To Surmount Paramount Decrees by Degrees

The United States Supreme Court in United States v. Paramount and the subsequent Paramount Decrees in 1948 were the federal government’s original attempt to address the consolidation and concentration of the movie production, distribution, and exhibition markets. The government reversed its decision in 2020 because of both changes in the film industry and a change in the legal application of antitrust law. There are two schools of antitrust law thought: structuralism and the consumer welfare standard. The former is concerned with market concentration and supports the Paramount Decrees, and the latter is concerned with prices for consumers and is skeptical of government interference. The Paramount decision was imposed before the widespread adoption of both the rule of reason and consumer welfare standard by federal courts, and its implementation was a cause for the collapse of the Hollywood Golden Age. Its repeal in 2020 was an acknowledgment that antitrust law recognizes the procompetitive efficiencies created by vertical integration and a recognition that the filmmaking industry has significantly more means of exhibition using over-the-top media. Even if the streaming service market concentrates, it is unlikely to lead to increased consumer prices and should not warrant antitrust enforcement.