A movie, also called a motion picture or film, is a work of visual art that tells a story through moving images. Movies are typically created by recording a series of images on film or digitally, and then projecting them onto a screen in rapid succession. This creates the illusion of movement, and allows the filmmaker to tell a story in a way that is both visually and emotionally engaging.
Movies can be fiction or non-fiction, and they can be created for a variety of purposes, including entertainment, education, and propaganda. Movies can be short or long, and they can be made with a wide range of budgets.
Here are some of the key elements of a movie:
- Story: The story is the core of any movie. It is what drives the plot, introduces the characters, and creates the conflict.
- Characters: The characters are the people who inhabit the story world. They can be realistic or fictional, and they can be complex or simple.
- Setting: The setting is the time and place in which the story takes place. It can be real or imaginary, and it can play an important role in the story.
- Plot: The plot is the sequence of events that takes place in the story. It is typically driven by the characters' actions and goals.
- Dialogue: The dialogue is the spoken conversation between the characters. It can be used to reveal character, advance the plot, or create humor.
- Cinematography: The cinematography is the art of photographing and assembling moving images. It can be used to create different moods and atmospheres, and to tell the story in a visually compelling way.
- Editing: The editing is the process of assembling the footage shot by the cinematographer. It is used to create the final rhythm and flow of the movie.
- Music and sound effects: Music and sound effects can be used to enhance the emotional impact of a movie, and to create a sense of realism.
Movies can be a powerful and moving experience. They can transport us to different worlds, introduce us to new characters, and teach us about different cultures. Movies can also make us laugh, cry, and think. They are a truly unique and powerful art form.
Origins
The origins of movies can be traced back to the late 19th century, when a number of inventors developed devices that could capture and project moving images. Some of the earliest pioneers of cinema include:
- Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904): Muybridge was a British photographer who developed the zoopraxiscope, a device that could project moving images in rapid succession.
- Étienne-Jules Marey (1838-1904): Marey was a French scientist who developed the chronophotographic gun, a camera that could take up to 12 frames per second.
- Thomas Edison (1847-1931): Edison invented the kinetoscope, a peep show device that could show moving images to one person at a time.
- Auguste and Louis Lumière (1862-1954): The Lumière brothers invented the cinématographe, a device that could capture, project, and print moving images.
- The Lumière brothers are credited with the first public screening of movies, which took place on December 28, 1895 in Paris, France. The program included a number of short films, such as Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat and Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory.
In the early years of cinema, movies were mostly short and silent yet as technology improved, movies became longer and more complex. The first feature-length film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, was released in Australia in 1906.
The introduction of sound in the late 1920s revolutionized the movie industry. The first "talkie", The Jazz Singer, was released in 1927. Sound films quickly became the norm, and silent films were phased out.
The 1930s and 1940s are often referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood. During this time, the major studios produced a number of classic films, such as Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, and Citizen Kane.
The 1950s and 1960s saw the rise of new genres of film, such as science fiction, horror, and spaghetti westerns. During this time, there was also a growing movement of independent filmmakers who were creating more experimental and challenging films.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Hollywood blockbusters became increasingly popular. These films were typically big-budget productions with special effects and star-studded casts. Some of the most popular blockbusters from this era include Star Wars, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park.
Movies have come a long way since the days of the Lumière brothers. Today, they are a global entertainment industry that produces thousands of films each year. It is now an industry that generates billions of dollars in revenue.
For much of the last century, this industry was dominated by Hollywood. This became the epicenter for both film and television production. While New York enjoyed some of the latter. the majority of films (close to 90% at one point), were produced by Hollywood film studios.
Genres
Here is a list of the more common genres:
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Action: films that feature exciting and suspenseful scenes of violence and conflict. Examples of action films include Top Gun, Mission: Impossible, and Mad Max: Fury Road.
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Adventure: films that feature characters embarking on exciting and dangerous journeys. Examples of adventure films include The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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Comedy: films that are designed to make the audience laugh. Examples of comedy films include Bridesmaids, The Hangover, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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Drama: films that explore serious and emotional themes. Examples of drama films are Nomadland, Parasite, and The Shawshank Redemption.
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Fantasy: films that feature magical elements and supernatural creatures. Examples of fantasy films include The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Avatar.
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Horror: films that are designed to scare the audience. Examples of horror films include The Shining, The Exorcist, and Alien
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Mystery: films that feature a puzzle or enigma that needs to be solved. Examples of mystery films include Knives Out, The Maltese Falcon, and The Sixth Sense
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Romance: films that focus on romantic relationships. Examples of romance films include The Notebook, Titanic, and Casablanca.
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Science fiction: films that feature futuristic or fantastical [echnologies). Examples of science fiction films include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, and Star Wars: A New Hope.
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Thriller: films that are designed to keep the audience in suspense. Examples of thriller films include Se7en, The Silence of the Lambs, and Gone Girl.
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Western: films set on the American frontier and tend to be based between 1849 and 1890. They can be from periods outside this range although this is the primary focus of this genre. Examples of westerns include Unforgiven, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Top 10 Grossing Movies (All Time)
This is a list of the top hits at the box office.
Rank | Film | Revenue | Yr of Release |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Avatar | $2,923,706,026 | 2009 |
2 | Avengers: Endgame | $2,797,501,328 | 2019 |
3 | Avatar: The Way of Water | $2,320,250,281 | 2022 |
4 | Titanic | $2,257,844,554 | 1997 |
5 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | $2,068,223,624 | 2015 |
6 | Avengers: Infinity War | $2,048,359,754 | 2018 |
7 | Spider-Man: No Way Home | $1,921,847,111 | 2021 |
8 | Jurassic World | $1,671,537,444 | 2015 |
9 | The Lion King | $1,656,943,394 | 2019 |
10 | The Avengers | $1,518,815,515 | 2012 |
American Film Institute (AFI) Top 100 Films
Film | Release year | Director | Production companies | 1998 Rank | 2007 Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Citizen Kane | 1941 | Orson Welles | RKO Radio Pictures | 1 | 1 |
Casablanca | 1942 | Michael Curtiz | Warner Bros. Pictures | 2 | 3 |
The Godfather | 1972 | Francis Ford Coppola | Paramount Pictures, Alfran Productions | 3 | 2 |
Gone with the Wind | 1939 | Victor Fleming | Selznick International Pictures | 4 | 6 |
Lawrence of Arabia | 1962 | David Lean | Horizon Pictures | 5 | 7 |
The Wizard of Oz | 1939 | Victor Fleming | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 6 | 10 |
The Graduate | 1967 | Mike Nichols | Lawrence Turman | 7 | 17 |
On the Waterfront | 1954 | Elia Kazan | Horizon-American Pictures | 8 | 19 |
Schindler's List | 1993 | Steven Spielberg | Amblin Entertainment | 9 | 8 |
Singin' in the Rain | 1952 | Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 10 | 5 |
It's a Wonderful Life | 1946 | Frank Capra | Liberty Pictures | 11 | 20 |
Sunset Boulevard | 1950 | Billy Wilder | Paramount Pictures | 12 | 16 |
The Bridge on the River Kwai | 1957 | David Lean | Horizon-American Pictures | 13 | 36 |
Some Like It Hot | 1959 | Billy Wilder | Ashton Productions, The Mirisch Company | 14 | 22 |
Star Wars | 1977 | George Lucas | Lucasfilm | 15 | 13 |
All About Eve | 1950 | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 20th Century-Fox | 16 | 28 |
The African Queen | 1951 | John Huston | Horizon Enterprises, Romulus Films | 17 | 65 |
Psycho | 1960 | Alfred Hitchcock | Shamley Productions | 18 | 14 |
Chinatown | 1974 | Roman Polanski | Long Road Productions | 19 | 21 |
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | 1975 | Miloš Forman | Fantasy Films | 20 | 33 |
The Grapes of Wrath | 1940 | John Ford | 20th Century-Fox | 21 | 23 |
2001: A Space Odyssey | 1968 | Stanley Kubrick | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 22 | 15 |
The Maltese Falcon | 1941 | John Huston | Warner Bros. Pictures | 23 | 31 |
Raging Bull | 1980 | Martin Scorsese | Chartoff-Winkler Productions | 24 | 4 |
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | 1982 | Steven Spielberg | Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment | 25 | 24 |
Dr. Strangelove | 1964 | Stanley Kubrick | Hawk Films, Polaris Productions | 26 | 39 |
Bonnie and Clyde | 1967 | Arthur Penn | Tatira-Hiller Productions | 27 | 42 |
Apocalypse Now | 1979 | Francis Ford Coppola | Omni Zoetrope | 28 | 30 |
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | 1939 | Frank Capra | Columbia Pictures | 29 | 26 |
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre | 1948 | John Huston | Warner Bros. Pictures | 30 | 38 |
Annie Hall | 1977 | Woody Allen | United Artists | 31 | 35 |
The Godfather Part II | 1974 | Francis Ford Coppola | The Coppola Company | 32 | 32 |
High Noon | 1952 | Fred Zinnemann | Stanley Kramer Productions | 33 | 27 |
To Kill a Mockingbird | 1962 | Robert Mulligan | Pakula-Mulligan Productions, Brentwood Productions | 34 | 25 |
It Happened One Night | 1934 | Frank Capra | Columbia Pictures | 35 | 46 |
Midnight Cowboy | 1969 | John Schlesinger | Jerome Hellman Productions | 36 | 43 |
The Best Years of Our Lives | 1946 | William Wyler | Samuel Goldwyn Productions | 37 | 37 |
Double Indemnity | 1944 | Billy Wilder | Paramount Pictures | 38 | 29 |
Doctor Zhivago | 1965 | David Lean | Carlo Ponti Productions | 39 | - |
North by Northwest | 1959 | Alfred Hitchcock | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 40 | 55 |
West Side Story | 1961 | Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins | Beta Productions, The Mirisch Company, Seven Arts Productions, B & P Enterprises | 41 | 51 |
Rear Window | 1954 | Alfred Hitchcock | Paramount Pictures, Patron | 42 | 48 |
King Kong | 1933 | Merian C. Cooper | RKO Radio Pictures | 43 | 41 |
The Birth of a Nation | 1915 | D. W. Griffith | David W. Griffith Corp. | 44 | - |
A Streetcar Named Desire | 1951 | Elia Kazan | Warner Bros. Pictures, Charles K. Feldman Productions | 45 | 47 |
A Clockwork Orange | 1971 | Stanley Kubrick | Polaris Productions, Hawk Films | 46 | 70 |
Taxi Driver | 1976 | Martin Scorsese | B & P Enterprises, Italo-Judeo | 47 | 52 |
Jaws | 1975 | Steven Spielberg | Universal Pictures, Zanuck/Brown Company | 48 | 56 |
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | 1937 | David Hand, et al. | Walt Disney Productions | 49 | 34 |
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | 1969 | George Roy Hill | Campanile Productions | 50 | 73 |
The Philadelphia Story | 1940 | George Cukor | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 51 | 44 |
From Here to Eternity | 1953 | Fred Zinnemann | Columbia Pictures | 52 | - |
Amadeus | 1984 | Miloš Forman | The Saul Zaentz Company | 53 | - |
All Quiet on the Western Front | 1930 | Lewis Milestone | Universal Pictures | 54 | - |
The Sound of Music | 1965 | Robert Wise | Argyle Enterprises, 20th Century-Fox | 55 | 40 |
MASH | 1970 | Robert Altman | Aspen Productions | 56 | 54 |
The Third Man | 1949 | Carol Reed | London Film Productions | 57 | - |
Fantasia | 1940 | Walt Disney | Walt Disney Productions | 58 | - |
Rebel Without a Cause | 1955 | Nicholas Ray | Warner Bros. Pictures | 59 | - |
Raiders of the Lost Ark | 1981 | Steven Spielberg | Lucasfilm | 60 | 66 |
Vertigo | 1958 | Alfred Hitchcock | Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions, Paramount Pictures | 61 | 9 |
Tootsie | 1982 | Sydney Pollack | Mirage Enterprises, Punch Productions, Columbia Pictures, Delphi Productions | 62 | 69 |
Stagecoach | 1939 | John Ford | Walter Wanger Productions | 63 | - |
Close Encounters of the Third Kind | 1977 | Steven Spielberg | Columbia Pictures, EMI | 64 | - |
The Silence of the Lambs | 1991 | Jonathan Demme | Strong Heart Productions | 65 | 74 |
Network | 1976 | Sidney Lumet | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists | 66 | 64 |
The Manchurian Candidate | 1962 | John Frankenheimer | M. C. Productions | 67 | - |
An American in Paris | 1951 | Vincente Minnelli | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 68 | - |
Shane | 1953 | George Stevens | Paramount Pictures | 69 | 45 |
The French Connection | 1971 | William Friedkin | D'Antoni Productions | 70 | 93 |
Forrest Gump | 1994 | Robert Zemeckis | The Tisch Company | 71 | 76 |
Ben-Hur | 1959 | William Wyler | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 72 | 100 |
Wuthering Heights | 1939 | William Wyler | Samuel Goldwyn Productions | 73 | - |
The Gold Rush | 1925 | Charlie Chaplin | Charles Chaplin Productions | 74 | 58 |
Dances with Wolves | 1990 | Kevin Costner | TIG Productions, Majestic Films International | 75 | - |
City Lights | 1931 | Charlie Chaplin | Charles Chaplin Productions | 76 | 11 |
American Graffiti | 1973 | George Lucas | Coppola Co., Lucasfilm | 77 | 62 |
Rocky | 1976 | John G. Avildsen | Chartoff-Winkler Productions | 78 | 57 |
The Deer Hunter | 1978 | Michael Cimino | EMI | 79 | 53 |
The Wild Bunch | 1969 | Sam Peckinpah | Phil Feldman Productions, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts | 80 | 79 |
Modern Times | 1936 | Charlie Chaplin | Charles Chaplin Film Corp. | 81 | 78 |
Giant | 1956 | George Stevens | Warner Bros. Pictures | 82 | - |
Platoon | 1986 | Oliver Stone | Hemdale Film Corporation | 83 | 86 |
Fargo | 1996 | Joel Coen | Working Title Films | 84 | - |
Duck Soup | 1933 | Leo McCarey | Paramount Productions | 85 | 60 |
Mutiny on the Bounty | 1935 | Frank Lloyd | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 86 | - |
Frankenstein | 1931 | James Whale | Universal Pictures | 87 | - |
Easy Rider | 1969 | Dennis Hopper | The Pando Company, Raybert Productions | 88 | 84 |
Patton | 1970 | Franklin J. Schaffner | 20th Century-Fox | 89 | - |
The Jazz Singer | 1927 | Alan Crosland | Warner Bros. Pictures, The Vitaphone Corp. | 90 | - |
My Fair Lady | 1964 | George Cukor | Warner Bros. Pictures | 91 | - |
A Place in the Sun | 1951 | George Stevens | Paramount Pictures | 92 | - |
The Apartment | 1960 | Billy Wilder | The Mirisch Company | 93 | 80 |
Goodfellas | 1990 | Martin Scorsese | Warner Bros. Pictures, Irwin Winkler Productions | 94 | 92 |
Pulp Fiction | 1994 | Quentin Tarantino | A Band Apart, Jersey Films | 95 | 94 |
The Searchers | 1956 | John Ford | C. V. Whitney Pictures | 96 | 12 |
Bringing Up Baby | 1938 | Howard Hawks | RKO Radio Pictures | 97 | 88 |
Unforgiven | 1992 | Clint Eastwood | The Malpaso Company | 98 | 68 |
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | 1967 | Stanley Kramer | Columbia Pictures | 99 | - |
Yankee Doodle Dandy | 1942 | Michael Curtiz | Warner Bros. Pictures | 100 | 98 |
The General | 1926 | Buster Keaton | Buster Keaton Productions, Joseph M. Schenck Productions | - | 18 |
Intolerance | 1916 | D. W. Griffith | Reliance-Majestic Studios | - | 49 |
The Fellowship of the Ring | 2001 | Peter Jackson | New Line Cinema, WingNut Films | - | 50 |
Nashville | 1975 | Robert Altman | ABC Motion Pictures | - | 59 |
Sullivan's Travels | 1941 | Preston Sturges | Paramount Pictures | - | 61 |
Cabaret | 1972 | Bob Fosse | ABC Pictures, Allied Artists | - | 63 |
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | 1966 | Mike Nichols | Warner Bros. | - | 67 |
Saving Private Ryan | 1998 | Steven Spielberg | Amblin Entertainment, DreamWorks Pictures | - | 71 |
The Shawshank Redemption | 1994 | Frank Darabont | Castle Rock Entertainment | - | 72 |
In the Heat of the Night | 1967 | Norman Jewison | The Mirisch Corporation | - | 75 |
All the President's Men | 1976 | Alan J. Pakula | Wildwood Enterprises | - | 77 |
Spartacus | 1960 | Stanley Kubrick | Bryna Productions | - | 81 |
Sunrise | 1927 | F.W. Murnau | Fox Film Corporation | - | 82 |
Titanic | 1997 | James Cameron | Lightstorm Entertainment, Paramount Pictures | - | 83 |
A Night at the Opera | 1935 | Sam Wood | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | - | 85 |
12 Angry Men | 1957 | Sidney Lumet | Orion-Nova Productions | - | 87 |
The Sixth Sense | 1999 | M. Night Shyamalan | Hollywood Pictures | - | 89 |
Swing Time | 1936 | George Stevens | RKO Radio Pictures | - | 90 |
Sophie's Choice | 1982 | Alan J. Pakula | ITC Entertainment | - | 91 |
The Last Picture Show | 1971 | Peter Bogdanovich | BBS Productions | - | 95 |
Do the Right Thing | 1989 | Spike Lee | 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks | - | 96 |
Blade Runner | 1982 | Ridley Scott | The Ladd Company, Shaw Brothers | - | 97 |
Toy Story | 1995 | John Lasseter | Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios | - | 99 |
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