New York (AFP)

All major American studios will be able to hold cinemas in the United States, which was previously forbidden to most of them, announced Monday a US Department of Justice official in charge of competition.

The separation between film production and distribution has been in force in the United States since 1948, under an agreement between the studios and this ministry.

The US government in 1938 sued the five major Hollywood studios, which he accused of agreeing to control the entire industry.

In a speech delivered Monday before the American Association of Lawyers (ABA), a deputy of the Ministry of Justice, Makan Delrahim, announced that the ministry would ask a court to put an end to this mandatory separation.

After review, the government believes it is "unlikely" that the studios bound by this ban and still active today can agree again to control the film industry.

Among the five studios concerned were Paramount, MGM, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, all still in business, and RKO Pictures, who died in 1959.

Several major studios, mainly Disney, Sony or Netflix, born after this ban, were not concerned by it.

"It would be a mistake for the competition authorities to curb the potential of customer-driven innovation," said Makan Delrahim. "We can not pretend that the distribution and projection of films were the same as 80 years ago."

The lifting of the prohibition also concerns a practice called "block booking" which consisted for the studios to require a room or a network of rooms that they project several of their films and not only one, under the threat to deprive them of all their offer.

If "block booking" will remain banned for another two years, according to the head of competition, its possible return is a risk for small studios, which are already struggling to get slots against blockbusters major studios.

Another prohibited method, the "circuit dealing", will no longer be formally prohibited, also after a two-year transition period.

It is for large cinema networks to get studios to be able to screen their films rather than independent theaters, otherwise the film would not be shown on any of the screens of the network.

This is a potential threat to independent cinemas, already struggling for some.

© 2019 AFP