Hollywood the weather was ideal and there was quick access to various settings. Los Angeles became the capital of the film industry in the United States. The mountains, plains and low land prices made Hollywood a good place to establish film studios. Director D. W. Griffith was the first to make a motion picture in Hollywood. His 17-minute short film "In Old California" (1910) was filmed for the Biograph Company. Although Hollywood banned movie theaters—of which it had none—before annexation that year, Los Angeles had no such restriction. The first film by a Hollywood studio, Nestor Motion Picture Company, was shot
D. W. Griffith surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (during religious persecution of French Huguenots); and a modern story. "Intolerance" was not a financial success, although it had good box office turn-outs; it did not bring in enough profits to cover the lavish road show that accompanied it. Griffith put a huge budget into the film's production which could not be recovered in its box office. He mostly financed "Intolerance" himself, contributing to his financial ruin for the rest of his life. Griffith's production partnership was dissolved in 1917 and he went to Artcraft, part of Paramount Pictures, and then to First National