1916 in film

The year 1916 in film involved some significant events.

Events

 * Charlie Chaplin signs for Mutual Film for a salary of $10,000 a week and a signing on fee of $150,000, making him one of the highest-paid people in the United States.
 * June 24 – Mary Pickford signs a contract for $10,000 a week plus profit participation, guaranteeing her over $1 million per year.
 * July 19 – Famous Players–Lasky is formed through a merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company and Jesse L. Lasky's Feature Play Company. Later in the year, they acquire distributor Paramount Pictures.
 * August 10 – The official British documentary propaganda film The Battle of the Somme is premièred in London. In the first six weeks of general release (from 20 August) 20 million people view it.
 * September 5 – Release of D. W. Griffith's epic film Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages, starring Lillian Gish (as "The Eternal Motherhood") and Constance Talmadge (in two roles), in the United States. It is estimated to have cost around $2.5 million to make but is initially a commercial failure.
 * October 17 – Release of A Daughter of the Gods, the first US production with a million dollar budget, with the first nude scene by a major star (Annette Kellerman).
 * November 19 – Samuel Goldfish (later renamed Samuel Goldwyn) and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Pictures, later to become one of the most successful independent filmmakers.
 * The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is founded in the United States as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers.
 * 11 mm, an amateur film gauge, appears on the market.

Top-grossing films (U.S.)
The top six 1916 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

Notable films released in 1916

 * 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, directed by Stuart Paton for Universal Pictures, starring Curtis Benton and Alan Holubar (as Capt. Nemo), based on the novel by Jules Verne
 * The Adventures of Peg o' the Ring Directed by Francis Ford
 * The Americano Directed by John Emerson
 * Arima no neko sodo (Japanese) starring Matsunosuke Onoe, another film adaptation of the Japanese legend of the "Ghost Cat of Arima"
 * Bake ginnan (Japanese) directed by Shozo Makino for Nikkatsu, starring Matsunosuke Onoe; a film adaptation of the Japanese legend of the "Monster Gingko Tree"
 * The Battle of the Somme – (GB)
 * Behind the Screen, directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring Chaplin and Edna Purviance
 * The Black Crook, directed by Robert Vignola, starring Edward P. Sullivan; based on a play by Charles M. Barras, this "Faust"-like film was one of the earliest film musicals with choreographed dance numbers
 * The Bogus Ghost, an 11-minute comedydirected by Harry F. Millarde for Kalem Films
 * La Bohème, by Albert Capellani
 * Cenere, starring Eleonora Duse (the only film in which she appears) – (Italy)
 * Civilization, directed by Reginald Barker and Thomas H. Ince, starring Howard C. Hickman and Enid Markey
 * The Count, directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring Chaplin and Edna Purviance
 * Crime and the Penalty (British) directed by R. Harley West, this film's plot was a cross between Murders in the Rue Morgue and Trilby, featuring a gorilla trained to strange people
 * The Crimson Stain Mystery (British) 16-chapter science-fiction serial directed by T. Hayes Hunter; a near-complete print exists in the Library of Congress
 * The Curse of Quon Gwon
 * The Danger Girl, starring Gloria Swanson and Bobby Vernon
 * A Daughter of the Gods, a 3-hour long movie directed by Herbert Brenon and starring Annette Kellerman; this was the United States' first million-dollar film production
 * The Dead Alive, directed by Henry J. Vernot, starring Marguerite Courtot
 * A Dead With the Devil (British) short Faustian film directed by Frank Wilson, produced by Cecil M. Hepworth
 * The Devil's Bondwoman, directed by Lloyd B. Carleton for Universal Pictures, starring Dorothy Davenport and Emory Johnson
 * The Devil's Toy, directed by Harley Knoles, based on an Edward Madden poem "The Mill of the Gods", starring Adele Blood and Montagu Love
 * Disraeli, directed by Charles Calvert and Percy Nash – (GB)
 * Doktor Satansohn (German) directed by Edmund Edel, starring Ernst Lubitsch
 * East Is East, starring Florence Turner – (GB)
 * Farmer Al Falfa's Cat-Tastrophe, animation produced by Paul Terry
 * The Fable of the Small Town Favorite Who Was Ruined by Too Much Competition, comedy short silent film


 * Fatty and Mabel Adrift, directed by and starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
 * Feathertop, directed by Henry J. Vernot, starring Mathilde Baring, John Reinhard and Marguerite Courtot; loosely based on the story by Nathaniel Hawthorne
 * The Floorwalker, directed by and starring Charles Chaplin
 * Frau Eva, directed by Robert Wiene and starring Emil Jannings (Germany)
 * The Grasping Hand (French) 13-minute ghost film directed by Max Linder who also starred in it
 * The Green-Eyed Monster, directed by J. Gordon Edwards, starring Robert B. Mantell and Stuart Holmes
 * Habit of Happiness, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * Haunted, a haunted cabin film starring Lillian Leighton and Ralph McComas
 * The Haunted Bell, directed by Henry Otto, starring King Baggot, based on a short story by Jacques Futrelle
 * Haunts for Rent, directed by C. Allan Gilbert, this film featured mixed live action with animated effects
 * Hell's Hinges, directed by Charles Swickard and William S. Hart, starring William S. Hart
 * Her Father's Gold (aka The Water Devil) directed by Eugene Moore for Thanhouser Films, based on a story by Crittenden Marriott
 * Homunculus (German) 6-chapter serial about a scientist who creates an artificial human, directed by Otto Rippert, starring Olaf Foenss as the Monster; plot similar to Frankenstein, Alraune and The Golem
 * Hoodoo Ann, starring Mae Marsh and Robert Harron
 * Hulda from Holland, starring Mary Pickford
 * Intolerance, directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish and Constance Talmadge
 * Joan the Woman, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Geraldine Farrar
 * Judex, directed by Louis Feuillade, starring Musidora and René Cresté – (France)
 * Lights of New York, directed by Van Dyke Brooke, starring Leah Baird and Walter McGrail
 * Luke's Double (French) 11-minute comedy short based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring Harold Lloyd, directed by Hal Roach
 * The Lyons Mail, directed by Fred Paul – (Britain)
 * Man Without a Soul (British) directed by George Loane Tucker, starring Barbara Everest and Milton Rosmer
 * A Maori Maid's Love, directed by Raymond Longford – (Australia/New Zealand)
 * Mingling Spirits, short film directed by Al Christie for Universal Pictures, starring Betty Compson
 * Mr. Tvardovski (Russian) a Faustian-type film directed by Ladislas Starevitch, starring Nicolai Saltykov, based on a novel by J. I. Kraszevski; part of the film featured animation
 * The Mutiny of the Bounty, directed by Raymond Longford – (Australia/New Zealand)
 * The Mysteries of Myra, 15-chapter serial directed by Theodore and Leopold Wharton, starring Jean Sothern, Howard Estabrook and Warner Oland
 * The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, short directed by John Emerson, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * Night of Horror/ Nachte des Grauens (German) a lost film directed by Richard Oswald and Arthur Robison, starring Emil Jannings and Werner Krauss, cited in some references as being the first vampire film
 * Oliver Twist, starring Marie Doro
 * One A.M., directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin
 * The Pawnshop, a Charles Chaplin short
 * The Phantom of the Opera (German) first film version of the Gaston Leroux novel, directed by Ernst Matray, starring Nils Olaf Chrisander and Aud Egede Nissen
 * The Phantom Witness, directed by Frederick Sullivan for Thanhouser Films, starring Kathryn Adams and Edwin Stanley
 * The Picture of Dorian Gray (British) directed by Fred W. Durant, starring Henry Victor and Pat O'Malley
 * Police, a Charles Chaplin short with Edna Purviance and Wesley Ruggles
 * The Queen of Spades/ Pikovaya dama (Russian) directed by Yakov Protazanov, based on the short story by Alexander Pushkin, starring Tamara Duvan and Nikolai Panov
 * The Real Thing at Last (British) directed by James m. Barrie and L.C. MacBean, starring Ernest Thesiger
 * The Return of Draw Egan, directed by and starring William S. Hart
 * The Rink, a Charles Chaplin short
 * The Romantic Journey, directed by George Fitzmaurice, written by Ouida Bergere, starring William Courtenay
 * Saint, Devil and Woman, directed by Frederick Sullivan for Thanhouser Films, starring Florence La Badie
 * Sally Bishop directed by George Pearson – (GB)
 * Sally in Our Alley directed by Larry Trimble, starring Hilda Trevelyan, Mary Dibley, Reginald Owen – (GB)
 * Seven Keys to Baldpate (Australian) directed by Monte Luke, starring Dorothy Brunton and J. Plumpton Wilson; based on the 1913 novel by Earl Derr Biggers which was turned into a play by George M. Cohan
 * She (British) directed by Horace Lisle Lucoque and William G.B. Barker, starring Alice Delysia and Henry Victor; the first British film adaptation of the H. Rider Haggard novel
 * Sherlock Holmes (U.S.), directed by Arthur Berthelet, starring William Gillette as Holmes, based on the 1899 stage play which also starred William Gillette (Ernest Maupain played Moriarty)
 * The Shielding Shadow (aka Ravengar) 15-chapter serial directed by Louis Gasnier (who later directed Reefer Madness in 1936) and Donald MacKenzie, starring Grace Darmond and Ralph Kellard
 * The Silent Stranger (aka The Silent Man) 11-minute short starring, and directed by, King Baggot
 * Snow White, starring Marguerite Clark
 * Sold to Satan, starring and directed by Edward Sloman
 * The Soul's Cycle, directed by Ulysses Davis, starring Margaret Gibson and John Oaker, deals with reincarnation similar in plot to The Mummy (1932)
 * Trilby Frilled, 10-minute short directed by Edwin McKim, starring Davy Don as Svengali and Patsy De Forest; spoof of George Du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby
 * Under Two Flags, starring Theda Bara
 * Ultus, the Man From the Dead (British) directed by George Pearson for Gaumont Films, starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus, a superhero apparently influenced by France's popular film character Fantomas; there were four Ultus films in the series, which were later re-edited into seven shorter films for overseas distribution
 * Ultus and the Grey Lady (British) 2nd film in the "Ultus" series, directed by George Pearson, starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus
 * Ultus and the Secret of the Night (British) 3rd film in the "Ultus" series, directed by George Pearson, again starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus
 * Ultus and the Three-Button Mystery (British) 4th and final film in the "Ultus" series, directed by George Pearson, starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus; this 4th film wasn't theatrically released until 1917
 * The Vagabond, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin
 * The Valley of Fear (British) directed by Alexander Butler, based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, starring H.A. Saintsbury as Sherlock Holmes and Arthur M. Cullin as Dr. Watson (Booth Conway played Moriarty)
 * The Vij (Russian) written and directed by Wadyslaw Starewicz, starring Ivan Mosjoukine and Olga Obolenskaya; the 2nd ever film adaptation of Nicolai Gogol's short story; featured stop motion animation
 * A Welsh Singer directed by Henry Edwards, starring Edwards, Florence Turner and Campbell Gullan – (GB)
 * The Wheel of Death (British) directed by A.E. Coleby, starring Arthur Rooke and Joan Legge
 * Where Are My Children?, directed by Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber, starring Tyrone Power, Sr. and Juan de la Cruz
 * Willard-Johnson Boxing Match
 * The Wings (Vingarne) Swedish silent film directed by Mauritz Stiller, starring Nils Asther, Egil Eide, Lars Hanson, Lili Bech, and Julius Hälsig
 * Witchcraft, directed by Frank Reicher, produced by Jesse L. Lasky, starring Fannie Ward and Jack Dean, based on a short story by Robert Ralston Reed
 * The Witch of the Mountains, starring Mareguerite Nichols, Gordon Sackville and Richard Johnson; produced by Knickerbocker Star Features
 * The Witching Hour, directed by George Irving, starring C. Aubrey Smith and Marie Shotwell; this was adapted from the 1907 stage play by Augustus Thomas

Short film series

 * Broncho Billy Anderson (1910–1916)
 * Harold Lloyd (1913–1921)
 * Charlie Chaplin (1914–1923)

Births

 * January 3
 * Maxene Andrews, singer, actress, member of Andrews Sisters (died 1995)
 * Betty Furness, actress, consumer activist (died 1994)
 * January 4 – Lionel Newman, composer (died 1989)
 * February 1 - Bruce Gordon, actor (died 2011)
 * February 13 – James Griffith, actor, musician, screenwriter (died 1993)
 * February 14
 * Sally Gray, born Constance Stevens, actress (died 2006)
 * Masaki Kobayashi, director (died 1996)
 * February 17 - Raf Vallone, Italian actor (died 2002)
 * February 26 – Jackie Gleason, actor (died 1987)
 * February 29 – Dinah Shore, singer, actress, television presenter (died 1994)
 * March 6 – Rochelle Hudson, actress (died 1972)
 * March 16 – Mercedes McCambridge, actress (died 2004)
 * March 21 - Vittorio Duse, Italian actor, screenwriter and director (died 2005)
 * March 24
 * Anna Maria Bottini, actress (died 2020)
 * Richard Conte, American actor (died 1975)
 * March 25 – Jean Rogers, actress (died 1991)
 * March 26 – Sterling Hayden, actor (died 1986)
 * March 29 - Sam Beazley, British actor (died 2017)
 * April 4 – David White, actor (died 1990)
 * April 5 – Gregory Peck, actor (died 2003)
 * April 26 – Vic Perrin, voice actor (died 1989)
 * April 30 – Phil Brown, actor (died 2006)
 * May 1 – Glenn Ford, actor (died 2006)
 * May 6 – Adriana Caselotti, singer, voice actress (died 1997)
 * June 12 – Irwin Allen, director, producer (died 1991)
 * June 14 – Dorothy McGuire, actress (died 2001)
 * June 19 – Karin Booth, actress (died 2003)
 * June 21 – Dorothea Kent, actress (died 1990)
 * June 23 – Irene Worth, actress (died 2002)
 * June 29 – Ruth Warrick, singer, actress, political activist (died 2005)
 * July 1 – Olivia de Havilland, actress (died 2020)
 * July 4 – Burton Zucker, actor, real estate developer, father of David and Jerry Zucker (d. 2008)
 * July 27 – Keenan Wynn, actor (died 1986)
 * August 18 - Don Keefer, American actor (died 2014)
 * August 19 - Marie Wilson, American actress (died 1972)
 * August 21 - Geoffrey Keen, English actor (died 2005)
 * August 24 - Hal Smith, American actor (died 1994)
 * August 25 – Van Johnson, actor (died 2008)
 * August 27
 * George Montgomery, actor (died 2000)
 * Martha Raye, actress (died 1994)
 * September 1 – Arleen Whelan, actress (died 1993)
 * September 13 - Lynne Carver, American actress (died 1955)
 * September 15 – Margaret Lockwood, actress (died 1990)
 * September 18 – Rossano Brazzi, actor (died 1994)
 * September 28 – Peter Finch, actor (died 1977)
 * October 4 – Robin Raymond, actress (died 1994)
 * November 20 – Evelyn Keyes, actress (died 2008)
 * November 23 - Michael Gough, British character actor (died 2011)
 * December 5 – Margaret Hayes, actress (died 1977)
 * December 8 - Richard Fleischer, American director (died 2006)
 * December 9 – Kirk Douglas, actor (died 2020)
 * December 13 – Mark Stevens, actor (died 1994)
 * December 18 – Betty Grable, actress (died 1973)
 * December 19 – Roy Baker, director (died 2010)

Deaths

 * January 17, Arthur V. Johnson, 39, American screen actor and director, The Sealed Room, The Unchanging Sea, The Adventures of Dollie, The Voice of the Violin, tuberculosis
 * June 22
 * Page Peters, 26, American screen actor, The Warrens of Virginia, The Purple Scar, An International Marriage, Davy Crockett, Pasquale, drowned swimming
 * Maurice Vinot, 27, French screen actor, airplane crash
 * September 9 – Sydney Ayres, 37, American stage & screen actor and director, The Sting of Conscience, The Avenger, As in a Dream, multiple sclerosis
 * September 17 – Arthur Hoops, 45, American stage & screen actor, The Secret of Eve, Bridges Burned, Extravagance, The Eternal Question, The Scarlet Woman, heart attack
 * September 27 – Camille D'Arcy, 37, American actress, The Prince Chap, Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, A Daughter of the City, The White Sister, The Pacifist, infection from bathing
 * October 6 – Henry Woodruff, 47, American stage & screen actor, A Beckoning Flame, A Man and His Mate, Bright's disease
 * November 30 – Dorrit Weixler, 23, German comic actress, Maria, Kammermusik, Heimgekehrt, Todesrauchen, suicide by hanging
 * unknown – Jean, the Vitagraph Dog (born 1902), American Border Collie, Jean and the Calico Doll, Fraid Cat

Debuts

 * Warner Anderson – The Sunbeam
 * Edward Arnold – The Misleading Lady
 * Richard Barthelmess – Gloria's Romance
 * Lina Basquette – The Dumb Girl of Portici
 * Constance Bennett – The Valley of Decision
 * Billie Burke – Peggy
 * Ann Dvorak – Ramona
 * Elinor Fair – The End of the Trail
 * Douglas Fairbanks Jr. – American Aristocracy
 * Edmund Gwenn – The Real Thing at Last
 * John Halliday – The Devil's Toy
 * Virginia Hammond – Vultures of Society
 * Hedda Hopper – The Battle of Hearts
 * Kate Lester – Molly Make-Believe
 * Dorcas Matthews – The Captive God
 * Grant Mitchell – The Misleading Lady
 * Colleen Moore – The Prince of Graustark
 * Frank Morgan – The Suspect
 * Mae Murray – To Have and to Hold
 * Ramon Novarro – Joan the Woman
 * Marie Prevost – Unto Those Who Sin
 * Edward G. Robinson – Arms and the Woman
 * Hermann Thimig – The Countess Heyers
 * Edward Van Sloan – Slander
 * Elsa Wagner – The Wandering Light
 * Lucile Watson – The Girl with the Green Eyes