Old Antitrust Consent Decrees in the Movie Business Terminated by Court, Will Others Follow?

In confirmation of William Faulkner’s observation that “The past is never dead. It’s not even past,” the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York agreed on Aug. 7 to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division’s request to terminate antitrust consent decrees that had dogged the motion picture industry for 70 years. It let stand a two-year sunset provision regarding selling films as a package, known as “block booking,” and circuit dealing.