Sammy Reed
09-08-2011, 02:34 PM
There are numerous pages online where one do searches on the 1948 "Paramount Case".
In as much of a nutshell as possible: Before 1948, the movie companies owned and/or controlled theaters, so that:
20th Century-Fox movies could only be shown in Fox theaters...
MGM movies could only be shown in Metro theaters...
Paramount movies could only be show in Paramount theaters...
RKO movies could only be shown in RKO theaters...
Warner Bros. movies could only be shown in Warner theaters...
etc.
Then came the landmark "Paramount Case" of 1948, which broke up the movie companies from theater ownership, and people could finally see "Wizard of Oz" in their local Paramount theater. (In my home town, the only "big-name" theater was a Paramount. There were other theaters which didn't have movie company names. I'm guessing maybe they got to show non-Paramount movies.)
Nowadays, we are in a situation where...
ABC is owned by Disney...
CBS owns Paramount television...
NBC owns Universal...
Fox, of course, was founded by 20th Century-Fox.
Not to mention the various cable channels each owns.
I'd like to know:
Does NBC currently run any Paramount shows?
Does CBS currently run any Universal shows?
Does ABC currently run any 20th Century-Fox shows?
If not, then I'm afraid we're getting close to the way things were in theaters before 1948.
In as much of a nutshell as possible: Before 1948, the movie companies owned and/or controlled theaters, so that:
20th Century-Fox movies could only be shown in Fox theaters...
MGM movies could only be shown in Metro theaters...
Paramount movies could only be show in Paramount theaters...
RKO movies could only be shown in RKO theaters...
Warner Bros. movies could only be shown in Warner theaters...
etc.
Then came the landmark "Paramount Case" of 1948, which broke up the movie companies from theater ownership, and people could finally see "Wizard of Oz" in their local Paramount theater. (In my home town, the only "big-name" theater was a Paramount. There were other theaters which didn't have movie company names. I'm guessing maybe they got to show non-Paramount movies.)
Nowadays, we are in a situation where...
ABC is owned by Disney...
CBS owns Paramount television...
NBC owns Universal...
Fox, of course, was founded by 20th Century-Fox.
Not to mention the various cable channels each owns.
I'd like to know:
Does NBC currently run any Paramount shows?
Does CBS currently run any Universal shows?
Does ABC currently run any 20th Century-Fox shows?
If not, then I'm afraid we're getting close to the way things were in theaters before 1948.