Thomas Edison and his plan to monopolize on the film industry led to its transfer from New Jersey to Los Angeles. His mission was to hijack the industry by assembling representatives of the nation's largest movie companies, and then filing patents on every essential motion picture camera system. He named this new company the Motion Picture Patents Company, and they set out to prosecute the smaller movie producers who used similar equipment on the grounds of patent infringement. Edison's empire grew as he overwhelmed his rivals, and so a small group of independent film producers decided to move their work to Los Angeles to get away from the MPPC, and enjoy the benefits of sunshine. At the time, motion pictures were being screened at an all-time high in about 14,000 Nickelodeon theaters across the country, but these film projections were slowly merging into "real" theaters that held more patrons and catered to the upper class.
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