1920s–1950sPrimary sourceWell documented
The Studio System and the Golden Age of Hollywood
On the timeline · around 1920s–1950s ·
What happened
By the 1920s a handful of vertically integrated studios — Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century-Fox, and RKO among them — controlled American filmmaking from production through distribution to the theaters that showed the films. They kept stars, directors, and writers under long-term contract, turned out dozens of pictures a year on assembly-line schedules, and manufactured celebrity through a carefully managed star system.
Why it matters
The studio system built Hollywood into a global industrial powerhouse and defined the Golden Age of American film — until a 1948 Supreme Court antitrust ruling forced the studios to sell off their theater chains, loosening their grip and helping bring the era to an end.