Cinema International Corporation

Cinema International Corporation (CIC) was a film distribution company started by Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios in the early 1970s to distribute the 2 studios' films outside the United States – it even operated in Canada before it was considered part of the "domestic" market.

On April 9, 1970, as a part of a cost-cutting move, caused due to declining movie-going audiences, and due to anti-trust rules, Paramount and Universal, merged their international distribution arms, into a new releasing company, Cinema International Corporation (CIC), registered in England and Wales.

In 1973, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer closed down its distribution offices and became a partner in CIC, which took over international distribution for MGM's films. However, United Artists took over the U.S. distribution for MGM's output at that time. CIC also entered the home video market by forming CIC Video, which distributed Paramount and Universal titles on video worldwide. MGM however, had its own video unit, which later became a joint venture with CBS as MGM/CBS Home Video (later known as MGM/UA Home Video, which was later renamed MGM Home Entertainment).

In 1981, MGM purchased United Artists, but could not drop out of the CIC venture to merge with UA's overseas operations. However, with future film productions from both names being released domesticity through the MGM/UA Entertainment plate, CIC decided to combine UA's international units with MGM and reformed as United International Pictures.

The CIC name lived on in its video division, which became directly managed as a joint venture of Paramount Home Video and MCA Videocassette, Inc. (later MCA Home Video and MCA/Universal Home Video). CIC Video survived until the late 1990s/early 2000s, in 1999 when Universal purchased PolyGram and reorganized its video division (which was a joint venture with what is now Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and remains so to this day) under the Universal name, while Paramount took over full ownership of CIC Video and merged it under its own video division.

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