<P> The major film studios of Hollywood are the primary source of the most commercially successful and most ticket selling movies in the world, such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Gone with the Wind (1939), The Ten Commandments (1956), The Sound of Music (1965), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Titanic (1997), The Dark Knight (2008), Avatar (2009), The Avengers (2012) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Moreover, many of Hollywood's highest - grossing movies have generated more box - office revenue and ticket sales outside the United States than films made elsewhere . Today, American film studios collectively generate several hundred movies every year, making the United States one of the most prolific producers of films in the world and a leading pioneer in motion picture engineering and technology . </P> <P> The first recorded instance of photographs capturing and reproducing motion was a series of photographs of a running horse by Eadweard Muybridge, which he took in Palo Alto, California using a set of still cameras placed in a row . Muybridge's accomplishment led inventors everywhere to attempt to make similar devices . In the United States, Thomas Edison was among the first to produce such a device, the kinetoscope . </P> <P> The history of cinema in the United States can trace its roots to the East Coast where, at one time, Fort Lee, New Jersey was the motion - picture capital of America . The industry got its start at the end of the 19th century with the construction of Thomas Edison's "Black Maria", the first motion - picture studio in West Orange, New Jersey . The cities and towns on the Hudson River and Hudson Palisades offered land at costs considerably less than New York City across the river and benefited greatly as a result of the phenomenal growth of the film industry at the turn of the 20th century . </P> <P> The industry began attracting both capital and an innovative workforce, and when the Kalem Company began using Fort Lee in 1907 as a location for filming in the area, other filmmakers quickly followed . In 1909, a forerunner of Universal Studios, the Champion Film Company, built the first studio . They were quickly followed by others who either built new studios or who leased facilities in Fort Lee . In the 1910s and 1920s, film companies such as the Independent Moving Pictures Company, Peerless Studios, The Solax Company, Éclair Studios, Goldwyn Picture Corporation, American Méliès (Star Films), World Film Company, Biograph Studios, Fox Film Corporation, Pathé Frères, Metro Pictures Corporation, Victor Film Company, and Selznick Pictures Corporation were all making pictures in Fort Lee . Such notables as Mary Pickford got their start at Biograph Studios . </P>

Where were the first american film companies located