Before World War I, films were being produced mostly European countries and in Japan. When the war interrupted European filmmaking, however, the American film industry began to dominate the world economy. In the years between 1917 and 1927 the silent film reached the peak of its evolution. United States had the largest film industry and American films dominated the international market. Germany and Japan still had some film businesses but largely left to nationally. Many countries found film production as a matter of significance to national culture, occasionally by limiting on film imports. D. W. Griffith transformed early day of national production to an era of Hollywood's worldwide dominance. Important businesses that dominated Hollywood were Fox, Paramount, Warner Brothers, MGM, Columbia, and United Artists. Among the famous MGM films was a silent version of Ben Her. Hollywood films became increasingly expensive to make as productions became spectacular, and also the celebrities needed enormous salaries. As Hollywood and film industries elsewhere produced hundreds of movies each year, certain standardized kinds required precedence over individual creative inspiration. Movies adopted categories, called genres, from sooner arts and popular entertainment. These included comedy, the Western, puzzle, horror, romance, melodrama, and the war story. A growing number of large cinemas were constructed, along with the significant manufacturers expanded their dispersing systems and bought entire chains of theaters. Big studios attempted to produce a picture weekly. A normal movie show consisted of a characteristic starring big-name gamers, a short humor, and a newsreel. The 1922 film Nanook of the North, led by the American Robert Flaherty, is often credited as the first great achievement of documentary movie. Most of the movies made during this period reflected the fast pace and materialistic concerns of the nation's prosperous "flapper" era. While settings and costumes were often elaborate, picture stories were often shallow. Most people went to the "films" to watch film stars, and it was often the celebrity who rescued a poor picture from being a complete failure. Some stars, seeking independence from the mass-production methods of big studios, banded together to form dispersing companies to market films they created in their own studios. United Artists, made in 1919 by Griffith, Chaplin, Douglas Fa...