The way Hollywood operated during its heyday was vastly different than how it currently does. The Studio System was a business structure. One where the production and distribution of films were dominated by a small number of large movie studios.
The largest studios, dubbed “The Big Five,” were Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, RKO Radio Pictures, and 20th Century Fox. They dominated the movie business with huge distribution channels and theatre ownership across the country. Universal Pictures, United Artists, and Columbia Pictures were also major studios that instituted the same practices as the Big Five. However, they simply didn’t have the same reach and influence as The Big Five.
In the Golden Age of Hollywood, studios discovered their own stars and signed them to multi-year contracts. A weekly salary could range anywhere from around $200 to over $7,000…