Contemporary American Cinema

Everyone knows of hollywood and its blockbuster film. They are unescapable, but how much do people know about hollywoods history? 

Hollywoods past is riddled with politics and means to make money for the film industry, and like it or not; money is one thing heavily influencing modern american cinema. Some say that hollywood corrupts the art of film making, the vast majority of people are quite happy to throw money at the next big blockbuster the year has to offer. I will be exploring Hollywood and what makes it what it is.

'The Big 5' the big 5 refers to a group of conglomerate companies, which owned their own studios, theatres and distribution divisions in the mid 1920's.

These companies were:

• RKO
• Warner Bros.
• LOEWS Inc.
• FOX
• Paramount

Alongside these companies, there were three other well known companies. These were known as the Little 3. these companies owned little, or no theatres at all. Meaning no promised film sales.

These companies were as follow:

• Universal pictures

• Columbia pictures
• United artists

Because the Big 5 studios were vertically integrated companies, this gave little chance for independent film studios, or smaller companies to make money from their films. The big 5 owned their theatres, which they showed their films in. so, the studios had the writers, the producers, directors and actors under contract. 

In 1948, it was ruled that this vertical integration was in fact an illegal monopoly. This opposition came from eight independent film producers: Hal roach, Walt Disney, Samuel Goldwyn and Walter Wanger were among these producers.

The supreme court ruling stopped the act of Block-Booking and pre-selling. Block booking was where the studios would sell a package of films to independent theatres. They would sell a number of A movies, and a small amount of short films and B movies that would be unlikely to make any money. These packages were blind-bought by the theatres, that is without seeing the films. Meaning that the production companies would make a huge profit. This ruling was called the Paramount Decree, and the government Ended up suing the 5 major conglomerates. This decree ended up crippling the industry. It took a long and slow recovery afterwards.

Blockbusters.

Blockbusters as we know them today all started in the 1972 with the Wildly successful 'The Godfather' making $81.5 million and was the highest grossing film ever made for a time. 

Everyone has seen blockbuster films and they ultimately define modern cinema to the masses. Blockbusters tend to all show similar conventions and are often referred to as 'Popcorn' films to 'leave your brain at home' this is not strictly true to all blockbusters, but as a majority. 

Blockbusters could be seen as the embodiment on the consumerist ways of western culture. Even with advertising for products making their way into cinema, even with whole film themes based from corporate product rivalry. In the Transformers blockbuster film, the main protagonist drives a sentient car, the 2009 Chevrolet camero. This transformers rival is a Ford mustang. Chevrolet's main competitor in the market. 

The whole industry seems to be more of a money making scheme. And it sure is good at it. The highest grossing film of all time was made in 2009 and is directed by James Cameron, that film is Avatar. Avatar has grossed over 3 billion U.S dollars once home video sales are accounted for. To most people, Avatar is a pretty uninspired storyline. Its story is basically a clash of Princess Mononoke and Dances With Wolves.

People often use Blockbusters as a form of escapism. They like to leave their life and problems behind them. Because of this most blockbusters have a 'Happy ending' structure. This is reflected in the 1979 sci-fi horror hit Alien, where director Ridley Scott had intended for the main protagonist to die at the end of the film, but producers insisted that the antagonist must die.
History plays a hugely important role on the popularity of modern blockbusters. a recent Boom in Superhero movies can be observed, as a previously untapped resource for film, although their stories can be aligned with historical or current events in america. Blade was a success upon release and at the time there was a large visceral scare among americans of blood transmitted diseases and infections. and so a tale about vampire slaying seemed to take Marvels cinematic endeavours into the Millions. looking past this we have seen a huge increase in superhero films post 9/11. being a great form of escapism the cinema offers a place for americans to go and forget about the current situation of the world, and hope that a more powerful being or entity will be able to stop the forces at hand, this provides a great form of public morale as people go to view a 'Superman' film or 'Captain America' and hope not to loose faith in their own world or government.