American Film I ndustry in 1950s - Essay Example

The diversity of Hollywood cinema drastically decreased after the Paramount Decree, moving away from the low-budget films to fewer ones with high budgets. As a result, it is demonstrated further, that the audiences of these low-budget films left the Hollywood cinema, rather than transforming their tastes suddenly to art films. The main argument of this study states that the decline in the production of low-budget movies served as the main reason for the growth of art-houses in the 1950s. The art film theatre phenomenon became commercially feasible in the late 1940s.

Art houses featured overseas films, documentaries, self-regulating productions and classic re-releases, chiefly Hollywood. These theatres happened to be small, showed only single feature films, accommodated to mature audiences, and more likely, preferred selling coffee rather than popcorn and other eatables. Most of the main-stream movie theatres lacked at business compared to the Art houses which held films over for long runs comparatively. In addition, along with their entrance to major cities and college towns, the art theatres gained popularity and prevalence amongst masses throughout the 1950s.

In accordance to Gomery views, the number of art theatres incremented from 250 to 1,500 between 1950 and 1952, though not all of them were showing art films exclusively (Gomery, 2002). Studies revealed that. They were ardent film-goers who efficaciously utilized other cultural products were more likely to be influenced by the reviews and word of mouth rather than any sort of publicizing or advertising. The supposed search for high quality films was offered for a variety of motives for the art film-goers than those being made by main-stream Hollywood studios.

With the commencement of World War II, an interest in more crucial and socially critical appearance opened up for entertainment as well as an increased curiosity about the foreign cultures and conventions rose in the masses. Moreover, with television sets becoming popular in the home and focusing on family fare, motion pictures attempted to put forward to the adult audiences something different, mature, which would motivate them to depart their homes (Maltby, 2003). There are several other factors which led the exhibitors to explore outside the Hollywood Studio system for film products.

The ruling that vertical integration of the Hollywood studios violated anti-trust laws evoked the studios to divorce production and distribution from the exhibition (The Yale Law Journal, 1965). With such a transformation, more and more theatres became self-regulating, restraining the control that the main-stream studios practiced over exhibition by way of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Self-regulating productions were successful in these aspects because they had the flexibility to locate interesting themes, popular stars and enough finance from the studios which was rather a hit or miss effort with higher rate of menace (Robins, 1933: 103-118).

Although, in the year 1942, the MPAA eradicated fines and penalties against theatres which screened movies without Production Code seals, the member companies assured