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The story
Founded by Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures on Apr 9, 1970.1
Private company
Cinema International Corporation
Logo: Paramount Pictures & Universal Pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3
Defunct global distributor of American films
Cinema International Corporation (CIC) was a film distribution company started by Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures in the early 1970s to distribute the two studios' films outside the United States – it even operated in Canada before it was considered part of the "domestic" market. During the 1970s, CIC was the "most important agent of overseas distribution" for American films. In 1981, CIC merged with United Artists' international units and became United International Pictures.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0
Last updated Oct 20, 2026.
Overview
Apr 9, 1970Founded1
- HeadquartersUnited States1
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Cinema International Corporation (CIC) was a film distribution company started by Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures in the early 1970s to distribute the two studios' films outside the United States – it even operated in Canada before it was considered part of the "domestic" market. During the 1970s, CIC was the "most important agent of overseas distribution" for American films. In 1981, CIC merged with United Artists' international units and became United International Pictures. The formation of CIC, and the profit-sharing arrangement that made it work, has been described as the product of "revolutionary thinking".2
Subsidiaries and ownership
Owners
From Wikidata.1
Controversies and legal
Controversy
Practices conducted through CIC have come to be considered anti-competitive and likely would have run afoul of anti-trust laws if conducted in the United States.
CIC made headlines in 2012 because both Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures denied ownership of director William Friedkin's film, Sorcerer. The studios claimed they transferred ownership to CIC, which later dissolved, causing the rights to be in limbo. In April 2012, Friedkin sued the studios to discover who owned the domestic theatrical rights and to capture any royalty payments from VHS and DVD releases. At one point, a court date for March 2013 was set if the parties could not reach a settlement. However, it was exactly that month that Friedkin revealed that he had dropped his lawsuit against Universal and Paramount, and that he and a "major studio" (which was later revealed as Warner Bros.) were involved in the creation of a new, recolored digital print of Sorcerer, to be screened at the Venice Film Festival and to receive a Blu-ray release:
We're working off the original negative, which is in pretty good shape, but without changing the original concept we have to bring it back in terms of color saturation, sharpness and all the stuff... [The film's] been in a legal whirlpool for 30 or 35 years. And a lot of people have come and gone from the studios during that time, so it just takes awhile to unravel everything, but we're very close to announcing a premiere date.
From Wikipedia’s article on Cinema International Corporation, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4
Timeline
Links
- WikipediaCinema International Corporation
- More imagesWikimedia Commons
- WikidataQ1092416
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
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