Why old movies are filmed in studios instead of real places?!
Question: Most new movies are also filmed in studios and not real places. And then those that are filmed in real places usually only do the exterior shots there and do the interior shots in a studio hundreds of miles away. There are several movies that do fully utilize filming 'on location' but the majority still film inside a studio or on a lot. A great example is 'Cabin Fever'. Looks like it's really in the woods but it's really in a warehouse. The new movie 'Bug' takes place in a motel in the desert but they built the motel room inside a high school gym! Also, if you ever watch 'Ghost Whisper' on CBS/Fridays, you'll notice the 'town square' is the exact same 'town square' in the movie 'Back To The Future'. They were both filmed on the same 'lot'. Great question! ;P
Answers: Most new movies are also filmed in studios and not real places. And then those that are filmed in real places usually only do the exterior shots there and do the interior shots in a studio hundreds of miles away. There are several movies that do fully utilize filming 'on location' but the majority still film inside a studio or on a lot. A great example is 'Cabin Fever'. Looks like it's really in the woods but it's really in a warehouse. The new movie 'Bug' takes place in a motel in the desert but they built the motel room inside a high school gym! Also, if you ever watch 'Ghost Whisper' on CBS/Fridays, you'll notice the 'town square' is the exact same 'town square' in the movie 'Back To The Future'. They were both filmed on the same 'lot'. Great question! ;P
Budgets
Transportation problems
Old movies were filmed in studios because the Hollywood film industry during the 1920s to the 1950s was structured as a "studio system" in which the big companies were involved in all aspects of filmmaking: production, distribution, and exhibition.
Directors and actors could only work for whatever studio they had signed a contract with, unless the studios made special arrangements with each other to "lend" stars.
The movies were shot on sets owned exclusively by the companies.
Studios also owned the theatres as well in which their movies played. In other words, the studios had a lot more power than they do today.
The companies that made up this studio system in the past were Fox (now known as 20th Century Fox), Loews Inc. (which was the parent company for MGM), Paramount, RKO and Warner Bros. Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures also existed back then but were smaller and didn't own as many theatres. United Artists owned a few theaters and had 2 production facilities, but were more of a backer-distributor that loaned money to independent producers and releasing their films.
In the 1950s, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against this system (due to many problems which arose over the years), and effectively broke the monopoly which the studios had, leaving them only with their involvement in the distribution of films. After that, the studios no longer shot their own movies, "owned" their own "stables" talent, or owned the theaters in which the movies were played.
Today, many of these studios still exist but as part of large conglomerate of companies, and are only involved with distribution (e.g. Columbia is part of Sony, etc.). Basically smaller production companies (e.g. Castle Rock Entertainment, New Line Cinema, etc.) sell their work to these larger conglomerates to distribute. You'll notice that in many cases, a movie may be distributed by more than one studio.
Also, actors and directors are represented by agents rather than being locked into contracts with studios.
Disney, which came into prominence after the studio system, is probably the only company which is somewhat directly involved in producing their own work as they actually have their own sets.
Too much hassle to do it in the real place. You need permits, you need to transport all the crew (100's of people), the actors and the equipment. Then you have to worry about the people who actually live there.
I'm from DC and I've seen plenty of film crews come through my neighborhood (Capitol Hill) trying to film movies. They wanted to close our street down, tell us when we could and couldn't drive up to our own homes, walk through our own neighborhoods. Even when we reached an agreement with them, then neighbors started inviting their extended families over to catch a glimpse of a star. You also have the issue of security, weather and other unforeseeable issues.
lol I just noticed your question said "old movies." I've typed too much to start over. Hopefully this answers the question of NEW movies. lol