There are several reasons why the 1920-1960 period is widely considered the golden age of Hollywood. The transformation that American cinema went through in those years set the foundation for the industry as we know it today.

The ‘Big Five’ and the ‘Little Three’ studios integrated the whole process of movie-making, promotion, and distribution in their work process and that gave way to the American ‘production line’ approach to cinema ‒ only between 1930 and 1945, the studio system produced more than 7,500 features, of which every stage from conception through exhibition was carefully controlled.