The big 6 and Integration

The big 6 are the 6 dominant holywood film companies which also dominate global cinema.
A company which is owned by another company is called a subsidiary, for example working title is a subsidiary of NBC universal. A conglomerate is the word used for describing a company which owns other companies, for example nbc universal and 20th century fox.

Some people are referring to lions gate entertainment as the seventh conglomerate, and therefore referring to the big 6 as the 'big 7' instead.

there are two types of intergration:
1. vertical integration- this is when one conglomerate is able to control all 3 stages of the film business, the 3 stages are production, distribution and exhibition.
2. horizontal integration- subsiduries from the same indistry which mutually benifit each other, within one conglomerate. For example Avatar is produced by 20th century fox, the marketing of the film was benifited by the advertisement of  The Sun news paper as they both come from the same conglomerate [News Coperation]