Marilyn Monroe Vs. the System: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of Her Production Company

Marilyn Monroe at a London press conference at the Savoy Hotel, prior to filming THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, 1956 - — Everett Collection

What To Know

Marilyn Monroe founded her own production company in 1955 to gain creative and financial control over her career.
After a public battle with Fox, Monroe secured a groundbreaking contract that allowed her profit-sharing, story selection, and approval of directors and cinematographers, marking a major victory over the studio system.

America first laid eyes on Marilyn Monroe when she graced the cover of The Family Circle magazine in April 1946, smiling at the camera while clutching a lamb. Over the decade that followed, Monroe cut a blinding path to cultural immortality, as the Los Angeles native evolved from silver screen bit player in Dangerous Years (1947) to her big break in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and eventually toplining turns in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) that, as producer Darryl F. Zanuck noted, made her “a star in every sense of the word.”

Monroe’s success was a double-edged sword, as her sultry appeal resulted in typecasting, and while she made efforts to control her public image, every forward step was countered by Twentieth Century-Fox’s “blond bombshell” promotional tactics tethered to each new film. Compounding the issue was her contract with Fox, signed in 1946 and unchanged since 1950, that had her locked into a $1,500-a-week salary that belied her growing celebrity and importance to studio revenue.

In late 1954, Monroe turned her back on the Hollywood system, divorced problematic ballplayer Joe DiMaggio just nine months after their wedding, and moved to New York to fully invest herself in developing a production company of her own.

THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell, 1955. TM and Copyright ©20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. Courtesy: Everett Collection.

20th Century Fox Film / Courtesy: Everett Collection.

Photographer Milton Greene, who had been shooting now-iconic images of Monroe since their meeting in 1953, was instrumental in helping the star take ownership of her trajectory when the duo, along with lawyer Frank Delaney, laid the foundation for Marilyn Monroe Productions at the lensman’s Connecticut home. As The Seven Year Itch was doing well in theaters in the summer of 1955, Monroe and her team were busy establishing a company intended to guarantee shared earnings, develop films to better showcase the star’s dramatic talents, and keep a handle on how she was being promoted.

Marilyn Monroe Productions (MMP) was unveiled to the world at a news conference at Delaney’s New York home on Jan. 7, 1955, where reporters learned Monroe would serve as president with a 51% share, with the minority ownership falling to Vice President Greene. It was a shock to the industry, and when an enraged Fox finally heard from their star and heard her new demands, they went to war, suing the actor and putting her on suspension. The studio brought a number of proposed contracts to the table, but MMP stuck to their guns, understanding the power they had in Monroe’s vital screen presence.

Milton Greene, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Warner at press conference announcing production of PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, 1957

Everett Collection

On Jan. 5, 1956, almost a year to the day after the MMP press conference, The New York Times ran an article announcing the dispute was over and “ended in victory for the star.” Fox had entered a non-exclusive, seven-year, four-film contract with MMP that provided for Monroe to share in profits from her pictures and gave her the right of story selection and approval over directors and cinematographers. Marilyn Monroe had defeated the studio system.

The first movie sponsored by MMP was Bus Stop in 1956, followed by The Prince and the Showgirl in 1957, for which Monroe won the David di Donatello Award in Italy (equivalent of the Academy Award) for Best Foreign Actress. Monroe was perhaps the best-protected woman in Hollywood, and her very public win over Fox helped change the public’s perception of the actor whom headlines once minimized as a “dumb blonde.”

It wasn’t long before MMP started to unravel. When Monroe met and wed Arthur Miller in the summer of 1956, the playwright set about ushering Greene out of the actor’s professional life, and the MMP partnership ended the following year. While no further films were made in conjunction with MMP, the company continued to exist to handle Monroe’s earnings and maintain her influence over what she appeared in.

Marilyn Monroe wasn’t the first woman to found her own production company, but the visibility of her battle with Fox continues to inspire creatives who yearn for influence and proper financial participation in what they make. Monroe vs. the System was an important moment of progress in an industry that, for too long, had been anchored in antiquated control systems, proving that everyone should have a voice in their career.

This article appeared in the June 2026100 Years of Marilyn Monroe issue of ReMIND Magazine. You can purchase the full issue at the link below.