Highest-Paid Stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, Eddie Murphy, Kevin Costner, Harrison Ford, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Demi Moore, Julia Roberts These types of stars were often given special treatments such as, approving scripts, approving images used for publicity, restrictions to film time etc. The major one was final cut approval.

Home Viewing The VCR was still popular in most households and rentals/purchase of videotapes were big business - much larger than sales of movie theater tickets. By 1997, the first DVDs had emerged in stores, featuring sharper resolution pictures, better quality and durability than videotape, interactive extras, and more secure copy-protection. In just a few years, sales of DVD players and the shiny discs multiplied and would surpass the sale of VCRs and videotapes.

Changes in The Major Studios: 1990: Warner Communications and Time Inc. merged to form Time/Warner, the largest communications merger to date, at a cost of $14 billion. 1991: Brandon Tartikoff chaired Paramount (until replaced by Sherry Lansing in 1992). 1994: Viacom bought Paramount Pictures after a bidding war with USA Networks/QVC. Disney became the first studio to gross $1 billion at the box office. Showtime Networks and Castle Rock Entertainment entered into a multi-year, 50-picture exclusive output deal. 1995: Seagram bought MCA/Universal from Matsushita for $5.7 billion and renamed it Universal Studios. Disney bought the ABC Network. 1996: Time/Warner acquired Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), including its cable TV stations and its extensive film library. 1997: Orion Pictures was sold to MGM.

DreamWorks- The new comer First new Hollywood studio in many decades, DreamWorks, was formed in October 1994 as the brainchild of director-producer Steven Spielberg, ex- Disney executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, and film producer/music industry giant David Geffen. The studio's first theatrical release was first-time feature director Mimi Leder's The Peacemaker (1997) starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. Their first real hit was also their first film to be nominated for Best Picture - Saving Private Ryan (1998). In addition to producing films, DreamWorks also produced TV shows (Spin City, Freaks & Geeks, The Job, Undeclared), and music, including the soundtracks to DreamWorks films and record deals with popular artists. One of the new issues that all studios and other media industries had to confront was the pirating of films, and the illegal sharing/swapping of MPEG music files.

Trends in the 90s: Films with Serious Themes ‘homelessness, the Holocaust, AIDS, feminism, and racism, while making bottom-line profits.’ The Silence of the Lambs (1991), a chilling thriller about serial kill Hannibal Lector and a young agent seeking help from the psychopath to catch another psychopath named Buffalo Bill. This film Swept FIVE Oscars (picture, director, actor, actress and writer). It was the first horror to be honored. The immensely popular box-office hit Forrest Gump (1994) by director Robert Zemeckis looked back on the 60s and Vietnam War era through the eyes of a slow- witted Everyman (Best Actor-winning Tom Hanks with his second Oscar win)