Market Control

       Competition is the driving force of the American economy.  The more competition a business can eliminate, the greater chance of success they will have.  This is what the Classic Hollywood System (CHS) created with its market control system.  If they could slim the competition down to just five major studios and only a few minor studios, the industry would become a lot less complex and easier to run and make a profit.

       The studios started focusing on certain genres of movies, i.e. Warner Brothers and gangster films, as well as MGM and musicals.  With all of the studios focusing on their own genres, they each had their own market; and, in a way, weren't competing with each other as much as they were competing for the approval of the American public.  This eventually led to studios signing on actors and directors and sharing them with each other for a small sum of cash, that way no other competition would be brought into the market.  The idea was that if Warner Brothers would continue to make their gangster films, MGM would continue to make their musicals, and all of the other studios focused on their own genres, then they all would be targeting a different audience base, eliminating competition.  This also allowed the studios to share their actors with each other. They knew that if in one film they lent an actor to another studio then maybe in the next film that studio would lend an actor to them.  The studios found that they could do more than simply coexist; with the help of each other, they could thrive more than ever before.

       A modern day juxtaposition of Humphrey Bogart would be Denzel Washington.  Although not every movie of Washington's is an urban gangster film like Bogart's typically were, they both have a certain character type associated with them.  In the 21st century, you will not see a movie starring Denzel Washington as a weak, feeble character. Bogart too was positively type-cast, he always played the role of the stubborn man who didn't give in to anyone or anything.  That is why Bogart was such a trademark of Warner Brothers films.  In his twenty-eight year acting career, he was in seventy-seven films, almost all being Warner Brothers.  The last five movies that Denzel Washington has starred in have all been from different producers.  The Big Five studios all had genres that they were associated with and actors that went hand in hand with those movies.  Back then, unlike today, these actors were used in movie after movie by the same production company.