Theatre Enterprises, Inc. v. Paramount Film Distributing Corp.

TEI (plaintiff) operated a suburban Baltimore theater and was refused first-run films by Paramount and other studios (defendants), which uniformly limited such films to eight downtown theaters; TEI sued alleging an unlawful Sherman Act conspiracy, but the studios justified the parallel practice by pointing to their traditional exclusive-licensing system and the greater profitability of downtown theaters, and a jury found for the defendants, affirmed by the court of appeals.