Sumner Redstone in the context of "Viacom (1952–2006)"

Cruise/Wagner Productions, also abbreviated as C/W Productions, was an American independent film production company. It was founded by actor Tom Cruise and his agent Paula Wagner in July 1992. Wagner had been representing Cruise for eleven years before the formation of C/W Productions. The company has grossed more than $2.9 billion in box office proceeds since its inception.

Cruise/Wagner Productions was formed to give Cruise more creative freedom over his film projects and to give him the opportunity to produce and direct motion pictures. In October 1992, Cruise/Wagner Productions signed an exclusive three-year multi-picture financing and distribution deal with Paramount Pictures. The deal was renewed and expanded several times over the next fourteen years. In August 2006 Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom (parent company of Paramount Pictures) terminated that relationship citing Cruise's comments in the media about psychiatry, anti-depressants and Brooke Shields' handling of postpartum depression, and his taking up Scientology. However, the termination may have been more about money than anything else. Within a week, Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins and two hedge funds, secured financial backing to buy the company.

National Amusements, Inc. was an American privately owned movie theater operator and mass media holding company incorporated in Maryland and based in Norwood, Massachusetts, controlled by the Redstone family. The company owned 69 theaters and 667 screens throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, and Latin America under several brands, such as Showcase Cinemas, Multiplex Cinemas, and Cinema de Lux. It was the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global.

National Amusements was founded by Michael Redstone, and later passed to his son Sumner Redstone. After his 2020 death, the company was passed to a trust led by his daughter Shari Redstone. After nearly 90 years of control by the Redstone family, in July 2024, David Ellison's Skydance Media announced its intent to acquire National Amusements and perform merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global to form Paramount Skydance Corporation. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the merger of Skydance Media and Paramount Global on July 24, 2025, with the merger closing on August 7, 2025, with National Amusements being absorbed into Paramount Skydance.

The second incarnation of Viacom Inc. (/ˈvaɪəkɒm/ VY-ə-kom or /ˈviːəkɒm/ Vie-ah-kom; a portmanteau of Video & Audio Communications) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate with interests primarily in film and television. It was split from the original Viacom on December 31, 2005, alongside the second incarnation of CBS Corporation. The controlling shareholder of both companies was National Amusements, a theater company headed by businessman Sumner Redstone. The split was structured so that the original Viacom changed its name to CBS Corporation and spun out its cable and film interests as a new Viacom.

The second Viacom operated Viacom Media Networks, through which it controlled approximately 170 networks and reached approximately 700 million subscribers in approximately 160 countries. Viacom's studio assets included Paramount Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Animation Studio, as well as a 30% ownership stake in the Rainbow S.p.A. animation studio. CBS Corporation retained the over-the-air broadcasting, television production, pay television subscription service, and publishing assets, which were previously owned by the first Viacom. The second Viacom was the world's ninth-largest media company in terms of revenue and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.