[10] Corman was also famous for handling the U.S. distribution of many films by noted foreign directors, including Federico Fellini (Italy), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), François Truffaut (France) and Akira Kurosawa (Japan).

He mentored and gave a start to many young film directors such as Francis Ford Coppola,[11] Ron Howard,[12] Martin Scorsese,[13] Jonathan Demme,[14] Peter Bogdanovich,[15] Joe Dante,[16] John Sayles,[17] and James Cameron,[18][19] and was highly influential in the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

[20][21] He also helped to launch the careers of actors including Peter Fonda,[22] Jack Nicholson,[18] Dennis Hopper,[17] Bruce Dern,[23] Diane Ladd,[24] and William Shatner.

[25] Corman occasionally acted in films by directors who started with him, including The Godfather Part II (1974),[26] The Silence of the Lambs (1991),[27] Philadelphia (1993),[28] Apollo 13 (1995),[29] and The Manchurian Candidate (2004).

[citation needed] Corman used his script fee and personal contacts to raise US$12,000 (equivalent to $136,149 in 2023) to produce his first feature, a science-fiction film, Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954).

[42] Instead, Corman did some uncredited directing on The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955), then made another Western, Apache Woman (1955), starring Lloyd Bridges, written by Lou Rusoff.

[56] Corman received his first serious critical praise for Machine-Gun Kelly (1958), an AIP biopic of the famous gangster, which gave Charles Bronson his first leading role and co-starred Cabot.

[58] War of the Satellites (1958) was conceived and shot in record time to take advantage of the Sputnik launch; it was his first collaboration with art director Daniel Haller.

[60] In 1959, Corman founded The Filmgroup with his brother Gene, a company producing or releasing low-budget black-and-white films as double features for drive-ins and action houses.

[75] Corman hired Charles Beaumont to write Masque of the Red Death and announced two films, Captain Nemo and the Floating City[76] and House of Secrets.

[79] Corman was unhappy with his profit participation on the first two Poe films, so he made a third adaptation for different producers, The Premature Burial (1962), written by Charles Beaumont and starring Ray Milland.

[81] For Filmgroup, he also bought the rights to a Soviet science-fiction film, Nebo Zovyot (1959) and had some additional footage shot for it by his then-assistant, Francis Ford Coppola; the result was Battle Beyond the Sun (1962).

Later, Corman used the sets for that film for The Terror (1963), made for Filmgroup but released by AIP, and starring Boris Karloff (whose scenes were all shot in two days) and Jack Nicholson.

[citation needed] Back in the U.S., Corman made X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963), a contemporary science-fiction film for AIP starring Ray Milland.

[citation needed] Corman directed a war film in Yugoslavia with his brother, The Secret Invasion (1964), with Stewart Granger and Mickey Rooney, from a script by Campbell.

[citation needed] He also bought the rights to a Yugoslavian film, Operation Titan (1963), and financed additional shooting by Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman.

Corman received an offer to direct a studio film, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), for 20th Century Fox, starring Jason Robards and George Segal.

[102] For AIP, Corman returned to the director's chair for a gangster film, Bloody Mama (1970), starring Shelley Winters and a young Robert de Niro.

[104] Corman was going to make a film of Couples, a novel by John Updike for United Artists, and In from a script by Richard Schupe,[105] but decided to take a break from directing.

"[106] In May 1970, Corman founded New World Pictures, which became a small independently owned production/distribution studio,[107] immediately successful with Angels Die Hard (1970), a biker film, and The Student Nurses (1971), directed by Rothman.

[109][112] and Corman's distribution side of New World brought many foreign films to mass audiences in the U.S. for the first time – reportedly some played at drive-ins and grindhouses – including the works of François Truffaut (The Story of Adele H., Small Change), Peter Weir (The Cars That Ate Paris), Federico Fellini (Amarcord), Joseph Losey (The Romantic Englishwoman), Volker Schlöndorff (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, The Tin Drum) and Akira Kurosawa (Dersu Uzala).

[citation needed] Corman had a four-picture deal with 20th Century Fox,[113] making Capone (1975), Fighting Mad (1976) (directed by Demme), Moving Violation (1976) and Thunder and Lightning (1977).

[117] It was successful enough for Corman to give both men jobs directing features on their own: Dante with Piranha (1978) and Arkush with Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979).

[122] Similarly, in Galaxy of Terror, as noted on Schlock and Awe...some, "Corman promised the investors that the film would feature a Taaffe O'Connell sex-scene and a gruesome death-scene as-well.

[130] Millennium's films included Space Raiders (1983), a science fiction epic using footage and music from Battle Beyond the Stars; Love Letters (1984), a serious drama from Amy Holden Jones; Screwballs (1984), a sex comedy in the vein of Porky's; Suburbia (1984), directed by Penelope Spheeris, which he acquired, Deathstalker; and Kain of Dark Planet (which became The Warrior and the Sorceress).

Avi Arad, one of Marvel's owners at the time, disputes this and contends that he bought out Corman & Eichinger in order to protect the image of the characters for future films.

Titles included Bram Stoker's Burial of the Rats, Caged Heat 3000, Death Race 2020, Welcome to The Little Shop of Horrors, and Rock & Roll High School — the latter featuring the Melvins (instead of the Ramones).

[150] Notable creators published by Cosmic Comics included Trevor Goring, James Kochalka, Jason Lutes, Pat Mills, Shane Oakley, Jerry Prosser, and J. R. Williams.

[179] A number of noted filmmakers (including directors, producers, writers, and cinematographers) have worked with Corman, usually early in their careers, including Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Polly Platt, Peter Bogdanovich, Declan O'Brien, Armondo Linus Acosta, Paul Bartel, Jonathan Demme, Donald G. Jackson, Gale Anne Hurd, Carl Colpaert, Joe Dante, James Cameron, John Sayles, Monte Hellman, Carl Franklin,[180] George Armitage, Jonathan Kaplan, George Hickenlooper, Curtis Hanson, Jack Hill, Robert Towne, Menahem Golan, James Horner, and Timur Bekmambetov.

"[citation needed] Actors who obtained their career breaks working for Corman include Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Charles Bronson, Todd Field[183] Michael McDonald, Dennis Hopper, Tommy Lee Jones, Talia Shire, Sandra Bullock, Robert De Niro, and David Carradine, who received one of his first starring film roles in the Corman-produced Boxcar Bertha (1972) and went on to star in Death Race 2000 (along with Sylvester Stallone).