When was the First Commercial Film Screening?

If you’re in the film industry and you’re accustomed to the process of production, post-production, distribution, and of course, film screenings then you already know that film screenings are an integral part of today’s film industry so it may be hard to believe that screenings weren’t always part of the process, but commercial film screenings haven’t always taken place. So, when was the first commercial film screening?

Film screenings, such as pre-release screenings and an array of other popular methods of displaying a film prior to proposed theater distribution can have various purposes.

Whether it’s to release the film to a smaller, more refined audience ahead of the theatrical release. Or to share the cinematic experience with an intended audience of investors. Or some other close and carefully chosen group, film screenings are all part of the process.

So, if it’s all part of the process, when was the first commercial film screening? 

The First Commercial Film Screening

Technically, the first commercial film screening was a lot different than what you. Or I would consider a film screening today and it took place on December 28,1895.

The screening would draw spectators to the Grand Café in Paris, France. A powerful performance produced by brothers Louis & Auguste Lumiere, the screening was a series of clips from everyday French life which the brothers would also charge admission for. 

Although film technology was nothing like what it is today, the Lumiere brothers would kick off the concept of film screenings in December of 1895. After unveiling a camera-projector they had invented for the purpose of showing film in March of that year. 

Early Film Screening Technology

The time leading up to the first film screening would include various technologies. With roots dating to the 1830s with the development of the phenakistoscope by Joseph Plateau and Simon Stampfer.  This device would incorporate a mix of spinning disc slots.

Which would show a series of drawings to produce the effect of a moving image. Decades later, and many technological advances which would come and go. Thomas Edison and assistant William Dickson would create the world’s first motion-picture camera known as the Kinetograph.

The kinetoscope would later be produced to allow viewers to watch the one-strip film as it passed across a light producing a brightened appearance of the image.

Kinetoscope

Shortly after the production of the kinetograph and the Kinetoscope by Thomas Edison, Antoine Lumiere, the father of the two brothers Augueste and Louis who would be responsible for the first commercial film screening, would see the Kinetoscope.

And share the details with his sons because he was so amazed at the technology. 

The Lumiere’s would later patent the Cinematographer which was the technology used for the first commercial film screening. So, when was the first commercial film screening?

The first screening was in December of 1895 after more than 60 years of various technology and advancements leading up to the event.