Filmgroup was a production and distribution company founded by filmmakers Roger Corman and Gene Corman in 1959. Corman used it to make and distribute his own movies, as opposed to ones he was making for American International Pictures. The company ultimately folded by lessons from running it helped Corman make a success later of New World Pictures. Filmgroup also produced early feature work of Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Curtis Harrington, Monte Hellman, Robert Towne and Jack Nicholson.
Corman established his own company, Palo Alto Productions, in 1954, which was responsible for his first two movies. Filmgroup came out of a desire for Corman to move into distribution. Gene Corman left the company in 1963 to join 20th Century-Fox and Corman handed over distribution of his films to American International Pictures. The company soon wound up. Corman never bothered to copyright the movies so most of them are in the public domain.[1]