This was not the case in the early days of film, however.

Instead, the studios either owned or worked in close collaboration with movie theatres, the vast majority of which had only one screen at the time. Instead of being able to choose which movie one wanted to see upon arriving at the theatre, choosing a movie meant choosing which studio's latest picture seemed most appealing, and going to that theatre. The Warner brothers did not have a lot of money to build theatres with; they managed to construct a few in major cities, but that was it until Harry Warner talked to independent theatre owners and convinced them to advertise Warner's films for a small price (BOS 2).

The boost that Warner Brothers Studios got from these advertisements allowed them to grow their business, and even obtain a large loan from Goldman Sachs that was used to build more...
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