Paramount Theatre

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One of the giants of the movie business–whether, in terms of production, distribution, or exhibition. Zukor had the organizational genius to establish a star system that the public demanded to see in the movie theaters that he built across the country. He was born in 1873 and died at the age of 103 in 1976. He was one of the founders of Paramount Pictures in 1912 and stayed with the company until 1959. He revoluntionized the film industry by organizing the production, distribution, and exhibition within a single company, He pioneered Block Blocking, which worked by using stars that exhibitors wanted but they also had to buy a year’s worth of other Paramount pictures. Zukor also pioneered the concept and now the accepted practice by which the distributor charges the exhibitor a percentage of the box office receipts. However, culminating in the forties, the federal government pursued the company on antitrust grounds. The U. S. Supreme Court decision led to the Paramount decree which forced movie studios to divest their theater circuits. Sources: Film Bulletin, January 12, 1953 and Wikipedia.