Despite consolidation by the majors, film production in the 1980s showed a healthy diversity. In part, this was due to the ancillary markets that voraciously demanded new product. But it was due as well to the robust energy of American film culture and the inherent requirements of film production.

Studio executives aimed to rationalize their capital expenditures, and this impulse had considerable institutional support in the industry. Talent agencies took "packages" to the studios. These commanded a hefty fee, but they enabled studio executives to justify the decision to green-light a production. Market research also helped guide executive decision making, though the industry remained quite secretive about the extent to which it used such research. Film projects were concept tested before scripts were written, and scripts were subjected to focus group evaluation to predict audience responses to the hypothetical film. Based on this testing, scripts could...