Hollywood: Institution Analysis

Hollywood, also known as the cinema of the United States, has had a massive effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. It's history can be separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period. Since the 1920s, the American film industry has grossed more money every year than any other country.

The United States was heading the sound film development in the 1920s. Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has in most parts been situated in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and also in other states. Picture City, Florida, was also a planned site for a movie picture production center in the 1920s, but because of the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, the idea was discarded and Picture City returned to its original name of Hobe Sound. Director D. W. Griffith was an important figure to the development of film grammar. Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) is mentioned many times in critics' polls as the greatest film of all time. Renowned American screen actors like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe are now iconic figures, while producer and entrepreneur Walt Disney became a leader in the animated film area and movie merchandising. 
The major film studios of Hollywood are the main sources of the most money making movies in the world, such as Gone with the Wind (1939), Star Wars (1977), Titanic (1997), and Avatar (2009). At present, American film studios collectively generate several hundred movies per year, making the United States the third producer of films in the world with the most productive capacity. The first is India and Nigeria is second.

Hollywood has given recognition to many remarkable directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Copolla, James Cameron, Martin Scorcese, Roman Polanski, Tim Burton, David Fincher, Christopher Nolan and the list goes on.  

Universal Pictures (sometimes called Universal City Studios or Universal Studios for short), is a subsidiary of NBC Universal, which is one of the six major movie studios in the United States.

It was establish in 1912 by Carl Laemmle and is one of the oldest American movie studios still producing movies continuously. The controlling venture in the company was sold by Vivendi Universal to NBC, formerly General Electric, on May 11, 2004, and the resulting tremendous media conglomerate was renamed NBC Universal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. Apart from owning a massive film library and containing the earliest decades of cinema to more contemporary works, it also owns a massive collection of TV shows through its subsidiary NBC Universal Television Distribution. It also gained rights to numerous well-known filmmakers' works initially released by other studios through its subsidiaries over the years.

Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City. Universal Pictures is the second oldest Hollywood studio. Paramount Pictures is the oldest by a month.

Universal Studios is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company. It is located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. It was founded in 1912 and is at present owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio. It is also the only major film studio still having its headquarters in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount is consistently ranked as one of the largest (top-grossing) movie studios.

Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (CPII) is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures is now a subsidies of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group which is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies in the world and is numbered in the top six film companies. It was one of the minor three studios among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

It was founded in 1919 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Joe Brandt. Its first feature film was released in August 1922. It took on the Columbia Pictures name in 1924 and went public two years after that. The name is derived from "Columbia", which is a National epitome of the United States, which is used as the company's logo.

It was a minor player in its early years in Hollywood and began to grow in the late 1920s, encouraged by a successful association with director Frank Capra.

With the help of Frank Capra and others, Columbia erupted as one of the main home of the "Screwball" comedy. During the 1930s, some of Columbia's major actors were Jean Arthur and Cary Grant (who was shared with RKO Pictures). In the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studio's leading star and boosting their fortunes into the late 1950s. Other actors who became major stars at the studio include Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford, and William Holden.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros.  is an American producer of film and television entertainment.

It is one of the major film studios and is a subsidiary of Time Warner. Its headquarters are located in Burbank, California and New York. Warner Bros. has numerous subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, TheWB.com, and DC Comics. Warner owns half of The CW Television Network.

Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

(All information and data on Hollywood and the Studios mentioned have been taken from wikipedia.com)