Essay On The Paramount Decision

The Paramount decision and the Hollywood blacklist caused changes in filmmaking in America. It broke up major film studios, which caused a 20% drop in film revenue and it banned 10 influential members of the film industry from working. During the post-world war era the United States economic state was booming. American’s were working full time. They had a place to call home. Additionally most owned a television which was new technology for the time. The film industry at the time consisted of the Big 5 major studios, which were Paramount, RKO, Warner Bros., 20th Century-Fox, and MGM. However for the film industry it was in a new and uncharted place. With so many Americans owning televisions few of them went to movies anymore. With support from the government to produce war propaganda after the war, …show more content…
What made matters worse was the fact that the government was making claim that the Big 5 movie studios violated anti-trust acts buy monopolizing there films, preventing independent film company to get going. This was something the government tried to push before the war, but their efforts fell short. The big push came with the case against Paramount Picture, which was later name the Paramount decision. This was the Supreme Court case of 1948 that threatened the system, production of, distribution, and the financial base of the film industry (Lewis193). The government controlled the purse strings, the studios needed that money to produce their movies. Thus movies were not being financed and the production of movies decrease and things got bad in a hurry. Additionally the government wanted to rid Hollywood of supposed communist conspirator’s within the writers, producers, director, and even actors. With the decline of box office numbers the Supreme Court was able to strike and strike hard it did. Taking down Paramount was just the beginning on May 3rd 1948,