Sound enabled the American film industry to solidify its power as the leading exporter of entertainment. At the end of the 1920s, about two-thirds of the worlds 57,341 cinemas were outside the United States and provided Hollywood with substantial distribution revenue. Though one can read again and again that producers were terrified that sound would mean the loss of overseas markets, there is little expression of such terror in the trade journals of the day. Nor do the statistics show any decreases in exports. It is more likely that producers saw the emerging technology as an opportunity to saturate European markets with their product. The challenge, as with all other aspects of sound, was how to channel it in ways that would gather new audiences.

While the studios were converting in 1928, many were not convinced that the talkies would succeed in the domestic market, let alone overseas...