2 - Majors

Summary

Finnish feature film production during the studio era was dominated first by one, then by two and finally by three companies. The first was Suomi-Filmi (founded in 1919), the second, Suomen Filmiteollisuus (founded in 1933), and the third, Fennada-Filmi (founded in 1950). While there was always competition not just among but also beyond these three, and while there was sometimes a thin line between the majors and other production companies, in the long run these three stand out as the most powerful and long-lasting. In terms of feature film production, their share was almost 70 per cent of the whole output of films between 1920 and 1963. Of the 619 feature films made during these years, Suomen Filmiteollisuus produced 237, Suomi-Filmi 142 and Fennada 53. This leaves a total of 187 films to the dozens of other, smaller and usually short-lived companies.

Unlike in Hollywood, the vertical integration of production, distribution and exhibition was not an absolute necessity for a major company. Of the three majors, Suomi-Filmi and Fennada-Filmi were fully integrated, whereas Suomen Filmiteollisuus concentrated mainly on producing and distributing its own films. This, however, proved to be the weak point for Suomen Filmiteollisuus, when the profitability of feature film production decreased in the late 1950s.

During the heyday of the studio era, however, the majors had other means to secure their oligarchy besides integrating vertically. For example, the majors controlled many of the trade organisations, such as the Finnish Film Producers Union, for which Suomen Filmiteollisuus’s CEO, T. J. Särkkä, acted as the chair from 1945 to 1963, with Suomi-Filmi’s Risto Orko as the vice chair and Fennada’s Mauno Mäkelä as his successor. Most other powerful film organisations, like the Finnish Film Chamber and the Finnish Cinema Owners’ Association had representatives from the majors, too. This means that, even if competition between the majors was harsh and the relations between the chief executives, especially between Orko and the other two, distant at best, it was in their common interest to pull together when necessary.

Vertical integration was thus an important if not entirely necessary means of achieving and maintaining power in film production. Generally, it was useful for a company to spread its tentacles everywhere, be it in production, distribution and exhibition, or laboratory services, film organisations, importing film equipment and making short films. Overall, one can say that the majors were majors simply because they were.