, is referred to by some film historians as the Golden Age of Hollywood.

The Golden Age is a purely technical distinction and not to be confused with the style in film criticism known as Classical Hollywood cinema, a style of American film which developed from 1917 to 1963 and characterizes it to this day.

Eight companies constituted the major studios that promulgated the Hollywood studio system.

1927 –

The success of 1927's The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length "talkie" (in fact, the majority of its scenes did not have live-recorded sound) gave a big boost to the then midsized Warner Bros. studio.

The last of the "Big Five" Hollywood conglomerates of the Golden Age emerged in 1928: RKO. through a set of stock transfers, RCA gained control of both FBO and the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain; merging them into a single venture, it created the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation, chairing the board.

Death of RKO RKO, long the financially shakiest of the conglomerates, the court ruling came to be looked at as a development that could be used to the studio's advantage. The same month that the decision was handed down, multimillionaire acquired a controlling interest in the company. As RKO controlled the fewest theaters of any of the Big Five, Hughes decided that starting a divorcement domino effect could actually help put his studio on a more equal footing with his competitors. Hughes signaled his willingness to the federal government to enter into a consent decree obliging the breakup of his movie business.

Rise of Television

The scale of both box office successes and flops grew, with a "dangerous middle" consisting of films that in the previous era would have made mone

By 1957, independent producers made 50% of full-length American films.

Death of the Epic Film and The System

Cleopatra- 1963 the 50 most expensive movies ever made, adjusted for inflation, Cleopatra is the only one on the list that was released before 1998 – and at no 15, it's still a major contender.

biggest US movie hit of 1963. Even so, it was a financial disaster for 20th Century Fox. It also more or less killed off the big-budget period epic for ever, just as The Greatest Story Ever Told killed off the biblical epic in 1965, and Heaven's Gate would finally kill off the long-moribund classic studio western in 1980 (and the )