Studios can now own movie theaters after a federal judge approved the Justice Department's effort to do away with the Paramount Consent Decrees of 1948. Those antitrust laws were put in place to prevent studios from having a stranglehold on both production and distribution. They applied to major studios such as Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and, yes, Paramount, though not the Walt Disney Company, which did not become a distributor until after the law went into effect. The rules also did not apply to newer studios like Lionsgate and A24. While the termination of the Paramount Consent Decrees …