Introduction
The cultural come within reach of to organizations became popular in the 1980s. Basically,
organizational culture is the character of the organization. Culture is included of the assumptions,
values, norms and tangible signs of organization members and their behaviors. As suggested,
there was a need to seek for new methods to study organizations and to find 'subjective' concepts
to replace the old 'objective' concepts in order to understand organizational spirit (Alvesson &
Berg, 1988). Culture became a theoretical tool to cross over the traditional micro- and macrolevel organizational analysis (Morey & Luthans, 1985, 227-228). From an "open-sytems"
perspective, each characteristic of organizational culture can be seen as an important
environmental condition affecting the system and its subsystems. The examination of
organizational culture is also a valuable analytical tool in its own right.
Organizational educators and practitioners raised the notion of organizations as 'mini-cultures'.
This debate encouraged research that explored the complex factors influencing behavior within
organizations. Especially the relationships between non-rational factors and multiple-level
organizational outcomes were explored, and the focus was on the symbolism of organizational
life in general.
The first approaches of organizational culture emphasized its invisibility, whereas nowadays
multiple methodologies and methods of analysis and interpretations are accepted. Exploring
organizational cultures and their gendered nature means making them visible (Aaltio & Mills,
2002, forthcoming). Culture debate opened a way to study organizations as cultures: this means,
to profoundly enlighten them, their financial basis, their organizational structures, and their
management in terms of culture.
Movie Industry
The Movie Industry is one of most exciting and informative businesses in the world, a business
where the revenue of a single feature film (such as Titanic), can approach or exceed $1 billion. In
2001, worldwide gross revenues generated by motion pictures in all territories and media
(including music and ancillaries) amounted to over $40 billion. Over 70% of the population rents
or goes to movies regularly, thus accounting for over 1.5 billion movie attendances each year in
the U.S.
Prior to 1985, feature motion pictures had one major source of revenue in the United States and
abroad: the movie theater. Today much of the world is undergoing a mass communications
revolution; hence, new movie markets (such as home video, cable and pay-per-view) have been
growing so rapidly that they are no longer just ancillary markets to the basic theatrical market but
have become basic markets in themselves.
Industry statistics reveal that the past ten years have marked an overall increase of at least 30%
in many "ancillary markets" and, over 200%, as in the case of home video. The ability to exploit
a movie in many markets diminishes investment risk and increases earning potential. In many
instances, low budget movies have lost money theatrically and still earned profits overall from
ancillary sales.
With the advent of the new computer-based technologies, "cable" markets and direct digitaldelivery of motion pictures via satellite and the Internet are expected to increase dramatically
over the next five years, creating an accelerated demand for original and re-run motion pictures.
The worldwide market for the sale and exploitation of feature motion pictures is divided into
"territories" and "media." The territories are divided into two major regions known as "foreign
territories" and "domestic territories." The broad foreign territories are Europe, "AustralAsia,"
Latin America, Eastern Europe and Others (that include Israel, the Middle East, South Africa and
Turkey). The United States and Canada are usually grouped together and referred to as the
"domestic territory," from the point of view of the United States.
The current "media" by which feature motion pictures are delivered to the territories includes
movie theaters, home video cassettes, cable TV (monthly subscription and pay-per-view), direct
broadcast satellite TV, free broadcast TV (Network and Syndication), and ancillaries (such as
airlines and libraries).
According to a study conducted by Monitor Co., the movie and television industries contributed
over $16 billion to the State of California's economy, directly employing 164,000 and indirectly
employing another 184,000. The study also found that the vast majority of feature films and
television programs are produced by independent producers. Independent production is
becoming more prevalent in other areas of the United States, especially Nevada, North Carolina
and the Tri-State Area (of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania).
Competition
There are thousands of screenplays in development at any given time, however each year only
450 to 500 of these are produced into 35mm motion pictures. Although the majority undergo
principal photography in the United States, aproximately 60 to 80 are shot offshore (including
Mexico and Canada). Of these approximately one-third come from the major studios (also
known as the MPAA companies), and approximately two-thirds from the "independents."
"Independents" are those companies engaged in the production and/or distribution worldwide in
all media of all motion picture and television programs that are not generated by the recognized
major studios. It includes those independent productions, even those distributed by a major
studio, in which the producer retains a significant ownership interest and is at risk for a
significant portion of the production cost.
Of the 450 to 500 features produced each year, less than half recieve a theatrical release. Thus a
significant number of features do not get a theatrical release but are released directly to home
video and other media. There were over 350 features released in 1998 by major and mini-major
studios as compaired to about 290 in 1997.
Producing and/or financing the above product are approximately 7 major studios (8 if you count
DreamWorks SKG), 16 mini-major studios, 50 to 80 major independent production companies
and over 1,750 smaller independent production companies, many of which may never produce
even one feature or produce only one feature every two or more years.
Including the major studios, there are over 600 entities that directly or indirectly distribute
feature motion pictures to the various worldwide markets (with approximately 350 specializing
in foreign territories and approximately 250 specializing in domestic territories). Of these,
approximately 225 companies distribute motion pictures to the theatrical markets, 250 to home
video, 310 to television, 70 to pay-per-view and 95 to the syndication markets.
Exhibiting the above feature output are 4 major television networks, 37 cable channels (of which
6 or 7 are major cable networks) and hundreds of independent stations in the United States.