New Rules on Distribution

Movie distribution rules which have been in place in America since 1949 are set to be abolished.

The U.S. Justice Department plans to overturn the regulations because streaming and other technological developments have changed the film landscape.

“We cannot pretend that the business of film distribution and exhibition remains the same,” explained the Justice Department’s antitrust chief Makan Delrahim.

The old distribution rules enacted in 1949 were aimed at ensuring the largest studios did not control the film business and made illegal “block booking” – the practice of them forcing theatre owners to play the movies they wanted regardless of how they were performing.

Delrahim said, “That was when metropolitan areas generally had a single movie theater with one screen that showed a single movie at a time. Today, not only do our metropolitan areas have many multiplex cinemas showing films from different distributors, but much of our movie watching is not in theaters at all.”

But not everyone is happy with the rule change. The National Association of Theater Owners argue that abolishing the decrees could see a return to block booking, threatening the survival of smaller theaters.

“If distributors can engage in block booking, exhibitors may be forced to pack their screens with global tentpoles at the expense of targeted programming,” the association said in a statement, warning about the potential dominance of blockbuster films.

“Consumers will face increasingly limited choices at the box office and, without the possibility of a theatrical run, many films will no longer be made, limiting the availability of choices through home entertainment platforms as well.”

— Sandro Monetti