United States vs. Paramount Pictures- Court Case

Paramount Pictures was a major film studios and they owned theatres were there films were only shown, this was through partnerships. Everyone including directors, producers and actors and staff owned the film process and they also created the prints and then distributed them throughout some theatres that thy owned. The issue that the studios had unfair trade practices was one of the reasons that they got sued in 1938 by the U.S Department of Justice. The society of Independent Motion Picture Producers also filed a lawsuit against Paramount Theatres in 1942, this became the first major lawsuit.

The federal government case in 1938 settled with a consent decree in 1940 this allowed the government to reinstate the lawsuit. The consent decree included some conditions;
·        The ‘big five’ studios couldn’t block-book short films.

·        The ‘big five’ could block-book features but they could only apply this to the maximum of five films.

·        Buying films without seeing the film beforehand would be outlawed and replaced with ‘trade showing’ special screenings every two weeks.

·        An administration board was formed to enforce these requirements.

The film industry didn’t meet the requirements of the consent decree, this therefore forces the government to reinstate the lawsuit. In 1943 the case went to trial and they reached Supreme Court in 1948 and they wanted them to get to get rid of their movie chains. The defendants in court were Paramount, RKO Radio Pictures, Loew’s, 20^th Century-Fox, Columbia, Universal International and Warner Bros. This made a dip in the movie business until 1972 when ‘The Godfather’- the first modern blockbuster. Paramount spilt into two companies: Paramount Pictures and the theatre chain United Paramount Theatres they then merged in 1953 with American Broadcasting Company, consequences of the decision include;

·        More independent producers and studios to produce their film product free of major studio interference.
·        The beginning of the end of the old Hollywood studio system and its golden age.

Their film libraries, especially with the rise of television- that then result of these libraries being sold to other entities. Paramount itself sold off a majority of its films to MCA, which then created EMKA.