The Popcorn Palace Economy - The thirsty moviegoer fuels the business.

Interesting brief article on the movie theater business. As an aside, I swear the popcorn doesn't taste as good as it did 5-10 years ago.

Not too many surprises in this article. However, one thing did jump out at me: "in 1948, the government forced the studios to divest themselves of the theaters". That doesn't seem right to me. Why does the federal government have the authority to decide whom gets to own a movie theater?

The Popcorn Palace Economy - The thirsty moviegoer fuels the business. By Edward Jay Epstein: "The Popcorn Palace Economy
The thirsty moviegoer fuels the business.
By Edward Jay Epstein

Once upon a time, movie studios and movie theaters were in the same business. The studios made films for theater chains that they either owned or controlled, and they harvested almost all their revenue from ticket sales. Then, in 1948, the government forced the studios to divest themselves of the theaters. Nowadays, the two are in very different businesses. Theater chains, in fact, are in three different businesses."

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