I must say the concept of the studio system was pretty clever in how it managed to create and arbitrary business out of the film industry, which was greatly benefited from. After the Great Depression is when things took a different toll in a direction that would lead to monopolistic control of the film industry. Paramount, Loews/MGM, Warner Brothers, Fox, and RKO were the five major studios that basically controlled the film industry; and they all had similar strategies which they used to do so. A strategy which I found interesting was the star system which relates directly to the "contract system" they created; which secured stars to the company.
Companies would use the names of popular stars to promote their films. They would note that there were certain stars the audience loved and they seemed to always give them the same kind of roles in movies, different character but same role. The audience were willing to watch whatever movie as long as their favorite star appeared in it, making it a great market strategy and influencing the direction of the creation of certain films.
Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin were a few of many popular stars whose names were used to promote films. The industries would use the talents of stars to their advantage, Judy Garland, who appeared in the "Wizard of Oz" as Dorothy, is a great example of how the star system was used. The audience loved her presence on the screen as she was always given a role in musicals as the happy go lucky girl; because of her rich exuberant voice and warm personality. We see much as this still happening to this day, Michael Cera is always the dorky sweet nerd, Jennifer Aniston who is always trying to find love, Kate Hudson is always perky and bubbly, and I could keep going. Whatever the matter is, the strategies film industries use seem to work, making them in to billion dollar industries.
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