Week ELEVEN

The first and second waves of mergers

the mergers in the 1960's when studios were bought by bigger corporations that had their hands in other, way other, things than film, or film related things. As the article gives an example; Gulf and Western bought Paramount Pictures, but also had investments in a variety of other things.
the first wave of mergers happened by the studios testing the limits of the law, and purchasing and controlling aspects of the films exhibition and distribution. Something that had been outlawed during the Hollywood studio era. The article calls it a vertical integration; like Columbia, buying theaters and making profits off of their films showing.

the second wave involved the companies expanding their involvement,investment,ownership into the TV side of things. purchasing channels, and Pay TV stations.

International Partnerships

for the opening of the European Union to foreign trade of movies and television programs, thehollywood studios began investing in, and forming partnerships with European companies. Time Warner for example invested in things from satellite broadcasting in Scandinavia to Pay-TV in Germany and Hungary.

DOmestic Partnerships.

This consited of the major companies interacting with the smaller companies and investing in them, risking money but also acting as a saftey net for the bigger budget films.


How were production companies such as Carolco, Castle Rock, Morgan’s Creek, and Imagine Entertainment in the 1990s different from the failed “mini-majors” such as Orion, DeLaurentis, and Cannon in the 1980s?

THe main difference was that the minors of the 1990s were involved with the majors.

the article states 5 reasons the minors of the 1990s didnt fail like the 1980s minors.
1- less staff. not a big company, so dont act like one
2 - mainly concentrated on film entertainment
3 - less productions per year
4 - use major's distributors and only domestic
5 - didnt depend on home video deals.