The Historic Paramount Consent Decrees May Be Overturned Soon - What This Means and How It Could Change Moviegoing
This week it was announced that the 1948 Supreme Court case of the Paramount Consent Decrees is possibly coming to an end. The Department of Justice states that the case, in which the government took Paramount Pictures to court and won a ruling that movie studios could no longer keep complete control over how films were distributed to theaters, is outdated.
In a speech to the American Bar Association, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim stated that the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is looking to terminate the decrees, “except for a two-year sunset period on the block booking and circuit dealing.” The sunset period would help guide the movie studios and movie theaters through the transition.
The upside to the change could mean that studios and streamers would have the option to open their own movie theaters and give fans options in that aspect. The downside is that studios now have more pull as to whom they release their movies to, for how long, and under what conditions. So if a small theater wanted to show indie films, the studio who owns one of the films could say that the theater also has to show a big budget film if they want access to the small one.
It will be an interesting change that I’m sure we won’t notice for a while. I do feel bad for the small theaters who really do want to make their own rules, and I do think it would be cool to have a streaming theater. I guess we will just have to see how it will all play out.
What do you think about the possible changes?
Source: Wall Street Journal