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United International Pictures (or UIP) is a joint venture of Paramount Pictures (owned by Viacom, which is owned by National Amusements, Inc.) and Universal Studios (owned by NBC Universal/General Electric), to distribute some of the two studios films theatrically outside United States (including territories) and Canada. It also has rights to distribute films theatrically by DreamWorks (formerly owned by Viacom, soon to distribute through The Walt Disney Company) and independent films. It was the successor to Cinema International Corporation.

UIP also had international theatrical distribution rights to features by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (which included Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists; now part-owned by Sony Corporation of America) when MGM was part of the venture until 2000 when MGM dropped out^[1], and at that time, international distribution rights to MGM films were passed on to 20th Century Fox (owned by News Corporation). UIP holds the Turkish rights to films by Walt Disney Pictures.

The company was formed in 1981 after MGM purchased UA^[1], and merged its international distribution arm with what was then called Cinema International Corporation, which once had a video division, CIC Video. The company is based in the United Kingdom (London), with offices in 34 countries, and represented in 23 other countries. Regional offices are in Singapore, Japan, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Sydney (Australia). Seven years after their debut, they helped out with Denzel Washington's 1989 film, For Queen and Country.

Starting in 2007, UIP considerably reduced its international operations. At least 15 "key countries" are now directly managed separately by Universal (taking over operations in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland)^{[2] [1]} and Paramount (taking over operations in Australia, Brazil, France, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand and the UK)^[1]. Though it was initially planned to be kept intact, UIP's Japanese operations ceased in late 2007 ^[3]; as Paramount took its Japanese distribution operation in-house^[4] and Universal Pictures Japan formed distribution alliances with Toho-Towa for theatrical distribution^[5] and Geneon Entertainment (now Geneon Universal Entertainment) for home entertainment distribution^[6]

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• United International Pictures
• United International Pictures at the Internet Movie Database

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