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If there’s a simple explanation for the huge dropoff in production value between “Superman III” and “IV,” it’s the change in venue. Up until that point, producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind held the reins of the series. But according to Jake Rossen’s “Superman Vs. Hollywood,” they decided it was time to cut their losses after the disappointments of “III” and “Supergirl” and sell the rights to the highest bidder.
Those turned out to be Israeli-American schlock kings Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Their Cannon studio churned out pulpy, silly classics like “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo” and “The Apple” at head-spinning speed throughout the ’80s. This earned them success, but as the documentary “Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films” says, they really wanted respect. They chased it with a series of bad investments that lost them a staggering $90 million in just two years — over $200 million in 2022 dollars — and by 1987, they were still $5 million in the hole.
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The logical decision would be to lay low with the kind of low-risk, high-yield cheapies that had brought them fame in the first place. But Golan and Globus only knew how to go bigger and bigger, and they doubled down on their gambles by aiming to compete with the big-studio blockbusters through expensive flops like “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,” the Sylvester Stallone wrestling dud “Over the Top,” and, of course, Superman. Did it work? Well, let’s see.
