Now there’s some food for thought… The Exorcist could have been the first modern blockbuster, it had all the ingredients, only it was one year too early, the immediate precursor before they tried what they did with Jaws.

Yes they did, indeedy!

Take MGM during the heyday of the old studio system, it had almost 30 soundstages on the lot, always active or under construction and would be cranking films out constantly, and that doesn’t include location shooting around the wildly different environments near LA - deserts and chaparral, forests and mountains, etc.

Now add to that Warner, RKO (later renamed to Universal), Paramount, United Artists, etc.
Directors and stars were under contract for wages, would be in several films each and every year.

Now add to that all the lower budget studios cranking out cheap-o b-movies, mostly horror and noir.

I think you mean jeans.

Father of Indy, you throw me the whip, I throw you the idol!