World's first film for paying audience

1895 Australian boxer Young Griffo (1871 - 1927) starred in Young Griffo vs. Battling Charles Barnett (filmed on the roof of Madison Square Garden, May 4, 1895), the first motion picture to be screened before a paying audience, on this day at 153 Broadway in New York City.

It premiered more than seven months before the Lumière brothers showed their film at the Grand Cafe on the Boulevard des Capucines, Paris, on December 28 – the event usually said to be the first movie-by-ticket screening in the world.

Tagged: movies, cinema, history