Paramount Classics was launched on May 15, 1998 and released such art house fare as The Virgin Suicides, You Can Count on Me, Sunshine, Mostly Martha, Winter Solstice, and three Patrice Leconte films (Girl on the Bridge, The Man on the Train, Intimate Strangers).

Paramount Classics was launched in May 1998 to distribute films with a more "arthouse" and/or foreign feel than its parent company, as well as occasionally distributing content from Paramount's other labels.

Paramount Vantage, Inc. (formerly known as Paramount Classics, Inc.) was a film production label of Paramount Pictures (which, in turn, has Paramount Global as its parent company), charged with producing, purchasing, distributing and marketing films, generally those with a more "art house" feel than films made and distributed by its parent company.

The Paramount Television Group and MTV Productions signed a deal to develop projects commissioned by MTV in 1994, and gave Paramount the right of first refusal on projects developed by MTV.