Antitrust policies and their effects on the development of the American film industry (1900-1960)

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• Alberto López Artacho (University of Barcelona)
• Tuesday 20 May 2025, 16:00-17:00
• Room 12, Faculty of History (and on Microsoft Teams).

If you have a question about this talk, please contact gpap3.

In 1948, the United States Supreme Court found the most powerful Hollywood studios guilty of violating antitrust laws and ordered the divestiture of their movie theatres. During the trial, the major studios claimed that the accusations of restraint of trade and monopolization brought by the Department of Justice were baseless and contended that the alleged anticompetitive practices responded to the specific characteristics of the industry’s business model. The defendants argued that their dominance was obtained and maintained thanks to efficiency criteria and because they could offer more attractive films at more reasonable prices than their competitors. In recent years, several studies have emerged aligning with these positions. However, these analyses ignore economic and political aspects that were essential for the antitrust institutions to initiate the investigation. My thesis aims to investigate the impact of antitrust policies on the development of the United States film industry. To achieve this objective, I analyze how antitrust institutions have historically addressed anticompetitive behaviors in the film industry. The selection of the film industry as a case study is not arbitrary, given its long-standing relationship with antitrust institutions. Furthermore, as a mass-market entertainment industry, cinema can reach all levels of society and therefore has constantly faced political interference attempting to influence it. By examining the American film industry, I aim to contribute to the discussion on how state institutions should intervene in the economy to regulate a market suspected of being anticompetitive. The main proposition of this thesis is that, to promote free competition within an industry, economic factors are as significant as political ones. Therefore, the scope of antitrust policies should extend beyond economic elements to encompass political actions that restrain free competition, such as the excessive concentration of private power or moral and ideological censorship. In the first section of the thesis, which follows a traditional structure with chapters, I have analyzed the activities of antitrust institutions from an economic perspective. I argue that the approaches based on the self-regulation of the market and the efficiency of its conduct, as well as on consumer welfare standard, are ineffective in promoting market competition. The initial findings show that it not only contributes to perpetuating market power but also facilitates the emergence and consolidation of new anticompetitive behaviors that led to a systematic reduction of competition over decades.

This talk is part of the Graduate Workshop in Economic and Social History series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• AUB_Cambridge Seminars
• Department of Geography
• Economic and Social History Seminars
• Graduate Workshop in Economic and Social History
• Room 12, Faculty of History (and on Microsoft Teams)
• hc446
• history

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