Excerpt: 'Birth of a Nation' and the Birth of the Blockbuster Film

The 1915 film “Birth of a Nation” created Hollywood as we know it. And while much of the focus on this movie’s immense historical importance is centered around its promotion of racism and the social dialogue and civil protests it inspired, the more Hollywood-esque plot lies not in the story’s plot line, but in the development of it.?

The movie is an adaptation of a novel by Thomas Dixon, a noted white supremacist, who actually had a 1911 version of “Birth of a Nation” produced but with next to little fanfare. After the failure of that movie, Dixon still had faith that there was a theatrical audience for his project, as it had tremendous success as a stageplay and he believed it would translate well as a film if given adequate backing. But the stench of failure with his earlier version, coupled with the fact that the story depicted too many war scenes to fit within the realm of a normal movie budget, resulted in the film getting rejected by every studio in the business.?

Eventually, Dixon would go on to meet film producer and director D. W. Griffith, another historically noted white supremacist, who decided to option the movie from Dixon. But it turns out, when it came time to option the movie, Griffith could only pay a small fraction of the option amount he had promised. Instead of backing out of the deal, Dixon decided to take a huge risk and accepted a 25% stake in the movie, betting both on his story and against the negative backlash that the release of the movie was sure to face.?

Griffith secured $40,000 in funds to produce this movie, which involved the use of West Point engineers, several war scenes, never-before-used camera techniques, slave ships, an original music score, and lots of Blackface to account for all the racism and lack of principal Black actors–you know, because it was 1914.?

With all of those necessary elements, the movie’s budget would soar to over $100,000, which is more than $2.5 million in today’s dollars, which made it the most expensive movie ever as of its release. That massive budget, put together with the film’s attention to detail, innovative techniques, and outsized marketing campaign made it into what can best be described as Hollywood’s first attempt at a mega-blockbuster film. But the movie wouldn’t get to attempt blockbuster status without challenges.?

In particular, the NAACP attempted to get the film banned and worked with local governments to do so. But a clever White House screening of the movie, the first movie to ever be screened by a President there, helped spurn the NAACP’s efforts, securing an effective and wide movie release for “Birth of A Nation”.?

The movie would go on to make over $50 million dollars at the box office, which was a 500x return on their production budget, and would be the equivalent of a $1.25 billion box office movie in today’s dollars. A 500x return on a movie is like investing in Google's seed round–that’s just not supposed to happen with a film.?

The success proved Dixon’s vision right, and the big risk he took in accepting a 25% stake in lieu of cash made him a very rich man,?all because he took the risk and was willing to bet on himself and his vision.?

It was that risk and the resulting success of a small group of white men, profiting off of a racist movie, that cemented the public’s desire and the financial future of movies in America. This was the movie industry’s?first blockbuster hit, and as movie historian Lee Pfeiffer put it, “[Birth of Nation] secured both the future of feature-length films and the reception of film as a serious medium”.?

Essentially, he’s saying, and I’m paraphrasing:?a racist movie birthed Hollywood.?

If you liked this excerpt, then check out the complete essay "Hollywood’s Original Sin: A Persistent Repudiation of Black Equity", which is currently posted on Black Content Review, a BlackOakTV property.