<P> There are also independently owned studio facilities, who have never produced a motion picture of their own because they are not entertainment companies or motion picture companies; they are companies who sell only studio space . </P> <P> The largest film studio in the world is Ramoji Film City, in Hyderabad, India . </P> <P> In 1893, Thomas Edison built the first movie studio in the United States when he constructed the Black Maria, a tarpaper - covered structure near his laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, and asked circus, vaudeville, and dramatic actors to perform for the camera . He distributed these movies at vaudeville theaters, penny arcades, wax museums, and fairgrounds . The pioneering Thanhouser film studio was founded in New Rochelle, New York in 1909 by American theatrical impresario Edwin Thanhouser . The company produced and released 1,086 films between 1910 and 1917, successfully distributing them around the world . The first film serial ever, The Million Dollar Mystery, was released by the Thanhouser company in 1914 . </P> <P> In the early 1900s, companies started moving to Los Angeles, California . Although electric lights were by then widely available, none were yet powerful enough to adequately expose film; the best source of illumination for motion picture production was natural sunlight . Some movies were shot on the roofs of buildings in Downtown Los Angeles . Early movie producers also relocated to Southern California to escape Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company, which controlled almost all the patents relevant to movie production at the time . </P>

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