[custom_adv]
During that time there was effectively a monopoly in the movie business where the major movie studios (such as Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and a few others) would have contracts with actors, writers, and directors which stipulated that they could only work with their studio. They paid them salaries, as opposed to negotiating rates for individual movies. These companies could also give priority to their own films at the theaters they owned.
