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The Beginning of Film
In the 1890s, film was starting to take a rise. In 1891, Eadweard Muybridge, Etienne Jules Marey, and George Eastman finishes their work on a motion-picture camera and a viewing machine called the Kinetoscope. Later in 1895, a lightweight, hand-held motion picture camera was made by the brothers named Auguste and Louis Lumiere called the Cinematographe. A year after, many film projectors were made, like the Theatrograph (later known as the Animatograph) in Britain and the Vitascope in the USA. -
A Rise in Popularity
In the 1900s, movies and films started becoming more and more popular as entertainment. They become some of the most popular attractions in many countries. One film, called "The Great Train Robbery" made in 1903, revolutionized the industry with it's dramatic story about a train robbery in twelve minutes. Throughout this decade more and more Americans went to see short films in what was called nickelodeons. They were storefront theaters that had charged a small admission fee. -
Fall of Nickelodeon & Westward Movement of Film
In 1910s, the nickelodeons that was popular in the last decade had faded in popularity, & were replaced by large theaters that were called "movie palaces" which seated hundreds of viewers, which was much better than the cramped space of nickelodeons. Along with this, film production, which was once centered in New York, had been relocated westward in California, also widely known as Hollywood. The main one was that land was cheap, spacious, & good weather allowed for better production of movies. -
Movies with Sound
In the 1920s, the first movies with sounds, called "talkies", thrilled the audiences of film. People were enjoying movies around the country. Large Hollywood studios like the Warner Brothers were one of the largest and most successful industries in the country. On the topic of studios, one of the largest movie studios in the present day had taken a rise in the industry. This studio was known as "Disney" and they came in the industry introducing a new type of film: animation. -
The Golden Era of Hollywood
Around the 1930's, a lot of industries and people were suffering from the Great Depression. On the bright side, the movie industry wasn't affected by this financial crisis and over 85 million people a week were crowing movie theaters across America to escape their financial problems. There were many movies in many genres that the audiences can choose from, including color films as the result of technological advancements in the film industry. -
The Peak of the Golden Age
In the 1940's, Hollywood's golden age had reached its peak with eight of their largest studios, such as the Warner Bros, Universal, and more. These studios controlled more than 90% of the distribution and production of film, coming out with at least one film per week. The majority of films that were made were playful romps, while some commented on the war the US was having. After the war, film noir, or dark cinema, became a popular style of movie, being & giving a dark and serious vibe to it. -
Introduction of TV & Golden Age of Sci-Fi
In the 1950s, television was introduced in the the scene, causing for audiences to have less of an incline to go watch a movie in theaters. Studios and companies sought to have audiences back in theaters, and as a result, starting using more techniques in presenting their films. This approach, alongside the Cold War happening at the time, and interest in outer space and other things, was the golden age of the known genre, science fiction. With this came a lot of notable films of the decade. -
The Struggle of Moviemaking
In the 1960s, the movie industry had struggled to make successful strategies because of the rise in popularity of television. They tried several ways to attract their audiences back, like making mature films that couldn't be shown on television. This resulted one of the industry's biggest problems, with groups calling it unacceptable. As a result, the rating system we know of today was made. The industry soon made history's best known films in the late 1960s, despite the limitations that came. -
The Rise of Blockbusters
In the 1970s, the film industry thrived because they did the things that TV couldn't, showcasing & telling stories that were a lot more mature and complicated. Major studios then started to go to what is known as "blockbusters." These films drew huge audiences & the amount of money spent on them made these movies grow drastically in the decade. As a lot of blockbusters came out, special effects & sci-fi themes were starting to be used in other movies, & not only in "B"-grade movies, like "Jaws". -
The Boom in the 1980s
In the 1980s, the movie and theater industry enjoyed a big boom. A lot of things rose like new genres coming into light. The thing that made this happen was special effects being used in a variety of films instead of only using it for things like sci-fi. The genres that grew in popularity were horror and comedy films. Examples would be the popular "slasher" film "Friday the 13th", alongside its sequels. Comedies, on the other hand, showed the lighter side of Hollywood in films like "Airplane!". -
The Ongoing Boom
In the 1990s, the boom of that happened in the 1980s had carried onto the 1990s. Special effects continued to dominate the industry and film world. They were used heavily to create breathtaking action that was demanded in the films at the most important time of the year: the summer blockbuster. Jurassic Park had set the standard of the decade, introducing CG, or computer-generated, to the industry with its realistic dinosaurs in their movie. -
Computer Animation
In the 2000s of film, computers dominated the industry because of how much better and cheaper it was to create effects that would've previously been very expensive. Because of computer animations replacing traditional animation, there were resurgence of several genres. An example would be fantasy films, like the Lord of the Rings. Superhero films also became a mainstream blockbuster genre, with things like Spider-Man and X-Men.