The history of MGM development in United States

1. Creating a Film Empire

In p>1924, new york's projection tycoon Marcus Loy decided to buy two well-run Hollywood studios, Mitro Film Company and Godwin Film Company. As a result, hundreds of cinemas owned by his Loy Company had a stable film source, and he also got the mascot of Godwin Company, Leon the Lion. However, this has created a new problem, that is, there is no one to take care of the Hollywood business for him. His assistant Nicholas Sink is a good candidate, but the chain cinemas in new york can't do without him.

On April 16th, this year, Marcus Loy solved this problem once and for all, and he bought the famous company of Louis Meyer in independent filmmakers. The production and distribution of the new company MGM (short for the names of Mitro, Godwin and Meyer) on the west coast was entrusted to Louis Meyer, and Marcus Loy was happy to sit in new york and continue to expand his cinema chain.

Louis Meyer first found himself a helper, Irving Thalberg, who is known as Pastime, and then canceled many shooting plans and moved them to the company's big studio in Carver. At this time, the company's biggest shooting project is Ben Hur, which has been filmed in Rome for several months and seems endless. It has become the most expensive film in Hollywood's history, but Louis Meyer turned bad things into good things, and with this film, MGM's reputation for producing high-quality films was established.

In just one year, Louis Meyer made MGM surpass Universal and become the number one studio in Hollywood. After a quarter of a century, MGM dominated this position and did not loosen. In 1927, Marcus Loy died, and William Fox, the founder of Fox Company, thought it was time to build a movie empire and prepared to buy MGM.

In 1929, with the consent of Nicholas Sink, the successor of Marcus Loy, William Fox bought the shares of MGM in the hands of the Loy family, which was a blow to Louis Meyer and Irving Thalberg, because they had no equity in the company and could be swept out of the house at any time. Louis Meyer decided to fight back. Through his old relationship with the Ministry of Justice, he sued William Fox for violating the anti-monopoly law. In the end, the acquisition failed, and Louis Meyer kept his position. Nicholas Sink was furious at this, and for the next 3 years, relations between new york and Hollywood, two major divisions of MGM, were tense.

In Hollywood, Louis Meyer and Irving Thalberg have shown their talents. They are well versed in audience psychology and are committed to making large-scale films. Greta garbo, john gilbert, Norma Sheila and joan crawford were already in the company, and they recruited Ron Qian Ning and buster keaton from other companies. After entering the era of sound films, they excavated a number of stars such as clark gable, robert montgomery and Jane Harlow.

Because most of Marcus Loy's cinemas are in new york and cities in the northeast, MGM's moviegoers live in cities, so their films are sophisticated and sophisticated. Even during the Great Depression, MGM did not lose money, which its competitors could not do. Throughout the 193s, MGM was the only company in Hollywood that distributed dividends to shareholders.

in the forties, MGM changed its business strategy, reducing the number of films from 5 to 25, but putting more emphasis on film quality. At this stage, the company discovered stars such as jim carrey, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra, and filmed a large number of hit musical films.

in August p>1951, Louis Meyer was fired. Although he has produced such well-received blockbuster films as A Parisian in new york, Singin' in the Rain and Float Parade. During this period, MGM's most successful film was the musical Kiki, which won MGM the Oscar for Best Film.

in p>1959, MGM made a remake of the epic Ben Hurst, a four-hour blockbuster starring Charles Heston, which was also a great success. MGM has kept this style of large-scale film production since then, and spent the company's main energy on large-scale production, including Wang Zhongwang, Four Horsemen of Revelation and mutiny on the bounty, which all inherited the epic production style of Ben Xu.

second, the road of diversified development

in p>1969, Kirk Kerkorian, an investor from Nevada, acquired MGM in an all-round way. But Kirk Kerkorian seems to be more interested in the property owned by MGM. He even closed the distribution department of MGM in 1973 and handed over the distribution affairs to United States. In 1979, Kirk Kirkrian even announced that MGM had become a hotel company.

all MGM hotels (including MGM Macau and MGM Golden Hall in Las Vegas) are casino hotels under MGM International Hotels Group, and its founder Kirk Kerkorian was once the owner of MGM Company.

MGM Grand, the largest hotel group in Las Vegas, was originally called MGM Golden Palace Group, and was renamed MGM Group after acquiring Mandalay Resort Group and MirageResorts. Its hotels include Stone Sword Hotel, Treasure Island Hotel, Mandalay Bay Hotel, Belladji Ou Hotel, MGM Hotel and New new york Hotel.

MGM Hotel MGM Hotel is the largest hotel in Las Vegas, and the show in the hotel alone costs nearly 2 million dollars. The lion is the symbol of the hotel. It is said that when the hotel was just completed, the lion's mouth was wide open to show its prestige, but business was not good. It was suggested that the lion's big mouth must give people a bad feeling and avoid it, so the owner of the hotel changed the lion's mouth to slightly open, and the financial resources rolled in. In order to highlight the theme of the lion, the hotel lobby also opened a corner to build a lion garden, and let the lion trainers play with the lion for tourists to watch. Tropical Rainforest Restaurant is also a major feature of It' Hotel. Although its taste is not good, its consumption is not low, but people are constantly flowing, mainly to experience the unique environment here. In order to gain a place in the hotel-lined Las Vegas, each store must make every effort to create their own unique skills, and only by being surprised can they win.

Third, the two movie giants joined forces

In p>1919, United States Company was founded by C. Chaplin (the comedian), D. Van Punk, M. Bickley and D. W. Griffith. The purpose is to get rid of the bondage and exploitation of big film companies and strive for more creative freedom and greater profits. The original idea was only to produce and distribute the works of four founders. Later, due to Griffith's withdrawal, the number of works by Chaplin, Van Punk and others was limited, so the company focused on funding independent filmmakers to make films and distribute their films. United States is different from other film companies at that time. It doesn't have its own studio and needs to rent a venue for filming. There are no movie stars and directors hired by themselves, and they make films by investing in independent filmmakers; Without its own film theater, the distribution of films takes the form of signing contracts with distributors one by one. United States was the first large company to adopt the production and distribution methods popular in the United States in the 196s. This mode of operation and the director's relative independence enabled United States to shoot and distribute some films with certain influence and artistic achievements in addition to entertainment films. For example, The Gold Rush by C. Chaplin (1925), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (194), Stage Life (1952), The Destroyed Flowers by D.W. Griffith (1919) and Going East (192). United States was founded as a small company in new york, and gradually developed into one of the eight major companies in the American film industry from the 192s to the mid-193s. In the 195s, the American film industry entered a period of depression and recession, and Chaplin and Billy successively sold their shares to financial capitalists. Later, United States changed hands several times, and was finally bought by K. Kerkorian, the boss of MGM in 1981, and merged into MGM, renamed MGM-United States Entertainment Company.