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A CONQUEST OF WORLDS 239
ranging from French and English to Arabic and Chinese !
Before the European producer summoned energy and capital to compete with us, foreign audiences were growing accustomed to American scenes and ways — thinking of the screen in American terms. Also, as France, England, and Germany began to organize for production, they encountered a special commercial obstacle. Under stress of competition, the greater American producers were narrowing the margin between receipts and expenditures. Presently, they had so arranged things that they merely “broke even” on the domestic sales, and looked to the foreign market for profit. A European, building toward world-wide distribution, faced a hopeless, desperate situation. No other country in the world had so much as a quarter of our revenue from the domestic exhibition of a picture. We could make a “million-dollar film” pay for itself at home. The foreign producer, on the same terms, could afford to lay out no more than from ^200,000 to $250,000. He could not naturally pay his actors or directors the inflated prices of Hollywood. As soon as a foreign star like Pola Negri or Em.-i Jannings rose high in the heavens, Hollywood prices drew him or her to California. Almost unchecked by native production, the American moving picture swept on to conquest of every country in the world. From eighty-five to ninety per cent, of the films shown abroad came from the United States. This in face of frantic official efforts to encourage European