It was founded in 1984 by four partners: Jon Turell, Bill Becker, Aleen Stein, and Robert Stein in Santa Monica, California, and later moved to New York City.
In partnership with Janus Films, the company published The Criterion Collection, a pioneering home video collection of classic and important contemporary films on LaserDisc.
[1] In 1986 it decided to make it company policy to only release widescreen films on LaserDisc in their original aspect ratio rather than pan and scan formats that was common for home media releases at the time.
[2] In 1994, the partnership was diluted by selling 20% of it to the von Holzbrinck Publishing Group, a German holding company.
In 1997, the Holzbrinck Group withdrew with its 20%, the name "Voyager", and half of the CD-ROM rights.