MOVIE HISTORY: THE BIRTH OF “THE STUDIO“ Source: Showwatcher.com @scripped The Studios. A term often used to lump together the people that make movies. But who are “The Studios” anyway? The major studios which produce films on their own lots and distribute them are referred to as “The Big Six”: Warner Bros., Universal, Fox, Paramount, Disney (aka Buena Vista), and Columbia (Sony). They each produce anywhere from 15 to 28 movies a year on average. They control %90 of the box office in the U.S. and Canada. Today there is also the big 5 “mini majors” which take in between 1 to 4.1 % of the remaining box office. These are: Summit, Dimension (the Weinsteins), Lions Gate, MGM, and of course DreamWorks. Basically, just about every movie you see in a theatre is made by these “studios”. If you want to see a movie made by one of the several hundred other production companies, check out youtube, Netflix, or the bargain bin at Wal-Mart. Let’s go back to the beginning of this big six film production monopoly to when it all began. What was the very first movie studio ever built? It was Thomas Edison’s Black Maria Studio. One day in December of 1892, construction began on the world’s first building that was to be used specifically for the purpose of making moving pictures. About six months later in May of 1893, the studio was completed at the low cost of $637.67. By today’s standards with inflation adjustment, that would have been around 15 to 16 thousand dollars, or the cost of a tank of gas. Very cheap indeed. Those men must have worked for pennies a week. The studio was built out of wood on the property of Edison’s own laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey. It was covered with black tar paper to keep the sun out, but also had a huge window on the roof. The window worked like a turntable and could be turned to keep up with the moving sun. Filming then began for the first film strips to be viewed with Edison’s invention, the Kinetoscope. The very first film ever made was a 34 second test strip of men pretending to be blacksmiths hammering away. It was directed by Edison’s employee William K.L. Dickson, the first film director ever, who is also credited with the invention of the motion picture camera, under Edison’s direction of…….”
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MOVIE HISTORY: THE BIRTH OF “THE STUDIO“


Source: Showwatcher.com @scripped

The Studios. A term often used to lump together the people that make movies. But who are “The Studios” anyway? The major studios which produce films on their own lots and distribute them are referred to as “The Big Six”: Warner Bros., Universal, Fox, Paramount, Disney (aka Buena Vista), and Columbia (Sony). They each produce anywhere from 15 to 28 movies a year on average. They control %90 of the box office in the U.S. and Canada. Today there is also the big 5 “mini majors” which take in between 1 to 4.1 % of the remaining box office. These are: Summit, Dimension (the Weinsteins), Lions Gate, MGM, and of course DreamWorks. Basically, just about every movie you see in a theatre is made by these “studios”. If you want to see a movie made by one of the several hundred other production companies, check out youtube, Netflix, or the bargain bin at Wal-Mart.

Let’s go back to the beginning of this big six film production monopoly to when it all began. What was the very first movie studio ever built? It was Thomas Edison’s Black Maria Studio. One day in December of 1892, construction began on the world’s first building that was to be used specifically for the purpose of making moving pictures. About six months later in May of 1893, the studio was completed at the low cost of $637.67. By today’s standards with inflation adjustment, that would have been around 15 to 16 thousand dollars, or the cost of a tank of gas. Very cheap indeed. Those men must have worked for pennies a week. The studio was built out of wood on the property of Edison’s own laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey. It was covered with black tar paper to keep the sun out, but also had a huge window on the roof. The window worked like a turntable and could be turned to keep up with the moving sun.

Filming then began for the first film strips to be viewed with Edison’s invention, the Kinetoscope. The very first film ever made was a 34 second test strip of men pretending to be blacksmiths hammering away. It was directed by Edison’s employee William K.L. Dickson, the first film director ever, who is also credited with the invention of the motion picture camera, under Edison’s direction of…….”