Hollywood, from its conception, has been a lucrative place with monopolies and big businesses competing to knock out competition and fight for superiority. In the 1920's and up until the late 1960's, the studio system was implemented into the film industry to do one of two things benefit the public or benefit private corporations and their pockets. Unfortunately, the studio system ended up supporting big corporations and studios instead of the public. During this almost half a century implementation, Studios controlled the entire process of movie making. Everything from the lots at which they were filmed to the theaters at which they would be premiered and shown to the public. This manipulative and controlling environment led to five major studios to rise in power and monopolize the industry, making it difficult for smaller, less powerful studios to get actors to act in their films, find places to shoot at, and ultimately air their content.
Many negatives were apparent in this era, however, there were some positives. During this era, actors, directors, and many other people were contractually obligated to their position within the studio system. This meant that they were receiving a predetermined salary and guaranteed money and roles because of said contracts. Instead of this era hurting everyone involved, it actually contained many beneficial components that we as a society could benefit from nowadays if they were to be brought back. In today's society, bringing back some elements of the studio system would benefit our film industry. Although the monopolies and theater control should never come back, the contracts between studios and they employees (actors, directors, writers, etc.) should be re-implemented. Currently, actors tend to struggle finding a place to work and a film to act in, same as many other creative mediums. That is why Contracts would benefit the actors and directors of our day and age because it would guarantee those creative minds a stable income so that they could continue to bless the world with their talents. Alongside contracts, bringing back block booking would be beneficial in some way because it would allow smaller films to be played at grand-grossing theaters to share their smaller productions with an already established audience. Block booking, however, could also lead to some difficulties as it would force theaters to buy movie packages containing more than just the big-blockbuster they want, leading to theaters losing or spending to much money. Hypothetically, if we were to bring back the studio system today, I feel that we as a country could moderate it in a way that would make it beneficial and something that would only advance the film industry as a whole. Even though we do have some apparent monopolies taking place today, such as the path Amazon is taking, I feel that since we have already experienced such a grave time in film history that we would be able to instill something that will only evolve the film industry into a more supportive and demonstrative field of what we work for; sharing our stories through our talents.
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