Director Griffith""s original budget of $40,000 (expanded o $60,000) quickly ballooned, so Griffith appealed to businessmen and other investors to help finance the film - that eventually cost $110,000! The propagandistic film was one of the biggest box-office money-makers in the history of film, partly due to its exorbitant charge of $2 per ticket - unheard of at the time.The setting of the film is a tropical Malayan rubber plantation (a sign reads L Rubber Co., Singapore, Plantation No.1).The film""s startling opening presents the film as a mystery - it is one of the most famous opening sequences ever produced.Anubis accepted his offer and spared his life." As he chewed into a scorpion sent to him, an oasis sprouted out of the desert around him, named the Oasis of Ahm Shere, and he gave a triumphant yell.Michael entered the Carruthers house, climbed to the upstairs, and overturned the contents of Jamie""s shoe box (including a picture of his sister Laurie, a picture of himself as a boy in a clown costume, and a picture of his niece).