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The following is an overview of 1928 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths. Although some films released in 1928 had sound, most were still silent. This year is notable for the introduction of the official mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey Mouse, in the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first film to include a soundtrack completely created in post production.

Events

  • January 6 – The long-awaited Charlie Chaplin comedy The Circus premieres at the Strand Theatre in New York City.
  • April 21 – The Passion of Joan of Arc is released.
  • July 6 – Lights of New York (starring Helene Costello) is released by Warner Bros. It is the first "100% Talkie" feature film, in that dialog is spoken throughout the film. Previous releases Don Juan and The Jazz Singer had used a synchronized soundtrack with sound effects and music, with The Jazz Singer having a few incidental lines spoken by Al Jolson.
  • September 19 – The Singing Fool, Warner Bros' follow-up to The Jazz Singer, is released. While still only a partial-talkie (sequences still feature intertitles), 66 minutes of the film's 105 minute running time feature dialogue or songs, making it the longest talking motion picture yet. (Lights of New York runs a total of 57 minutes.) It is the highest-grossing film of the year, becomes Warner Bros' highest-grossing film for the next 13 years, is the most financially successful film of Al Jolson's career and also remains the highest-grossing sound film until the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.
  • October 23 – RKO Productions Inc. created
  • November 10 – At the beginning of White Shadows in the South Seas, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's mascot Leo the Lion roars for the very first time, giving voice to one of the most popular American film logos.
  • November 18 – Disney's Steamboat Willie premieres, marking the official introduction of Mickey Mouse. This animated short is the first film to include a soundtrack completely created in post production, including sound effects, music and dialogue.
  • December 25 – In Old Arizona, released by Fox Films, is the first sound-on-film feature-length talkie, utilizing the Movietone process. Previously, feature-length talkies used the less-reliable Vitaphone sound-on-disc process. It is also the first Western talkie, and the first sound film primarily shot outdoors.

Academy Awards

  • Best Picture: Wings – Paramount Pictures
  • Best Unique and Artistic Picture: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans – Fox Film Corporation
  • Best Director, Dramatic Picture: Frank Borzage – 7th Heaven
  • Best Director, Comedy Picture: Lewis Milestone – Two Arabian Knights
  • Best Actor: Emil Jannings – The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh
  • Best Actress: Janet Gaynor – 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

Note: Prior to 1933, awards were not based on calendar years, which is why there is no 'Best Picture' for a 1928 film.

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

The top ten 1928 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin:auto; margin:auto;"

|+ Highest-grossing films of 1928

|-

! Rank !! Title !! Distributor !! Domestic rentals

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 1

|The Singing Fool

|Warner Bros.

| $3,821,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 2

|The Circus

|United Artists

| $1,820,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 3

|Street Angel

|Fox Film

| $1,700,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 4

|Lilac Time

|Warner Bros.

| $1,675,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 5

|Four Sons<br>Ramona

| Fox Film<br>United Artists

| $1,500,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 6

|Noah's Ark

| Warner Bros.

| $1,367,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 7

|The Red Dance<br>In Old Arizona

| Fox Film

| $1,300,000

  • L'Argent (Money), directed by Marcel L'Herbier, starring Pierre Alcover and Brigitte Helm – (France)
  • The Awakening (lost), directed by Victor Fleming, starring Vilma Bánky and Louis Wolheim

B

  • Balaclava, directed by Maurice Elvey and Milton Rosmer, starring Cyril McLaglen and Benita Hume – (GB)
  • Beau Sabreur (lost), directed by John Waters, starring Gary Cooper, Evelyn Brent, Noah Beery Sr. and William Powell
  • Beggars of Life, directed by William A. Wellman, starring Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks
  • The Big City (lost), directed by Tod Browning, starring Lon Chaney, Betty Compson and Marceline Day
  • The Black Pearl (lost), directed by Scott Pembroke, starring Lila Lee, based on the novel by Mrs. Wilson Woodrow
  • His House in Order (lost), directed by Randle Ayrton, starring Tallulah Bankhead – (GB)
  • Homecoming (Heimkehr), directed by Joe May, starring Lars Hanson – (Germany)
  • Honor Bound, directed by Alfred E. Green, starring George O'Brien, Estelle Taylor and Leila Hyams
  • The House of Terror (lost), a 10-chapter serial directed by Roland D. Reed
  • The House on Trubnaya (Dom na Trubnoy), directed by Boris Barnet – (U.S.S.R.)
  • Hungarian Rhapsody, directed by Hanns Schwarz, starring Lil Dagover, Willy Fritsch and Dita Parlo – (Germany)
  • Huntingtower, directed by George Pearson, starring Harry Lauder – (GB)

I

  • In Old Arizona, directed by Raoul Walsh and Irving Cummings, starring Edmund Lowe, Warner Baxter and Dorothy Burgess, based on a 1907 short story The Caballero's Way by O. Henry
  • Interference, directed by Lothar Mendes, starring Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook and William Powell
  • The Italian Straw Hat (Un chapeau de paille d'Italie), directed by René Clair – (France)

J

  • Jujiro (Crossroads), directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa – (Japan)

L

  • Ladies of the Mob (lost), directed by William A. Wellman, starring Clara Bow and Richard Arlen
  • The Last Command, directed by Joseph von Sternberg, starring Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent and William Powell
  • The Last Warning, directed by Paul Leni, starring Laura La Plante, based on the 1916 novel The House of Fear by Charles Wadsworth Camp
  • Laugh, Clown, Laugh, directed by Herbert Brenon, starring Lon Chaney and Loretta Young
  • The Leopard Lady (lost), directed by Rupert Julian, starring Jacqueline Logan, Alan Hale and Robert Armstrong, based on the play by Edward Childs Carpenter
  • Lights of New York, directed by Bryan Foy
  • Lilac Time, directed by George Fitzmaurice, starring Colleen Moore and Gary Cooper
  • A Little Bit of Fluff, directed by Wheeler Dryden and Jess Robbins, starring Sydney Chaplin and Betty Balfour – (GB)
  • Lonesome, directed by Paul Fejos, starring Glenn Tryon and Barbara Kent

M

  • The Man Who Laughs, directed by Paul Leni, starring Mary Philbin, Conrad Veidt and Olga Baclanova, based on the 1869 novel L'Homme qui rit by Victor Hugo
  • Maria Marten, directed by Walter West, starring Trilby Clark and Warwick Ward – (GB)
  • The Matinee Idol, directed by Frank Capra, starring Bessie Love and Johnnie Walker
  • The Midnight Taxi, directed by John G. Adolfi, Starring Antonio Moreno, Helene Costello and Myrna Loy
  • Mother Machree (lost), directed by John Ford, starring Victor McLaglen, Belle Bennett and Neil Hamilton
  • Moulin Rouge, directed by Ewald André Dupont – (GB)
  • My Man (lost), directed by Archie Mayo, starring Fanny Brice
  • Man's Heart — (Malaysia)
  • The Mysterious Lady, directed by Fred Niblo, starring Greta Garbo and Conrad Nagel
  • The Mysterious Mirror (Der Geheimnisvolle Spiegel), directed by Carl Hoffmann and Richard Teschner – (Germany/U.S.S.R.)
  • The Red Dance, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Dolores del Río and Charles Farrell
  • Red Hair (lost), directed by Clarence G. Badger, starring Clara Bow and Lane Chandler
  • The Ringer, directed by Arthur Maude – (GB)
  • The Road to Ruin, directed by Norton S. Parker, starring Helen Foster
  • Rose-Marie (lost), directed by Lucien Hubbard, starring Joan Crawford

S

  • Sadie Thompson, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Gloria Swanson and Lionel Barrymore
  • The Seashell and the Clergyman (La Coquille et le Clergyman), directed by Germaine Dulac – (France)
  • Sex in Chains (Geschlecht in Fesseln), starring and directed by William Dieterle – (Germany)
  • Show People, directed by King Vidor, starring Marion Davies and William Haines
  • The Singing Fool, directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring Al Jolson
  • Sins of the Fathers, directed by Ludwig Berger, starring Emil Jannings and Ruth Chatterton
  • Skyscraper, directed by Howard Higgin, starring William Boyd and Alan Hale
  • The Smart Set, directed by Jack Conway, starring William Haines
  • Something Always Happens, directed by Frank Tuttle, starring Esther Ralston, Neil Hamilton and Sôjin Kamiyama
  • A South Sea Bubble, directed by T. Hayes Hunter, starring Ivor Novello and Benita Hume – (GB)
  • Speedy, directed by Ted Wilde, starring Harold Lloyd
  • Spione (Spies), directed by Fritz Lang, starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge – (Germany)
  • Steamboat Bill, Jr., directed by Charles Reisner, starring Buster Keaton and Ernest Torrence
  • Steamboat Willie, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, debut of Mickey and Minnie Mouse
  • Storm Over Asia (Potomok Chingiskhana), directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin, starring Valéry Inkijinoff – (U.S.S.R.)
  • Street Angel, directed by Frank Borzage, starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell
  • Sweeney Todd, directed by Walter West, based on the 1847 stage play The String of Pearls, or The Fiend of Fleet Street by George Dibdin-Pitt) – (GB)

T

  • Take Me Home (lost), directed by Marshall Neilan, starring Bebe Daniels and Neil Hamilton
  • The Tell-Tale Heart, directed by Charles Klein and Leon Shamroy, based on the 1843 short story by Edgar Allan Poe
  • Tempest, directed by Sam Taylor, starring John Barrymore, Camilla Horn and Louis Wolheim
  • The Terrible People (lost), a 10-chapter serial directed by Spencer Gordon Bennett, starring Allene Ray and Walter Miller, based on the 1926 novel by Edgar Wallace
  • The Terror, directed by Roy Del Ruth, starring May McAvoy, Louise Fazenda and Edward Everett Horton, based on the 1927 stage play by Edgar Wallace
  • Terror Mountain, directed by Louis King, starring Tom Tyler
  • Tesha, directed by Victor Saville and Edwin Greenwood, starring María Corda – (GB)
  • Thérèse Raquin (lost), directed by Jacques Feyder – (France)
  • A Thief in the Dark, directed by Albert Ray
  • Three Sinners, directed by Rowland V. Lee, starring Pola Negri, Warner Baxter and Olga Baclanova
  • Tillie's Punctured Romance (lost), directed by A. Edward Sutherland, starring W. C. Fields, Chester Conklin and Louise Fazenda
  • Tommy Atkins, directed by Norman Walker, starring Lillian Hall-Davis – GB)
  • Toni, directed by Arthur Maude, starring Jack Buchanan – (GB)
  • The Trail of '98, directed by Clarence Brown, starring Dolores del Río, Ralph Forbes and Karl Dane
  • The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel, directed by T. Hayes Hunter, starring Matheson Lang – (GB)
  • Two Tars, directed by James Parrott, starring Laurel and Hardy

U

  • Underground, directed by Anthony Asquith – (GB)

V

  • The Viking, directed by Roy William Neill, starring Donald Crisp
  • Vormittagsspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast), directed by Hans Richter – (Germany)
  • The Vortex, directed by Adrian Brunel, starring Ivor Novello – (GB)

W

  • We Faw Down, directed by Leo McCarey, starring Laurel and Hardy
  • The Wedding March, directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim with Fay Wray and ZaSu Pitts
  • West of Zanzibar, directed by Tod Browning, starring Lon Chaney, Lionel Barrymore and Warner Baxter, based on the 1926 stage play Kongo by Chester De Vonde