If, as Joan Didion has written, the deal is the true art form of
Hollywood, the masters of this art are the tax shelter specialists.
MARIE BRENNER, JOURNALIST, 1977

The American film industry changed more between 1969 and 1980 than at any other period in its history except, perhaps, for the coming of sound. Changes in the style and content of the movies themselves, remarkable though they were, barely hinted at the deep structural alterations in the way films were conceived, produced, and distributed from the beginning to the end of the decade. During that time, profits for the most successful motion pictures rose from the hundreds of thousands to the hundreds of millions of dollars. Production dropped off sharply as studios came to shape their schedules around a handful of potential blockbusters or "event" movies-any one of which could produce windfall profits...