Justice Department to Review 70-Year-Old Rules That Barred Major Studios From Owning Theaters

The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it is reviewing the rules that have guided distribution deals between Hollywood studios and movie theaters chains for the last 70 years.

The current rules, known as consent decrees, have been in place since a landmark Supreme Court case in 1948 ruled in favor of the DOJ in their antitrust suit against Paramount Pictures. The ruling outlawed “block booking,” which required theaters to screen several B-Movies from a studio in order to be licensed to screen the most in-demand releases.

Also Read: 'The Business:' When Hollywood Was the Center of the Entertainment Industry (Video)

The SCOTUS ruling also forced studios to sell their ownership stake in movie theaters, signaling the end of the movie palace era and the studio system that dominated the Golden Age of Hollywood. The ruling has also since been used as precedent for media antitrust cases, particularly involving vertical mergers.

But Makan Delrahim, who was appointed Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Antitrust Division last year by President Donald Trump, said the rules need to be reviewed as the landscape of the exhibitor industry has changed from largely single-screen theaters in the 1940s to nationwide multiplex chains today.

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“The Paramount Decrees have been on the books with no sunset provisions since 1949. Much has changed in the motion picture industry since that time,” Delrahim said in a statement. “It is high time that these and other legacy judgments are examined to determine whether they still serve to protect competition.”

A spokesperson for the Motion Picture Association of America told TheWrap it is aware of the DOJ’s decision but have no comment at this time. The National Alliance of Theater Owners also declined comment.

The Winners and Losers of Comic-Con 2018, From 'Aquaman' to 'Titans' to Donald Trump

We were a bit concerned that San Diego Comic-Con might be a little boring with Marvel and HBO skipping this year, but it turned out that 2018's edition of the most prominent gathering of nerds in the world was just as wild as always. So without further ado, here are our winners and losers from this year's Comic-Con.
Winner: Warner Bros. Pictures -- With Marvel Studios absent, Warner Bros really stepped up with its Hall H presentation this year. They delivered excellent trailers for "The Lego Movie 2," "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" and the new "Fantastic Beasts," and treated fans to the DC Comics version of what we normally get from Marvel with awesome footage from "Wonder Woman 1984" and "Aquaman" that was exclusive to Hall H and had everyone buzzing all day Saturday.
Warner Bros.
Loser: Johnny Depp -- Depp shocked everyone in Hall H when he appeared on stage in character as Grindelwald, but he left fans scratching their heads as he mumbled haltingly through his lines. More awkwardly, his appearance was followed 20 minutes later by the "Aquaman" cast, including his ex-wife, Amber Heard.
Warner Bros.
Winner: 20th Century Fox -- "The Predator" opened Comic-Con with a bang on Thursday, and Fox ably stepped into the normal Marvel Studios slot on Saturday night with a really fun and funny "Deadpool 2" panel.
20th Century Fox
Winner: "Amazon Prime Video" -- They basically took over Comic-Con this year, with the craziest fan activation we've ever seen, ads that were everywhere, and a "Man in the High Castle" panel that was immaculate in how it managed to provide fans with just enough compelling details for its third season without going overboard. We also thought the first episode of Jack Ryan was pretty promising.
Amazon
Loser: Marvel -- Marvel Studios didn't even have a presence at Comic-Con this year, and yet they had still managed to produce the biggest bummer story of the weekend with the firing of "Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn. Gunn's tweets are certainly indefensible, but the fact that Disney validated a smear campaign driven by disingenuous right-wingers is a whole other discussion.
Marvel
Winner: "Demolition Man" -- Being a cult classic approaching its 25th anniversary, there was not really any reason to expect the Wesley Snips/Sylvester Stallone flick to steal the show during Comic-Con. And yet it managed to do just that with a pop-up recreation of the film's five star Taco Bell restaurant that was the talk of the show Thursday evening.
Winner: "Venom" -- This movie has been trated pretty much like a joke since it was announced, but Sony's panel and footage presentation in Hall H could be the start of an image rehabilitation ahead of its October release. That panel left a lot of folks feeling good about this movie for the first time.
Sony
Loser: "Titans" -- So DC's first live-action TV series for its DC Universe streaming service was trending all day Thursday for all the wrong reasons. The first teaser trailer for the show was just so dopey and hilarious. Thanks, "F--- Batman."
DC
Winner: CW superheroes -- The CW dominated Ballroom 20 with a four-hour block of panels for "Supergirl," "Arrow," "Legends of Tomorrow" and "The Flash," and came out swinging hard. But most notable among the announced new cast and characters was the groundbreaking casting of trans actress Nicole Maines as the first transgender superhero, Dreamer.
CW
Winner/Loser: "Star Wars" -- Lucasfilm managed to bring something to Comic-Con that people actually cared about (the "Clone Wars" revival) for the first time in years. But also the presence of fans rocking "Star Wars" gear was pretty low for a Comic-Con taking place just two months after a new "Star Wars" film.
Lucasfilm
Winner: "Mayans MC" --
The sequel-spinoff to "Sons of Anarchy" has big shoes to fill, but the first 13-minutes screened during the "Mayans MC" Hall H panel Sunday busted through them. (Read about it here.) Not bad, especially since "Mayans" inherited "Sons'" old Hall H slot.
Loser: "The Walking Dead" -- Not AMC's fault by any means, but the Hall H panels for "The Walking Dead" and "Fear the Walking Dead" took place just after James Gunn was fired from "Guardians of the Galaxy" on Friday. That whole thing completely drowned out anything and everything in its path, so these business-as-usual panels weren't enough to make an impact.
AMC
Winner: "Iron Fist" -- The first season was easily the worst of Marvel's Netflix shows, but if the many clips we saw at the show's panel in Ballroom 20 are any indication of season 2's quality, folks could be in for a delightful surprise when it drops.
Netflix
Loser: Donald Trump -- Last year's edition of Comic-Con managed to be almost entirely apolitical, but that wasn't the case this time. Some attendees in anti-Trump cosplay drew tons of attention around the con, and we got some big moments during panels of stars expressing anti-Trump sentiments, like when Zoe Kravitz said during the "Fantastic Beasts" panel that if she had magic in real life she'd use it to impeach Trump. Politics didn't dominate the week, but folks were less shy about it this year.

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We take a look at who made a big splash and who fell flat at this year’s Comic-Con

We were a bit concerned that San Diego Comic-Con might be a little boring with Marvel and HBO skipping this year, but it turned out that 2018's edition of the most prominent gathering of nerds in the world was just as wild as always. So without further ado, here are our winners and losers from this year's Comic-Con.

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The Winners and Losers of Comic-Con 2018, From 'Aquaman' to 'Titans' to Donald Trump

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