Gone are decades-old restrictions on how studios package movies for theaters, plus an end to a ban on vertical integration. Today, a federal judge addresses the possibility that a major studio will merge with a major theatrical chain.
After nearly three quarters of a century being the quiet influence on how Hollywood operated, the Paramount Consent Decrees are officially over. On Friday, a New York federal judge granted a motion by the U.S. Department of Justice to terminate the movie industry's long-lasting licensing rules.
The Paramount Consent Decrees have been in effect since the late 1940s when the government pursued a major antitrust action against film studios, which in those days, were vertically aligned with national theater chains. As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1948 decision in United
States v. Paramount Pictures, the studios had to divest themselves of their exhibition holdings. A court-approved settlement then established rules governing the licensing relationship between certain studios such as Paramount and Warner Bros. and theater owners. Other studios such as The Walt Disney Company weren't part of the original case, but have nevertheless been guided by those Paramount Consent Decrees.
www.thewrap.com
www.hollywoodreporter.com
is quite favorable.
