and directors were no more. Many of the studios sold off their backlots as valuable California real estate. The studios were quickly being taken over by multi-national companies, with the deaths of movie studio big shots such as Louis B. Mayer of MGM and Harry Cohn of Columbia. The traditional, Hollywood studio era would soon be history, as more and more studios were acquired by other conglomerates, and the age of "packaged" films and the independent producer began. In 1962, the growing entertainment conglomerate MCA acquired Universal Studios, a merger that would have lasting influence on show business. In 1966, Gulf Western Industries bought Paramount - setting off a buying/selling frenzy of other major conglomerates investing and trading in studios and networks. New Line Cinema was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as a privately-held distributor of art films. In 1967, Jack Warner (co-creator of the famous studio) sold his interest in Warner Bros. to a Canadian production and distribution corporation called Seven Arts, and the company was re-named Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. The new company acquired Atlantic Records, but being debt-laden, was sold in 1969 to Kinney National Services Incorporated. MGM was acquired by the Las Vegas financier Kirk Kerkorian in 1970.The 1970s was a creative high point in the US film industry and Hollywood was renewed and reborn - it was also a box-office-oriented decade, with the average ticket for a film in 1978 costing about $2.50. Hollywood's economic crises in the 1950s and 1960s, especially during the war against the lure of television, were somewhat eased with the emergence in the 70s. Summer "blockbuster" movies marketed to mass audiences, especially following the awesome success of 27 year-old Steven Spielberg's Jaws, in 1975 and 33 year-old George Lucas' Star Wars, in 1977. Although the budget for Jaws grew from $4 million to $9 million during production, it became the highest grossing film in histo...
