The Justice Department have terminated rules dating back to the early days of Hollywood relating to anti-trust movie distribution.

“We cannot pretend that the business of film distribution and exhibition remains the same,” Makan Delrahim, the antitrust chief at the Justice Department, said at an American Bar Association conference in Washington. “Changes over the course of more than half a century also have made it unlikely that the remaining defendants can reinstate their cartel.”

The rules stated that the the studios could not also own movie theatres, thus controlling the entire industry. It also stated that studios could not limit the number of theatres in a geographic region. It also banned “block booking” the practise where studios forced theatres to play their bad movies alongside the good or not at all.

The ending of the rules will unlikely harm the big companies who control the majority of multiplexes across the country, but there are fears in the industry the new rules will harm small independent theatres.

“If distributors can engage in block booking, exhibitors may be forced to pack their screens with global tentpoles at the expense of targeted programming,” the National Association of Theater Owners aid in its submitted comments to the Justice Department, referring to blockbuster films that now dominate the box office. “Consumers will face increasingly limited choices at the box office, and, without the possibility of a theatrical run, many films will no longer be made, limiting the availability of choices through home entertainment platforms as well.”

Read More: New York Times