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20 ^> <^ <^> The Motion Picture Industry
compete with this situation that Famous Players-Lasky Corporation acquired theaters. The second important reason for this development at this time was the desire on the part of distributors to exploit films before they had been released generally. The theater holdings of Loew's and Fox were probably acquired largely with this purpose in view. It may fairly be said that by 1925 the industry had reached a period of temporary stabilization. The leading producers had acquired their own branches for film distribution. There had been some theater acquisition designed particularly to give a guaranteed outlet for pictures or for exploitation, but these purposes were demonstrated to be most effectively fulfilled in the larger theaters where the earning power was greater,10 with the result that between 1921 and 1925 there appeared to be a decrease in the number and control of affiliated theaters. The independent producers, distributors, and exhibitors still held an important position in the industry. Independent chains of theaters were growing in number and in size,11 but their affiliation with producer-distributors had not occurred on any large scale. Not only were production, distribution, and exhibition reasonably well established, but the product itself had become stabilized. The feature picture had universally displaced the short one and two-reel melodramas. There had, it is true, been some minor technical improvements developed and some new types of stories added to the repertoire of motion pictures by some producers, but in general one is led to believe that the limitations of the silent feature picture had been realized by 1925. The problems connected with developments from 1925 to 1931 will be discussed in subsequent chapters much more completely than it is either necessary
10 This is in contrast to the present-day tendency to build theaters of moderate size, except in a very few large centers of population.
11 The number of independent theater chains in 1920 has been given as 571, while the total number in 1925 is listed as 1,500. This increase seems to have been caused chiefly by the small independent exhibitor, who had expanded his local operations to include several theaters located in towns in the immediate vicinity of his original house.