cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, often metonymously referred to as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on the film industry in general since the early 20th century. The dominant style of American cinema is classical Hollywood cinema, which developed from 1917 to 1960 and characterizes most films made there to this day. While Frenchmen Auguste and Louis Lumière are generally credited with the birth of modern cinema, American cinema quickly came to be the most dominant force in the industry as it emerged. Since the 1920s, the film industry of the United States has had higher annual grosses than any other country's. It produces the largest number of films of any single-language national cinema, with more than 800 English-language films released on average every year. While the national cinemas of the United Kingdom (299), Canada (206), and Australia and New Zealand also produce films in the same language, they are not considered part of the Hollywood system. Hollywood has also been considered a transnational cinema. Classical Hollywood produced multiple language versions of some titles, often in Spanish or French. Contemporary Hollywood offshores production to Canada, Australia,and New Zealand.