It was founded in 1982 as a joint venture between Columbia Pictures and the French company Gaumont to distribute foreign films in the US.

In 1984, Marcie Bloom, who was formerly of the New York Film Festival, joined Triumph Films to serve as New York publicity director (Bloom would later co-found Sony Pictures Classics).

[4][5] On January 5, 1988, the then-newly founded Columbia Pictures Entertainment announced that they would revive the Triumph brand as a new worldwide subsidiary, Triumph Releasing Corporation; this incarnation of Triumph provided administrative services related to the distribution of Columbia Pictures and Tri-Star Pictures in the U.S. and Canada, while internationally, Triumph would be responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution of Columbia and Tri-Star films under the direction of each individual studio.

The label went dormant again, becoming an in-name-only division of Sony Pictures Releasing Corporation.

Notable films include To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, The Ambulance, Brainscan, Magic in the Water (co-released by TriStar Pictures), The Golden Laws, Steamboy (co-distributed by Destination Films) and the critically panned SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2.