The first decade of the industry

The first decade of the fast growing screen film novelty witness the emergence large-scale film industry. The most primitive 2-3-minute films would be replaced by many-shot flicks that would attract more and more watchers and visitors with every decade.

In 1896 it was decided to demonstrate films by means of Edison's Kinetoscope to large audiences what would bring greater profits. At the same time, Edison business developed Phantoscope that was a changed form of Vitascope and started collecting millions soon afterwards.

Still, the first successful screen film company was American Mutoscope that was established in 1900. It was a technological revolution with W. Dickson introducing peep-show type screen films that were produced by the machine, called Mutoscope.

In the US, there rose several minor screen film manufacturers, the greatest among which was American Vitagraph, earning much smaller income.

In France, there were founded three competitive film companies. They were the Lumiere company (they sent cameramen all around the world and shot films) that made about 1,000 films by 1901, Georges Melies being the largest producer of films in France at that time, and Pathe-Freres brand (founded by Charles Pathe and Ferdinand Zecca). By 1905, Pathe proved to be the biggest film company.

England was headed by Robert W. Paul, J. Williamson, and G.A. Smith in the screen film industry field.