Why were more movies made in Hollywood before than there are today?

I've heard that Hollywood made more movies per year decades ago than they do today. Is this true? Any stats?Why were more movies made in Hollywood before than there are today?Yes, it's true.

The reason it's true is that from the 1920s on up to the mid-1970s, Hollywood had several major studios and several minor studios cranking out several features a week, every week of the year.---They were less expensive to make, the studios had standing sets and backlots with thousands of props and costumes available, and hundreds upon hundreds of actors under contract. The studios controlled the product from beginning to end, including distribution and exhibition.

Movies were incredibly popular with audiences, since their only competition was radio for more than half of the period mentioned, and folks used to go out to a movie several times a week, and each visit to a theater included two movies, a couple of short subjects, a cartoon or two and a newsreel.

With the advent of television, movie-going slacked off a bit, studios lost the control and ownership of most of their theater chains, the cost of making movies jumped way up, so the studios that survived tried to base all their earnings on big-budget films, rather than smaller second-features and added attractions---actors began to prefer working on a film-by-film basis, rather than under contract to one studio, independent film-makers began making a real impact with audiences, and eventually, the studio system pretty much crumbled into nothing, and Hollywood became the capital of television production, rather than movies.

When you hear "Hollywood" used to describe the American film industry, it's habit, not necessarily factual. The corporate offices of the industry are often in Hollywood, or in New York, but movies are made all over the US these days.