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EntertainmentIndustry.name
The power grid of Hollywood is in perpetual flux with a few constants: he who holds the gold makes the rules.
Probably at the top of anyone’s analysis of the food chain would be the corporate mogul billionaires that run media empires such as Rupert Murdoch who founded New Corporation which owns 20th Century Fox and Summer Redstone who controls Viacom.
Below that, it gets pretty murky with heavy hitters in each arena. But, we’ll oversimplify for the purposes of a streamlined illustration (so this doesn’t turn into a treatise on the power structure of Hollywood).
Next in line of the power elite could be argued to be the studio executives with their power to greenlight films. Backed by their respective studios’ deep pockets, extensive facilities, promotion and distribution power and generations of rich and intertwined relationships to mine, they have the ability to wine and dine — and persuade and woo — seemingly ceaselessly.
The volatile nature of the industry, however, doesn’t allow for very long tenure in these stressfully insecure posts.
Recommended Reading about the evolving power of women in the industry: anything by Linda Seger, but in reference to this point: When Women Call the Shots: The Developing Power and Influence of Women in Television and Film and Rachel Abramowitz’s Is That A Gun In Your Pocket?: Women’s Experience of Power in Hollywood.
A typical studio executive earns $70,000 — $400,000 a year, not including a $500 — $1,200 car allowance and a seemingly infinite expense account for infinite wining, dining and gift giving to project the right image. Between meetings all day and night, they attend screenings, premieres and watch movies constantly on top of reading coverage and stacks of scripts (often going home every Friday with ten or more home for the weekend read). The stress from the high stakes game of risk-and-reward Roulette causes incredibly high turnover as burnout is high and job security virtually non-existent.
It takes two to three years as an assistant at $300 a week and three to four years to work your way up the ladder to an executive position.
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