Editing The Birth of a Nation (section)

===Box office===
[[File:Birth of a Nation 1916 poster.jpg|thumb|right|A 1916 newspaper advertisement announcing the film's screening in [[El Paso, Texas]]]]

The box office gross of ''The Birth of a Nation'' is not known and has been the subject of exaggeration.<ref>{{cite web|last=Aberdeen|first=J. A.|url=http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/statesrights.htm|title=Distribution: States Rights or Road Show|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320033508/http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/statesrights.htm|archive-date=March 20, 2015|work=Hollywood Renegades Archive|access-date=May 2, 2014}}</ref> When the film opened, the tickets were sold at premium prices. The film played at the [[Liberty Theater]] at [[Times Square]] in [[New York City]] for 44 weeks with tickets priced at $2.20 ({{Inflation|US|2.20|1915|fmt=eq}}).<ref name="THR">{{cite magazine | url = http://m.hollywoodreporter.com/entry/view/id/909518 | title = 'The Birth of a Nation' at 100: "Important, Innovative and Despicable" (Guest Column) | last = Doherty | first = Thomas | magazine = [[The Hollywood Reporter]] | date = February 8, 2015 | access-date = February 8, 2015 | archive-date = February 9, 2015 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20150209191014/http://m.hollywoodreporter.com/entry/view/id/909518 | url-status = dead }}</ref> By the end of 1917, Epoch reported to its shareholders cumulative receipts of $4.8 million,<ref name="Schickel_281" /> and Griffith's own records put Epoch's worldwide earnings from the film at $5.2 million as of 1919,<ref name="Wasko">{{cite book |last=Wasko |first=Janet |chapter=D.W. Griffiths and the banks: a case study in film financing |editor-last=Kerr |editor-first=Paul |title=The Hollywood Film Industry: A Reader |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-7100-9730-9 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jMINAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA34 34] |quote=Various accounts have cited $15 to $18 million profits during the first few years of release, while in a letter to a potential investor in the proposed sound version, Aitken noted that a $15 to $18 million box-office gross was a 'conservative estimate'. For years ''Variety'' has listed ''The Birth of a Nation''{{'}}s total rental at $50 million. (This reflects the total amount paid to the distributor, not box-office gross.) This 'trade legend' has finally been acknowledged by ''Variety'' as a 'whopper myth', and the amount has been revised to $5 million. That figure seems far more feasible, as reports of earnings in the Griffith collection list gross receipts for 1915–1919 at slightly more than $5.2 million (including foreign distribution) and total earnings after deducting general office expenses, but not royalties, at about $2 million.}}</ref> although the distributor's share of the revenue at this time was much lower than the exhibition gross. In the biggest cities, Epoch negotiated with individual theater owners for a percentage of the box office; elsewhere, the producer sold all rights in a particular state to a single distributor (an arrangement known as "state's rights" distribution).<ref>{{cite book|last = Kindem|first = Gorham Anders| title = The international movie industry| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Zg-1VxIZKAwC&pg=PA314| year = 2000| publisher = Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press| isbn = 978-0-8093-2299-2| page = 314| url-status = live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170106183228/https://books.google.com/books?id=Zg-1VxIZKAwC&pg=PA314&dq=| archive-date = January 6, 2017| df = mdy-all}}</ref> The film historian [[Richard Schickel]] says that under the state's rights contracts, Epoch typically received about 10% of the box office gross—which theater owners often underreported—and concludes that "''Birth'' certainly generated more than $60 million in box-office business in its first run".<ref name="Schickel_281">{{cite book| last = Schickel| first = Richard| author-link = Richard Schickel| title = D.W. Griffith: An American Life| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-YFNfV5fRDgC&pg=PA281| year = 1984| publisher = Simon and Schuster| isbn = 978-0-671-22596-4| page = 281| url-status = live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170106183929/https://books.google.com/books?id=-YFNfV5fRDgC&pg=PA281&dq=| archive-date = January 6, 2017| df = mdy-all}}</ref>

The film was the [[Timeline of highest-grossing films|highest-grossing film]] until it was overtaken by ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (1939), another film about the Civil War and Reconstruction era.<ref>{{cite book |last=Finler |first=Joel Waldo |year=2003 |title=The Hollywood Story |publisher=Wallflower Press |isbn=978-1-903364-66-6 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rvVhEJmbfrsC&pg=PA47 47]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Kindem| first = Gorham Anders| title = The international movie industry| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Zg-1VxIZKAwCr}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> By 1940 ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine estimated the film's cumulative [[gross rental]] (the distributor's earnings) at approximately $15 million.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Show Business: Record Wind |date=February 19, 1940 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763541,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202110029/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763541,00.html |archive-date=February 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |access-date=April 29, 2014}}</ref> For years ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' had the gross rental listed as $50 million, but in 1977 repudiated the claim and revised its estimate down to $5 million.<ref name="Schickel_281" /> It is not known for sure how much the film has earned in total, but producer Harry Aitken put its estimated earnings at $15–18 million in a letter to a prospective investor in a proposed sound version.<ref name="Wasko" /> It is likely the film earned over $20 million for its backers and generated $50–100 million in box office receipts.<ref name="Monaco">{{cite book |last=Monaco |first=James |title=How to Read a Film: Movies, Media, and Beyond |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-975579-0 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=bgbOsjnppAcC&pg=PA262 262] |quote=The Birth of a Nation, costing an unprecedented and, many believed, thoroughly foolhardy $110,000, eventually returned $20 million and more. The actual figure is hard to calculate because the film was distributed on a "states' rights" basis in which licenses to show the film were sold outright. The actual cash generated by ''The Birth of a Nation'' may have been as much as $50 million to $100 million, an almost inconceivable amount for such an early film.}}</ref> In a 2015 ''Time'' article, [[Richard Corliss]] estimated the film had earned the equivalent of $1.8 billion adjusted for [[inflation]], a milestone that at the time had only been surpassed by ''[[Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic]]'' (1997) and ''[[Avatar (2009 film)|Avatar]]'' (2009) in [[Real versus nominal value (economics)|nominal]] earnings.<ref name=time/>