Hollywood film companies today are recognized leaders in the global cinema market. This is an indisputable fact that does not require evidence. The most successful industries in this area on planet Earth are concentrated in one place. And this is Hollywood. In this article, read about his most famous and profitable companies, as well as the success story of American cinema, which was founded by haberdashery, simple workers and farmers.
At the origins of cinema
Few today believe, but a century and a half ago, Hollywood was a real agricultural paradise. The places where Hollywood companies are located today were occupied by endless pastures and fertile fields, which attracted a large number of farmers.
The name "Hollywood" this area was due to a couple of newlyweds Whitley, who bought a plot of several tens of hectares in size here. So they called him. As a result, a brand was born that today is directly associated with the film industry around the world. True, back then it was still a long way to the filming of the films, since a real war was going on. War of Patents.
The fact is that the American entrepreneur and inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison, became the owner of a film patent before the Lumiere brothers. At the same time, no one in the world sought to take into account that this was an author's invention, which aroused righteous anger in Edison. As a response, he launched a real patent war, starting to fill up all the movie studios he could find with new lawsuits, calling them to justice.
Filmmakers were already pretty much bloodied by constant litigation with the inventor. Therefore, in 1909, they decided to unite in order to buy a license for the production of film from Edison. 9 companies took such a step. The new owners of the right to produce film were merged under the name "Film Patent Company". It included the following studios: Bayograph, Edison, Zelig, Waitagraf, Lubin, Essen, Pate, Kalom and Méliès. As you can see, not a single name we know today. However, they achieved a ban on issuing additional licenses for the production of film. This meant that the Cinema Patent Company became a kind of monopolist, concentrating in its hands the entire production film market.
Fight for hire
At the next stage, the fight for rental began. General Film Company succeeded here, which by 1910 had acquired about 60 percent of all cinemas in America.
Many were against such arbitrariness. The rebellious film producers called themselves independent, refusing to reconcile with the monopoly of the "Film Patent Company". They began to actively acquire foreign paintings for demonstration in the United States, created their own studios, and also made films far from Los Angeles and New York. One of such places was the hills and fields on which Hollywood cinema was born. What is the oldest film studio of all independent companies? This is Universal Studios. It still exists.
Ecumenical Cinema
Today, the logo of this company is known to any movie fan. This is the globe around which, like rings of the planet Saturn, the inscription Universal rotates, which in translation into Russian means "universal."
Its founder is the simple manager of the haberdashery store Karl Lemme, who worked in Wisconsin. His fate turned upside down when he once went on a business trip to Chicago, where he decided to go to the cinema. As a businessman, he was interested in how distributors recouped their costs, because movie tickets at that time cost quite a bit. Lemme visited one of the cheap movie theaters, which was even called the special term nickelodeon, which literally translated means "theater for five cents." At the same time, the total amount of daily revenue pleasantly surprised him. So much so that he decided to leave the haberdashery business and go into the production of cinema.
Own production
In 1909, when the so-called patent war was in full swing, Lemme was one of the first to realize that it was not profitable to purchase films for rent. It is much smarter and more productive to start producing them yourself. Since 1915, Universal began to be based in Hollywood, since working there was much cheaper.
Interestingly, at first things were not quite successful. To earn enough money, I even had to arrange excursions for tourists on the set, which became a considerable part of the total income of this Hollywood film company. For the tour you had to pay 25 cents.
Lemme was the first in the world who began to sign the real names of actors in the credits. It is believed that thanks to him, a cult of movie stars was formed in Hollywood. A distinctive feature of Universal was the release of horror films. They became the founder of this genre. The movie factory created by Lemme is still among the leaders in the rating of Hollywood film companies.
The most famous films of Universal
The company produced many real hits, many of which were awarded prestigious film awards, including the Oscar figurines.
It was at this film studio that an outstanding American actor made his name, famous for his ability to change his appearance beyond recognition. With a grotesque make-up, he hit the public in the horror films of the 20s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “The Phantom of the Opera”. The studio itself was even called the "House of Horrors", so it focused on this particular genre. One of the most profitable films of that period were Frankenstein and Dracula, released in 1931.
In the 40s, the master of the psychological thriller Alfred Hitchcock collaborated with the film studio, staging the films Shadow of Doubt and Saboteur. It was at the Universal film studio that one of the most famous American cartoon characters appeared - Woody Woodpecker woodpecker.
Among the most famous films of recent decades - "Back to the Future", "Jurassic Park", "Jaws", "Fast and Furious".
Paramount
Another famous Hollywood movie company is Paramount, founded by Adolf Zucor. It all started with the fact that he simply wished to help his cousin Max Goldstein, who managed a small network of cinemas. Things were not going very well. Then Zukor began to help a relative, and soon plunged into this business. He created Famous Players Film Company in 1912.
In the same year, a company called Lasky Feature Play Company was founded by producer Jesse Laski. In essence, they turned out to be very similar. Both were not going to make films for the working class, seeking to create products only for wealthy viewers. It is noteworthy that the companies did not compete with each other, but joined forces, starting to sell products under the Paramount brand. So the studio was created, which was included in the list of Hollywood film companies, which received fame and popularity.
Fox film corporation
In 1915, the company was founded by the owner of a chain of cinemas, William Fox. He merged his rental company with Greater New York Film Rental. And this famous film studio appeared.
Fox was one of the most successful producers at the dawn of Hollywood cinema. However, he was ruined by a thirst for profit. After the death of MGM owner Markus Love, he decided to buy back a share of the business from his family. At the same time, he did not include in the deal another studio manager, Louis Mayer, who in revenge for this announced Fox’s intention to the authorities. The employees of the antimonopoly police arrived with a check, and they detained a well-known producer.
Fleeing the ruin, I had to urgently engage in a change of leadership. The new owner of Fox Film Corporation was Sidney Kent. He decided to merge with Twentieth Century Pictures, which was led by Joseph Schenk and Darryl Zanuck. The result was the founding of a film studio, known today as the 20th Century Fox.
Film Association "Twentieth Century Fox"
Today, this company is one of the six largest American film studios. It was founded after the merger in 1935. Schenk became its first president. One of the first companies in the world to announce the transition to widescreen technology. This happened in the early 1950s.
In the 70s, 20th Century Fox became a leader in the blockbuster market. In particular, it was this studio that sponsored the legendary films of George Lucas "Star Wars".
Among other popular franchises of the company it is worth recalling the X-Men, Avatar, Die Hard, Alien, Predator, Home Alone, X-Files, Family Guy, The Simpsons.
Warner Brothers
The world famous company Warner Bros. Pictures was founded by four brothers, whose names were Sam, Albert, Harry and Jack. Their career in the film industry began in 1903 with the demonstration of films for workers in Pennsylvania. Little by little, they began to save money for expanding their enterprise. As a result, they managed to acquire their own cinema. Soon after, they founded their own film distribution company. When, after a decade and a half, it became obvious that the business should be expanded, the brothers switched to film production.
A great success was the release of their first ever sound film. The 1927 painting was called The Jazz Singer. This event was a real breakthrough for the company, immediately nominating it as an industry leader.
Columbia Pictures
This name of the Hollywood film company is known to almost everyone. The studio was founded in 1919 by the brothers Jack and Harry Cohn, with whom Joe Brandt initially collaborated. However, the latter could not stand the constant quarrels and disputes between the brothers, eventually selling his share in the business to one of them.
According to another version, Brandt could not stand the persecution, because of all the studios at CBC Film Sales Corporation, as Columbia Pictures was originally called, it had the smallest budget. Because of this, at first only extremely low-grade action movies were shot. They even had a reputation as losers. To get rid of her, they renamed the studio in Columbia Pictures. After rebranding, the studio’s affairs really went uphill.
Throughout its history, the company has experienced difficult times more than once, finding itself on the verge of bankruptcy. As a result, the controlling stake was first sold to Coca-Cola, and now its official owner is Sony.
MGM
Under this abbreviation around the world they know another legendary film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Its founder, Louis Mayer, began by acquiring a used movie theater in 1907. Initially, the institution had a bad reputation, and in order to urgently change its reputation, the first after the update it showed a film on religious subjects.
The audience was struck by such abrupt changes, they began to go to the cinema on an ongoing basis. Resourcefulness and entrepreneurial vein soon allowed Mayer to get rich, in 1918 he opened his own studio. However, it was soon bought by the owner of a large cinema chain, Marcus Lovom. He conducted a merger, as a result of which Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed.
Mayer was unhappy with the deal, trying to consolidate his position in the company. To do this, he appointed the 25-year-old Irving Talberg as the head of the production department. The aggressive leadership of the young man forced one of Goldwin's name partners to quit. Meyer retained the post of general manager, making the studio the largest in Hollywood for the production of full-length films.
It was Mayer who owned the idea of founding the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and awarding the Academy Award. The first award ceremony took place in 1929.