This has good info on the business side.
"While 'Avatar' is likely a watershed for digital and 3-D technology," they wrote, "it does not tell us that the underlying economics of the film business have changed."
Some of the facts aren't good but some are. Look at; 8. Laziness Innovates Movie Making, 7. Walter Murch Is Accidentally Forced to Reinvent Sound Editing, 4. A Camera Jams & A Career is Launched
Timeline of Greatest Film Milestones and Turning Points in Film History (by decade and year) The Pre-1900s (to 1889) Belgian optician and showman Etienne Gaspard Robertson's Phantasmagoria - a kind of amusement 'horror show' designed to frighten audiences that became popular in Europe.