AMC Antitrust Lawsuit Can Move Forward

An antitrust lawsuit against the movie theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. will be allowed to move forward, the U.S. District Court of the District of Kansas ruled Dec. 27.

AMC uses its dominant market position to force movie distributors to give it exclusive licenses to play movies, thereby stifling competition, rival Cinetopia LLC claims. Specifically, AMC refuses to play any film that a distributor licenses to play in a competing theater in close proximity to an AMC theater, Cinetopia claims.

As a result of this policy, Cinetopia has been denied access to a number of hit movies like Godzilla ...