The Studio's progress process!

     After this week’s lectures I concluded that the way that the Big-Eight producer-distributors complemented each other was one of the most important aspects of how production and market control used to work in the studios. All of them (these producer-distributors) were vertically-integrated so they owned all the stages of production, distribution, and exhibition of their movies and they shared with each other their biggest movies so they could be shown in all major theatres while also loaning out their biggest movie stars to each other. This way, they would create a considerable, almost crucial gap between their productions and the rest (big movie stars and major theatres vs. the rest).

     Like I just mentioned, having the most famous movie stars and having their movies in all major theatres of the country kept their movies among the most popular. This probably was unfair to the small studio firms but I’m guessing they could see it coming after realizing that eight vertically-integrated firms were going to be working together.

     Casablanca could help me illustrate this statement. Casablanca was produced by Warner Bros. and if they gave it to Paramount and to MGM so they could show it in their major theatres and Warner Bros. also loaned them out Humphrey Bogart so he could be in one of their movies, Warner Bros.’ Casablanca would gain a lot of popularity (which, obviously, it did). On the other hand, if there’s a small firm that just released a movie and it is only being shown in a small town, it is not very likely that, that movie will gain a lot of popularity. That is why, I think, this was very important in the Studio's progress process.