United International Pictures
United International Pictures (UIP) is an internationally active film distributor headquartered in London, formed in 1981 from the Cinema International Corporation and the international cinema distribution company of United Artists .
history
After the Cinema International Corporation had been responsible for the film distribution of the products of its three partners Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures on the non-American cinema market since the 1970s , it merged with the international distribution network of United Artists in 1981. The company was renamed United International Pictures.
This was preceded by the takeover of United Artists by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1981. United Artists had its own worldwide film distributor. However, this had to be closed after the merger between MGM and UA, as the company controlled by Kirk Kerkorian had undertaken to have all of the cinema films produced by him evaluated through the joint international distribution. This agreement also applied to the products of United Artists.
From 1981 United International Pictures appeared as a film distributor for Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and its subsidiary United Artists. The three partners owned an equal stake in the company.
The film company DreamWorks SKG , founded in 1994, concluded a distribution agreement for the non-American area with Universal Pictures. This related to the cinema and home entertainment exploitation of all products legally controlled by Dreamworks Pictures. Since then, the Dreamworks Pictures films have been brought to theaters by United International Pictures.
In 2000 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer resigned from United International Pictures. Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures now each held 50% of the company. MGM now rents its products through the international distribution arm of 20th Century Fox .
In 2005, the two shareholders Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures decided to end the cooperation in United International Pictures in certain markets. From 2007 both companies will have set up their own international film distributors. The previous individual subsidiaries of the UIP will be split between the two. Paramount Pictures takes over the branches in Australia , Brazil , France , Ireland , Mexico , New Zealand and Great Britain . Universal Pictures will independently continue to run the branches in Austria , Germany , Belgium , Italy , the Netherlands , Russia , Spain and Switzerland . For the other partner in United International Pictures, this means setting up their own rental companies in the respective countries. The remaining states not affected by this agreement will continue to be supplied with cinema products by the then reduced United International Pictures.
United International Pictures in Germany
In Germany, too, United International Pictures first operated as Cinema International Corporation before the company was renamed United International Pictures GmbH in 1981 . The company headquarters was in Frankfurt am Main . In 2005, the company had a total of 40 employees.
In January 2007 the name was changed to Universal Pictures International Germany GmbH . Since then the company has been part of the international distribution arm of Universal Pictures . It is still located in the offices of the former UIP in Frankfurt. Films from Paramount Pictures were distributed by Universal in Germany until the end of 2008. Since 2009 Paramount has had its own distributor under the name Paramount Pictures Germany , based in Unterföhring near Munich, which also brings DreamWorks films to German cinemas.
United International Pictures in Austria
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Cinema success of the films awarded in Austria |
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| year | Movies | Cinema visits | Market share | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 22nd | 3,576,104 | 19.46% | ||||
| 2005 | 28 | 3,609,294 | 23.95% | ||||
| 2006 | 27 | 3,170,661 | 19.00% | ||||
| 2007 | 30th | 3,398,118 | 22.80% | ||||
In Austria, UIP, based in Vienna - Neubau , has been one of the largest rental companies for years, with market leadership in 2004 and 2005 (no figures are publicly available for the period before that) . In addition to UIP, the Austrian rental market is dominated by Centfox , Walt Disney Studios (until 2005 Buena Vista International ), Sony Pictures , Warner Bros. and, as the only large Austrian distributor, Constantin Film-Holding , each with between 10 and 25% market share ( large annual fluctuations). In 2007 UIP appeared in Austria as Universal Pictures International (UPI).
It is particularly noticeable with UIP, as with the other US distributors, that they achieve their great distribution success with relatively few films. Constantin Film-Holding, as the only comparably large non-US distributor in Austria, needs more than twice as many films each year for a nearly large number of visitors. In terms of the number of films awarded, considering the last few years with available figures (2004, 2005 and 2006), either Constantin Film-Holding or the next two largest, but in comparison significantly smaller, Austrian distributors, Filmladen and Polyfilm, are the largest distributors - each with an annual rate around 40 to 60 films. This illustrates the great attraction of the mostly US-American films produced in Hollywood, which is achieved in addition to the film stories geared towards mass taste, on the one hand, through the use of world-famous film stars and, on the other hand, through a seamless advertising machinery.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Paramount Pictures International announces managing director for the new German distributor ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. PDF document
- ↑ German Paramount Team complete article from m-mba.de
- ↑ Filmwirtschaftsbericht 2006, facts + figures 2004 (PDF) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Austrian Film Institute , distribution information according to Nielsen EDI , June 2006, p. 29 (page accessed on April 11, 2008)
- ↑ Filmwirtschaftsbericht 2007, facts + figures 2005 (PDF) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Austrian Film Institute, distribution information according to Nielsen EDI, June 2007, p. 31 (page accessed on April 11, 2008)
- ↑ Filmwirtschaftsbericht 2007, facts + figures 2006 (PDF) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Austrian Film Institute, distribution information according to Nielsen EDI, December 2007, p. 27 (page accessed on April 11, 2008)
- ↑ Film Industry Report 2008, facts + figures 2007 (PDF) ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Austrian Film Institute, distribution information according to Nielsen EDI, August 2008, p. 29 (page accessed on December 23, 2008)
Web links
- International website of United International Pictures English (Flash)