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Movie Companies May Soon Own Theaters Again

As part of the Department of Justice’s review of nearly 1,300 legacy antitrust judgments, the Antitrust Division today announced that it has filed in the District Court for the Southern District of New York a motion to terminate the Paramount Consent Decrees, which for over 70 years have regulated how certain movie studios distribute films to movie theatres.

After a thorough review, including a 60-day public comment period, the Antitrust Division has determined that the Paramount decrees have served their original remedial purposes and no longer serve to promote or protect competition and innovation.

“The Paramount decrees long ago ended the horizontal conspiracy among movie companies in the 1930s and ‘40s and undid the effects of that conspiracy on the marketplace,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.  “The Division has concluded that these decrees have served their purpose, and their continued existence may actually harm American consumers by standing in the way of innovative business models for the exhibition of America’s great creative films.”

In 1938, the Division filed an antitrust lawsuit against several major motion picture companies alleging that those companies had engaged in an industry-wide conspiracy to control the motion picture distribution and exhibition markets. After several years of litigation, including a Supreme Court decision in United States v. Paramount, 334 U.S. 131 (1948), the Division and the defendants entered into a series of consent decrees, collectively called the Paramount decrees.  These decrees required the movie studios to separate their distribution operations from their exhibition businesses.  They also banned various motion picture distribution practices, including block booking (bundling multiple films into one theatre license), circuit dealing (entering into one license that covered all theatres in a theatre circuit), resale price maintenance (setting minimum prices on movie tickets), and granting overbroad clearances (exclusive film licenses for specific geographic areas).

The Paramount decrees, like other legacy antitrust judgments, have no sunset provisions or termination dates.  They continue to govern how the film industry conducts its business, despite significant changes to the industry, including technological innovations, new movie platforms, new competitors and business models, and shifting consumer demand.  Unlike 70 years ago, the first-run movie palaces of the 1930s and ‘40s that had one screen and showed one movie at a time have been replaced by multiplex theatres that have multiple screens showing movies from many different distributors at the same time.  New technology has created many different movie platforms that did not exist when the decrees were entered into, including cable and broadcast television, DVDs, and the Internet through movie streaming and download services.

The Justice Department’s motion to terminate the Paramount decrees would allow a two-year transition period for block-booking and circuit dealing to allow the theatre and motion picture industry to have an orderly transition to the new licensing changes.

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Rich Mitchell

Rich Mitchell is the editor-in-chief of Conservative Daily News and the president of Bald Eagle Media, LLC. His posts may contain opinions that are his own and are not necessarily shared by Bald Eagle Media, CDN, staff or .. much of anyone else. Find him on twitter, facebook and

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One Comment

  1. As I see it there is NOTHING that Hollywierd provides that is worth wasting time to view. Hollywierd has evolved from entertainment into political rhetoric!

    Hollywierd hasn’t produced ANYTHING of value for DECADES and this waste of celluloid is no different.

    This “art form” (films) has gone and has ventured down into the sewer as a medium that needs to attract mindless patrons resorts to employing gratuitous sex, violence, gore, language, and now adding the QUEER element to compensate for poor acting, poor scriptwriting, and story lines.

    I would really like to know who in their right mind would give credence to, let alone pay to see, a bunch of Narcissistic Hypocritical Xenophobic Misogynistic Transgender Queer Pedophiles (Hollywierd Morons) who reside in LA LA Land and have the comprehension and sophistication level of a dog turd, who either earn (?) their living pretending to be someone else or live a charmed life because of their looks, questionable talent or might know someone who might be someone important!!!! These HYPOCRITICAL CLOWNS have the brain of a pebble and need someone else to put words in their mouths alter their voices or make them up to appear semi presentable and/or coach them in a way to appear semi literate or talented. Listening to them speak without a script speaks volumes for their character intellect and or sophistication (or lack thereof)!!! I would be remiss if I failed to include Athletes who pontificate as if they are royalty and are paid a king’s ransom for having a God given talent to play a professional sport, and are in need for nothing!

    What makes matters worse is these insecure clowns CRAVE attention and all the adulation they can get so much so they promote countless televised events in which they pat each other’s backs presenting award after award to one another for accomplishing absolutely nothing!

    The difference between Hollywierd Idiots and political idiots is most often Hollywierd Idiots have writers to make them appear to be semi intellectual. Take the writers out of the equation and you have the likes of Robert DeNiro. We all know how intellectual he displayed himself to be when he ranted about Trump Actually truth be told DeNiro was describing most of Hollywierd particularly himself

    Here is something to ponder – The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance.

    Well at some time in our life most of us have probably needed the services of a Doctor or have been taught by a Teacher. Most of us have needed farmers, and on occasions an auto mechanic, a plumber, a house painter, and many other everyday people. But I would be more than willing to bet the farm that none of us have EVER, not even once NEEDED a Pro athlete, media personality, or Hollywierd entertainer for ANYTHING!!!

    A Hollywierd celebrity or professional sports personality is an entertainer; so is an organ grinder’s monkey. Does anyone really believe I care about what an organ grinder’s monkey, Hollywierd idiot or Pro-athlete thinks, (or most importantly says) about anything?

    Sp give me the classics anytime where the audience needed to use their brain and imagination to enjoy being entertained!

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