In 1970, Paramount and Universal merged their international distribution arms into a new releasing company, Dutch-based Cinema International Corporation, based on the calculation that the costs of international distribution by individual companies was insufficiently profitable to be sustained. The original scope of distribution for CIC consisted of Europe, South America and South Africa. In November 1973, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer closed down its distribution offices and became a partner in CIC, which took over international distribution for MGM's films; this made CIC a fifty-percent shareholder of South Africa's Film Trust, an owner-operator of theaters, which persisted into 1976, when Film Trust bought its way out of the partnership. The theater operating concern co-owned by CIC and Film Trust was called Cinitrust. This had a secondary effect of supporting Paramount and Universal in expanding beyond their singular association in South Africa with Ster. By 1975, CIC was operating in fourty-seven countries, and had distribution rights to about fourty-percent of Hollywood's output. By 1976, Warner Brothers International began working with CIC on international distribution, including in South Africa. Beyond distribution, CIC had ventures with MGM and Warner Brothers International for the operation of cinemas outside the United States. 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. 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 domestically through the MGM/UA Entertainment plate, CIC decided to merge with UA's international units and reformed as United International Pictures on November 1st. By this time, CIC was one of the two largest distribution companies in the United Kingdom, the other being Columbia-EMI-Warners Distributors. 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.. CIC Video survived until the late 1990s/early 2000s, in 1999 when Universal purchased PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and reorganized its video division under the Universal name, while Paramount took over full ownership of CIC Video and merged it under its own video division.
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" 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:
