Case Study: US V. Paramount Pictures, Inc.

How did the Paramount Decision alter the direction of film making? United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., also known as the Hollywood Antitrust Case of 1948, greatly altered the future of filmmaking in several ways. This ruling was the result of all of the major studios being sued by the United States Department of Justice in 1938 for unfair trade practices. As the result of this ruling, the major movie studios were forced to do away with block-booking of short films, reduce the block-booking of feature films to just five films, and “blind buying” was replaced with “trade showing”. Furthermore, because these companies were not complying with the new ruling, the lawsuit was reinstated by the U.S. government 3-years later, forcing these …show more content…
Hollywood actually created this list because they wanted to appear to be patriotic during the post World War II political climate when anticommunism was at an all time high. “With the dawning of the Cold War, anti-communist legislators grew concerned that the movie industry could serve as a source of subversive propaganda. Although popular Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s offered little evidence of an overriding Socialist agenda, the investigation proceeded. In October 1947, more than 40 people with connections to the movie industry received subpoenas to appear before HUAC on suspicion of holding communist loyalties or being involved in subversive activities.” (History.com Staff, 2009). This communist witch hunt had a negative impact on Hollywood because it resulted in the loss of some of the industry's most prominent talent, which included actors, screenwriters and directors. And, since communism was considered the greatest threat to American society at the time, many of these talented professionals were never able to resume their careers--causing a tremendous