Modern family: Addition

Backstory : Star wars (1)

Last year, when I directed my team to look into various industries and provide me with the report containing it's history and latest ongoings; I came across a file under entertainment header that a person named George Lucas is visiting various production houses with the script written by himself.

News wouldn't have been mentioned to me if his script wasn't rejected by various production houses. It gained more significance because his last film "American Graffiti (1973) " was quite successful despite the fact that this film was also rejected by various major production houses at the beginning. It wasn't until as a favour, universal pictures provided him the opportunity and thus with the budget of 770,000$, film was made which became one of the most profitable films ever. According to my previous life's data; since its initial release, American Graffiti had earned an estimated return well over $200 million in box-office gross and home video sales, not including merchandising. In 1995, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

To confirm my conjecture of what this script is really about; I
ordered more detailed information about it almost immediately. I came to know that, the script will not only be a goldmine for my profit hungry glandes but also gateway for the entry of my own entertainment company ( will not be named Dunphy entertainment) in one of the most successful way in this already monopolised sector.

Hollywood still has very vertical structure even after landmark 1948 supreme court verdict in United States vs Paramount pictures Inc. case. In which United States government put an end to studio system.

The studio system is a business method where Hollywood movie studios control all aspects of their film productions, including production, distribution, and exhibition. Dominated by the Big Five studios (in my previous life, now in this World there is Big three), all personnel including actors, crew, directors, and writers were under contract to the studios. It was made for efficient and “assembly- line” style filmmaking that dominated the industry for about two crucial decades.

In this system, Studios owned their own movie theaters (which would play their movies).
Studios offered independent theaters a block set of films (known as “block booking”), containing desirable movies mixed with unwanted ones.
Everyone from actors to directors were paid a salary instead of “per film,” along with having contracts.

In my previous life, it all starts with what would always be known as the Big Five studios. These were five major film studios that were responsible for the classical Hollywood system. They included Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer (MGM) , Warner Bros., Paramount, Fox, and RKO. All of which were "vertically integrated" meaning that production, distribution, and exhibition were handled "in-house."

This made it extremely difficult for independent studios, distributors, and exhibitors to compete in the industry, but more on this will be discussed later.

Most of these studios were fronted by major movie moguls who previously owned movie theaters in the 1910s before heading to Los Angeles to run their own studios. They included Louis B. Mayer (MGM), Jack Warner (Warner Bros.), Adolph Zukor (Paramount), and Darryl Zanuck (Fox).

Aside from the Big Five studios, there were also three smaller studios that did not own as many of their own movie theaters. They were Universal, Columbia, and United Artists, a studio founded by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith precisely because the studios were so controlling of their work, salary, and creativity.

As mentioned earlier, In this era of Hollywood studio involved the Big Five studios controlling all aspects of their movies, with owning their own movie theaters being the most notable. In this way, if you lived in a town with a Warner Bros. and Paramount theater, you would have no trouble checking out their latest movies.

For all the other movie theaters they didn’t own, they offered them blocks of movies they could distribute, which was known as “block booking.” This involved having, for example, a set of five movies; one is actually good, while the rest are middling or just bad. Due to it being an “all or nothing” deal, many of these independent theaters took what they were offered, resulting in a swath of movies being distributed all across the country.

During the Hollywood studio era, there was also the “Star System,” which was when actors, under contract to a studio, would be sculpted by said studio to fit an ideal, one which could not be tarnished.

The movies made by these Big Five studios would also be stuck to the lot, which means every aspect of the filmmaking was typically done in one place. Unless you were filming establishing shots or something similar, your camera would not be leaving the Los Angeles area. To top it off, if you worked for the movie studios, you weren’t paid by film: you had a contract and salary as mentioned earlier.

But as mentioned earlier; the “good times” were not to last, because the U.S. government was knocking on the door of the Hollywood studio era. While they tried earlier, it wasn't until 1948, with the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. case, that the studio system came to an end.

It stated that this studio system was in violation of the nation’s antitrust law, and was therefore illegal. This resulted in the movie studios no longer owning — either partially or fully — their movie theaters. Not only that, but television was on the rise, so ticket sales were also falling. So while it broke up what was essentially a monopoly, it also put the studios in a financial tight spot.

But it wasn’t just the movie theaters, as the court decision also brought about changes to the way the Big Five made films. For example: actors would no longer be held hostage by contracts or salaries (though contracts would still be a thing, just with less restrictions).

This was pretty great for major actors who could earn hundreds of thousands per movie, but it also meant less stable revenue for others.

With the decline of old Hollywood began the wave of new Hollywood. New Hollywood was a film movement that took place in the United States from roughly 1967-1976. The movement was lead by a group of film students with a passion for filmmaking and the desire to challenge the stagnant status quo. Also known as the Hollywood New Wave, these filmmakers often worked within the Studio System but brought an independent and radical perspective to mainstream filmmaking.

After nearly a decade of box office successes and Academy Award wins, the New Hollywood movements days were numbered. Ironically, two members of the Film School Generation were the filmmakers to initiate its slow death in the late '70s.

One such person was/is George Lucas. His film American Graffiti (1973) was a juggernaut hit at the box office, as audiences related to the George Lucas’ nostalgia trip of youth culture in 1960s California. The success of American Graffiti allowed Lucas to pursue the development of Star Wars, which became largely responsible for killing the New Hollywood movement.

After 4 years, George Lucas mounted an epic space opera that took new marketing and merchandise campaign that began with the film Jaws (1975) directed by Steven Spielberg to the nth degree. Star Wars (1977) became the blueprint for Hollywood blockbuster cinema and one of the most financially successful films of all-time.

It was a summer release and also an early example of a distribution model that put the film in many theaters at once. Added to that, there was a massive and successful marketing and merchandise campaign.

With this Film, the Hollywood studio executives saw a formula for success that could be repeated endlessly. And, thus, the summer blockbuster was born.

At the same time, the film's escapism ran counter to the socially-conscious approach that defined New Hollywood. But these things will be discussed later on; let's return to the matter at hand.

In my previous life; Star Wars (retroactively retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) was a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas, produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by 20th Century-Fox. It was the first film released in the Star Wars film series and the fourth chronological chapter of the "Skywalker Saga". Set "a long time ago" in a fictional universe where the galaxy is ruled by the tyrannical Galactic Empire, the story focuses on a group of freedom fighters known as the Rebel Alliance, who aim to destroy the Empire's newest weapon, the Death Star. When Rebel leader Princess Leia is apprehended by the Empire, Luke Skywalker acquires stolen architectural plans of the Death Star and sets out to rescue her while learning the ways of a metaphysical power known as "the Force" from Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.