It is with sadness we report that today Menahem Golan, co-founder of 1980’s movie studio Cannon Films, has died at the age of 85. According to multiple Israeli news outlets, Golan lost consciousness while strolling outside his house in the city of Jaffa with family members in the early hours of Friday evening. Ambulances rushed to the scene, and following attempts of more than an hour to resuscitate him, paramedics pronounced him dead.
With his cousin and business partner Yoram Globus, the duo purchased Cannon Films, which at the time was a ailing film company, in 1979 for $500,000. When Cannon was at the height of its powers in 1986/7, shares in company had jumped up $35 a share. With their speciality of producing B-movies cheaply and selling them on for profit, Cannon thrived in the mid-eighties, and for a while in 1986 it looked like they would become a new Hollywood “major”. Sadly, their business strategy soon began to unravel, and by the early 1990’s had gone bankrupt.
Famous for their over-the-top marketing strategies, Cannon produced over 200 films under the Golan-Globus management, including at one point having over 80 films in production at once. At the time their model worked, and they continued to produce B-movies, as well as try to earn their share of the blockbuster market, but soon enough their funds ran out and they were forced to close.
That said, the studio did produce an eclectic mix of films: from the action films such as Missing in Action (1984) and The Delta Force (1986) which helped launch the career of star Chuck Norris; the Death Wish sequels, starring Charles Bronson; horror sequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986); to more prestigious fare, such as John Cassavetes’ Love Streams (1984), which won Berlin’s Golden Bear, Franco Zefferelli’s Otello (1986) and Runaway Train (1985) starring Jon Voight.
It was in 1987, however, that Cannon took it’s biggest steps yet into more mainstream blockbuster, but sadly both Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and toy-line adaptation Masters of the Universe were plagued with monetary and production problems, and both flopped at the box office, causing Cannon huge financial and commercial loss.
Despite all their problems towards the end, Cannon were a real power during their peak, and did have some great success. But it was the behind-the-scenes talk that got many people interested in their history, so much so that two documentaries on the studio have had their debuts in the last few months: The Go-Go Boys, which debuted at Cannes, and Mark Hartley’s Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, both of which will hopefully be in cinemas before the year is out.
For now, and to get a small glimpse at life inside Cannon Films, check out the video below of an old BBC Omnibus episode from 1986. It will certainly give you an idea of what it was like to work for Cannon, and their eccentric owners Golan and Globus.
Originally published August 9, 2014. Updated April 15, 2018.
