1916 in film

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 US.
• 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 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 and Constance Talmadge, 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.
• November 19 – Samuel Goldfish 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.)

Notable films released in 1916

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Directed by Stuart Paton
• The Adventures of Peg o' the Ring Directed by Francis Ford
• The Americano Directed by John Emerson
• The Battle of the Somme –
• Behind the Screen, directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring Chaplin and Edna Purviance
• La Bohème, by Albert Capellani
• Cenere, starring Eleonora Duse –
• 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
• The Curse of Quon Gwon
• The Danger Girl, starring Gloria Swanson and Bobby Vernon
• A Daughter of the Gods, starring Annette Kellerman
• Disraeli, directed by Charles Calvert and Percy Nash –
• East Is East, starring Florence Turner –
• Farmer Al Falfa's Cat-Tastrophe, animation produced by Paul Terry
• Fatty and Mabel Adrift, directed by and starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
• The Floorwalker, directed by and starring Charles Chaplin
• Frau Eva, directed by Robert Wiene and starring Emil Jannings
• Habit of Happiness, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• Hell's Hinges, directed by Charles Swickard and William S. Hart, starring William S. Hart
• 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 –
• Lights of New York, directed by Van Dyke Brooke, starring Leah Baird and Walter McGrail
• The Lyons Mail, directed by Fred Paul –
• A Maori Maid's Love, directed by Raymond Longford –
• The Mutiny of the Bounty, directed by Raymond Longford –
• The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, short directed by John Emerson, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• Oliver Twist, starring Marie Doro
• One A.M., directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin
• The Pawnshop, a Charles Chaplin short
• Police, a Charles Chaplin short with Edna Purviance and Wesley Ruggles
• The Return of Draw Egan, directed by and starring William S. Hart
• The Rink, a Charles Chaplin short
• Sally Bishop directed by George Pearson –
• Sally in Our Alley directed by Larry Trimble, starring Hilda Trevelyan, Mary Dibley, Reginald Owen –
• Sherlock Holmes, Starring William Gillette
• Snow White, starring Marguerite Clark
• Under Two Flags, starring Theda Bara
• The Vagabond, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin
• The Valley of Fear
• A Welsh Singer directed by Henry Edwards, starring Edwards, Florence Turner and Campbell Gullan –
• Where Are My Children?, directed by Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber, starring Tyrone Power, Sr. and Juan de la Cruz
• Willard-Johnson Boxing Match

  Short film series

• Broncho Billy Anderson
• Harold Lloyd
• Charlie Chaplin

  Births

• January 3
• *Maxene Andrews, singer, actress, member of Andrews Sisters
• *Betty Furness, actress, consumer activist
• January 4 – Lionel Newman, composer
• February 14
• *Sally Gray, born Constance Stevens, actress
• *Masaki Kobayashi, director
• February 26 – Jackie Gleason, actor
• February 29 – Dinah Shore, singer, actress, television presenter
• March 17 – Mercedes McCambridge, actress
• March 26 – Sterling Hayden, actor
• April 4 – David White, actor
• April 5 – Gregory Peck, actor
• April 26 – Vic Perrin, voice actor
• April 30 – Phil Brown, actor
• May 1 – Glenn Ford, actor
• May 16 – Adriana Caselotti, singer, voice actress
• June 12 – Irwin Allen, director, producer
• June 14 – Dorothy McGuire, actress
• June 23 – Irene Worth, actress
• July 1 – Olivia de Havilland, actress
• July 4 – Burton Zucker, actor, real estate developer, father of David and Jerry Zucker
• July 27 – Keenan Wynn, actor
• August 25 – Van Johnson, actor
• August 27 – Martha Raye, actress
• September 1 – Arleen Whelan, actress
• September 13 - Lynne Carver, American actress
• September 14 – Douglas Kennedy, actor
• September 15 – Margaret Lockwood, actress
• September 18 – Rossano Brazzi, actor
• September 28 – Peter Finch, actor
• November 20 – Evelyn Keyes, actress
• December 9 – Kirk Douglas, actor
• December 18 – Betty Grable, actress
• December 19 – Roy Baker, director

  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, American Border Collie, Jean and the Calico Doll, Fraid Cat

  Debuts

• Richard Barthelmess – Gloria's Romance
• Constance Bennett – The Valley of Decision
• Billie Burke – Peggy
• Ann Dvorak – Ramona
• Edmund Gwenn – The Real Thing at Last
• Hedda Hopper – The Battle of Hearts
• Colleen Moore –
• Mae Murray – To Have and to Hold
• Alla Nazimova – War Brides
• Ramon Novarro – Joan the Woman
• Edward G. Robinson – Arms and the Woman
• Conrad Veidt – Der Weg des Todes