Although many of these studios were based in the vicinity of Gower Street in Hollywood,[4] the term does not necessarily relate to any specific physical location.
Many of the films produced by Poverty Row studios were those of series in the Western, comedy, adventure and crime genres.
While some Poverty Row studios had a brief existence, releasing only a few films,[5] others operated in a manner similar to that of major film studios such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures, but on a much smaller scale.
The most successful and enduring Poverty Row studios maintained permanent lots and recognizable standing sets, had cast and crew under contract and produced a more varied output than did the smaller firms.
The primary Poverty Row studios included: The smallest studios, including Tiffany Pictures, Victory Pictures, Mascot Pictures, and Chesterfield, often packaged and released films from independent producers, British "quota quickie" films or exploitation films such as Hitler, Beast of Berlin[14] to supplement their own limited production capacity.