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To settle a bet and using a series of stills, Eadweard Muybridge, a British photographer, proves that all four of a horse's feet leave the ground at a time. These early pictures are considered to be the origins od the moving picture and Muybridge is credited as the "Father of the Motion Picture."
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French brothers, Louis and August Lumiere patented the first camera/projector allowing films to be viewed by an audience, much to Thomas Edison's dismay.
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Edwin Porter directs The Great Train Robbery. It had 14 scenes and was 12 minutes. It was considered quite the film feat at that time.
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The MPPC, or The Motion Pictures Patents Compan, is formed by nine leading film producers, including Thomas Edison. It agreed not to sell or lease equipment to distributors who;ve purchased films from any other company.
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Mickey Mouse makes his first film debut in Steamboat Willie. Streamboat Willie was one of the first cartoons to have sound along with Walt Disney's opther cartoon, Galloping Gaucho.
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The first-ever drive-in movie theater, opened in Camden, New Jersey. At first, they were a weekend destination for American families. Now, less than 500 drive-in theaters are still in the U.S.
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Disney's Cinderella was realeased. It had a budget of about $2,900,000 and had a gross income of about $34 million.
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Alfred Hitchcock's horror/thriller Psycho hits theaters. It had an estimated budget of $806,947 and had a gross income of $32 million. There have been other variations released since the original film, includng a tv series.
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Steven Spielberg's Jaws grosses $260 million on a budget of $8 million. A thriller about a great white shark, Jaws was voted #3 Total Film's 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time in 2005.
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The first of many, Die Hard, directed by Jihn McTiernan hit theaters.It had a budget of $28 million and grossed about $81 million.
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The film studio Dreamworks is formed by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. Their first full-length animated feature was Antz.
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With a budget of $30,000, The Blair Witch Project grosses $125 million, making it the most profitable film in Hollywood history.
