General Cinema Corp. v. Buena Vista Distribution Co.

. ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

This suit involves an antitrust challenge to a practice in the licensing of motion pictures known as “split of product agreements” or “splits.” Under these arrangements, which have existed from time to time in various areas throughout the country, the members of the split meet to divide among themselves the upcoming films to be released. Each participating movie theater owner (“exhibitor”) receives, with respect to the film or films allocated to it, what is referred to as a “first right of negotiation” or a “first opportunity to negotiate” with the distributor for the film.

The party challenging this practice, Buena Vista Distribution Co., Inc., the principle domestic distributor of films produced by Walt Disney Productions, was originally named as a defendant in this action by plaintiff General Cinema Corp., which is a motion picture exhibitor operating one of the largest chains of theaters in the country. In August, 1978, General Cinema filed suit against Buena Vista, contending that an alleged imposition of minimum film rentals based on a per capita charge for each customer constituted unlawful price-fixing under Section 1…