The film studio Cannon Films was known for its low-budget and action films, such as the Chuck Norris movies. However, when it secured the rights to Superman and He-Man, it reached its limits.
What kind of film studio is that? Cannon Films was founded by Dennis Friedland and Chris Dewey in 1967 and was initially successful. However, it soon faced financial difficulties and in 1979, the two Israeli producers Menahem Golan († August 2014) and Yoram Globus bought the company.
What was the studio’s strategy? The goal of the two producers was to acquire several scripts for little money in order to produce low-budget films. The idea behind it: Even if only a few of the produced films were successful, it would still be enough to pay for all the projects, since they were produced with small amounts of money.
The plan worked, and in the 1980s, the film studio was financially successful with the Chuck Norris films. Due to the success, the filmmakers gradually invested more money in their projects.
Thus, they also secured the rights to Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and planned a budget of 36 million dollars.
Here you can see a trailer for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace:
Not enough budget for two big superheroes
Where did the financial problems start? At the same time, a budget of 17 million dollars was planned for Masters of the Universe, a film adaptation of He-Man. However, it turned out that this was not enough money to complete the film.
So they took the Superman budget and halved it. While one half remained for the well-known DC hero, the rest was distributed among the other projects. This allowed Masters of the Universe to be completed, but now only 17 million dollars were left for Superman IV , significantly less than planned.
In his biography Still Me, the lead actor Christopher Reeve († October 2004) wrote about the filming of Superman IV the following:
Additionally, we were restricted by budget constraints and cuts in all departments. At that time, Cannon Films had almost thirty projects in the works, and Superman IV was not given particular consideration.
Konner and Rosenthal wrote a scene, for example, where Superman lands on 42nd Street and walks over the double yellow lines to the United Nations, where he gives a speech. Had that been a scene in Superman I, we would have actually filmed it on 42nd Street. Richard Donner would have choreographed hundreds of pedestrians and vehicles and cut to people gaping out of the office windows as Superman walks down the street like the Pied Piper.
Instead, we had to shoot in an industrial area in England in the rain, with about a hundred extras, no cars in sight, and a dozen pigeons to create the atmosphere. Even if the story had been brilliant, I don’t think we could have met the audience’s expectations with this approach.
Christopher Reeve, Source: Still Me
Allegedly, the new budget was not sufficient to complete the filming as planned. Nevertheless, Superman IV was released in 1987.
Superman failed to convince the audience
Although Superman IV managed to recoup its budget with a worldwide gross of 30 million dollars (via imdb), it did not resonate well with either audiences or critics.
This is also reflected in the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, with:
- 10 % Tomatometer
- 16 % Audience Score
With The Go-Go-Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films, a documentary about the company was released. You can read more about it here in our colleagues’ report on Filmstarts.
What happened to Cannon Films? Masters of the Universe was also released in 1987. However, this film, featuring Dolph Lundgren, also failed to impress audiences – the big hit was absent, even with the other projects, despite the large investments made.
Cannon Films attempted to create a sequel to Masters of the Universe and a Spider-Man film, but ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 1994.
If you celebrate the DC villains rather than the superheroes, you might be interested in this article about a new game on Steam: A new loot shooter on Steam is currently delighting players, but many say: Wait for a sale
