Film theories

As Hanseen (2007) summarised, 'The Hollywood studio system era' of vertical integration that impacted production, distribution and exhibition (because the major companies owned the cinemas) came to an end in 1948; "when the USA Supreme Court issued its famous Paramount decision. The Paramount consent decree required the divestiture of affiliated cinema chains and the abandonment of a number of vertical practices"

As McDougall (2008) summarised, five major distribution companies dominate the UK film industry:
- United International Pictures
- Warner Brothers
- Buena Vista
- 20th Century Fox
- Sony
None of these distribution companies are British, approximately 9/10 films seen in UK cinemas have been distributed by these Hollywood companies. In the majority of cases, these companies are either the same company who produced the film or are directly linked to the Hollywood production companies who made the film (vertical integration). Although the Paramount 1948 Supreme Court ruling now prevents these companies from owning the cinemas used for exhibition, films distributed by these Hollywood companies are still prioritized (for reasons of long term and short term profit) over films produced/distributed by independent companies e.g. Hollywood films generally gross more than a independent film and also because they make more films than independent companies cinemas can make more each year through supporting Hollywood films than they would if they started prioritizing independent films over Hollywood releases (doing this might prompt Hollywood to stop using this chain which would obviously impact profit for the cinema).