Film List Hollywood 50s 

Around 1959, the American film industry entered the worst crisis in its history. The boom of television from 1947 weakened Hollywood more than the war before. 6000 movie theaters had to close, finally the loss of the industry amounted to more than 6 million dollars. The supreme court caused another devastating judgement because the big studios were forced to sell their cinema chains. Companies like MGM thus lost their most secure sales opportunities. From then on the privatized cinemas enjoyed the freedom to no longer exclusively accept the productions of the corporations. Already during the 50s the cinema tried to meet the competition of television with attractions. The production of cheap black-and-white films was almost completely stopped by the studios in favour of expensive material. Although the attempt to produce three-dimensional films failed due to the resistance of the audience, a number of widescreen methods prevailed. The robe was the first Cinemascope film and beat the box office records of all earlier productions. The length of the films grew, the expenditure of extras, costumes and buildings exceeded every known measure. But a number of independent producers could establish themselves next to the majors; not with colossal movies, but with interesting material that paid off faster. The most successful were the companies of director Stanley Kramer as well as the actors Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster and Henry Fonda. The United Artists, the distributor for independent productions, became the most powerful company of its time - even though he had been on the verge of bankruptcy in 1951. In the end they arranged themselves with the television as well as with the independent producers and it succeeded gradually to become master over the crisis: Older movies were released for television, big studios also rented their facilities to independents and in the end even produced TV series themselves. In 1961 the income exceeded the record year 1947 again for the first time.