Independent film makers and Manchester
Releases a substantial number of films annually
A major film studio is a movie production and distribution company that releases a substantial number of films annually and consistently commands a significant share of box-office revenues in a given market. In the North American, Western, and global markets, the major film studios, often simply known as the majors, are commonly regarded as the six diversified media conglomerates whose various movie production and distribution subsidiaries command approximately 90 percent of the U.S. and Canadian box office. The term may also be applied more specifically to the primary movie business subsidiary of each respective conglomerate. The "Big Six" majors, whose movie operations are based in or around Hollywood, are all centered in film studios active during Hollywood's Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s. In three cases-20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and Paramount-the studios were one of the "Big Five" majors during that era as well. In two cases-Columbia and Universal-the studios were also considered majors, but in the next tier down, part of the "Little Three." In the sixth case, Walt Disney Studios was an independent production company during the Golden Age; it was an important Hollywood entity, but not a major.
Most of today's Big Six also include formerly independent companies that have been acquired and brought in under the corporate umbrella-for instance, Disney's Miramax Films. The majors have also established a variety of specialty divisions to concentrate on arthouse pictures (e.g., Fox Searchlight) or genre films (e.g., Sony's Screen Gems). The six major movie studios are contrasted with smaller movie production and/or distribution companies, which are known as independents or "indies." The leading independent producer/distributors-Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment, and former major studio MGM-are sometimes referred to as "mini-majors," along with fledgling studio Overture Films and the fading Weinstein Company. From 1998 through 2005, DreamWorks SKG commanded a large enough market share to arguably qualify it as a seventh major, despite its relatively small output and frequent reliance on outside distributors. In 2006, DreamWorks was acquired by Viacom, Paramount's corporate parent. In autumn 2008, DreamWorks once again became an independent production company; its films will be distributed by Disney.
The major studios are today primarily backers and distributors of films whose actual production is largely handled by independent companies-either long-running entities or ones created for and dedicated to the making of a specific film. The specialty divisions often simply acquire distribution rights to pictures with which the studio has had no prior involvement. While the majors do a modicum of true production, their activities are focused more in the areas of development, financing, marketing, and merchandising.
An independent film, or indie film, is a film that is produced outside of any major film studio. Originally, this term denoted independence from Paramount Pictures, MGM, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros., RKO, Universal Pictures, United Artists, and Columbia Pictures, the 8 major studio entities which controlled the production, distribution, and exhibition of films in the US from the late 1920s through 1950s. Though its oligopolistic practices were officially ended by the Paramount Decision in 1948, all eight Golden Age Majors continue to exist in one form or another as major Hollywood studio entities through 2009. (Although some have been combined, absorbed, or partnered with others through the decades.) Independent films today are generally defined as American films financed and distributed by sources outside today's Big Six and its subsidiaries.Produced outside of any major film studio
Though film production companies in other countries have at times achieved and maintained full integration in a manner similar to Hollywood's Big Five, the Hollywood system and style remain uniquely American in character and origin. As such, films produced outside the United States are generally qualified as foreign rather than independent.
Metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100. Manchester lies within one of the United Kingdom's largest metropolitan areas; the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester had an estimated population of 2,562,200, the Greater Manchester Urban Area a population of 2,240,230, and the Larger Urban Zone around Manchester, the second-most-populous in the UK, had an estimated population in the 2004 Urban Audit of 2,539,100. The demonym of Manchester is Mancunian.
Manchester is situated in the south-central part of North West England, fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south and the Pennines to the north and east. The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian vicus associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium, which was established c. AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically, most of the city was a part of Lancashire, although areas south of the River Mersey were in Cheshire. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. The urbanisation of Manchester largely coincided with developments in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian era, resulting in it becoming the world's first industrialised city. As the result of an early-19th century factory building boom, Manchester was transformed from a township into a major mill town, borough and was later granted honorific city status in 1853.
Forming part of the English Core Cities Group, Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce, factors all contributing to Manchester polling as the second city of the United Kingdom in 2002. In a poll of British business leaders published in 2006, Manchester was regarded as the best place in the UK to locate a business. A report commissioned by Manchester Partnership, published in 2007, showed Manchester to be the "fastest-growing city" economically. In the GaWC global city list, Manchester is ranked as a Gamma city. It is the third-most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors. Manchester was the host of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, and among its other sporting connections are its two Premier League football teams, Manchester United and Manchester City.
