Why Did Cannon Fall Apart?

It's been a good while since I've done a text entry, and since we're off for two weeks I figured it was about time to write another. We can't leave you hanging too long! This time I want to talk about why Cannon died.

They were a massively influential studio with a good customer base and a place in the library for any self-respecting action film fanatic. Starting with their ownership in 1980 the Israeli cousins Golan and Globus turned a decent underground movie studio into a b-film hit factory. They kept the budgets small and made their movies quick. This resulted in some slapdash fair, especially early on, but by 1984 they were swinging for the fences. By 1987 they were rolling in the dough with this simple formula. But then a few years later they would be near broke and ready to close up shop. Just as soon as they came, they vanished.

Around 15 years of their war on mainstream Hollywood ended with a whimper.

So what happened?

We all know the financial issues that were at play in Cannon's destruction, as well as the cousins no longer getting along by the end of the '80s, but that shouldn't mean failure right off the bat. You can recover from both financial issue and frayed personal relationships. In fact, they were in operation half a decade after their biggest blunders!

So what, precisely, lead to their downfall?

If you've been keeping up with Cannon Cruisers you've noticed that 1988 was not a particularly good year for Cannon, almost reaching their previous lows of 1980. Before this season even the bad movies had a charm and spunk to them that made them enjoyable to watch. Not so much here. For 1988 we only enjoyed two movies immensely: Bloodsport and Cry in the Dark. There were a handful of decent flicks from Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson, and a passable Michael Dudikoff picture, but otherwise Cannon batted total whiffs in '88. Just looking over our lineup for season 6, tentatively covering 1989-1990, show flicks looking just as rocky, if not worse. We should find a gem or two, we always do, but we aren't feeling too hopeful looking ahead.

This, after spending 1980-1986 in ascension, and 1987 with big budget plays. Now they are on their decline which we know will not let up until they close and finish pushing out products by 1995. It feels like it happened overnight. Well, not really. It took one really bad year.

The two of us have been watching any Cannon film we could get our hands on for this project and have to date have watched 70 or so films spread across 8 years, which means we've noticed a few patterns. We have noticed their change is a lot more obvious than you'd think. The reason Cannon Films went under is because they lost their way.

In their first six years Cannon slowly built themselves up with their method of tight budgets, quick productions, and entertainment first. The first few years were them getting their ducks in a row, but by 1984 they were clicking together. They learned the balance of how to be quick, cheap, and flashy, while making movies they matched their ambitions. There wasn't any other studio like them.

By the time Missing in Action, Ninja 3: The Domination, and Breakin' 2, came out in '84 they already proved themselves to be the place to go if you wanted to have a good time. They would build that up in 1985 and 1986 with American Ninja, Invasion USA, Death Wish 3, Runaway Train, Delta Force, Cobra, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, 52 Pick Up, Murphy's Law, and Firewalker, proving that they knew how to cash-in on action and give the audience what they wanted. It looked like things were looking up for Cannon Films.

And it might have been. But then came the mistake known as 1987.

By the time of Delta Force, a big hit in '86, Cannon had already begun to get a big head. They starting wasting money on bad ideas, and slashing budgets on the wrong projects to prop up others, and the management started to slide. They broke all the rules that brought them to where they were.

In 1987, they began wasting a lot of money on projects that didn't return on them. Movies such as Over the Top, Masters of the Universe, and especially Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. None of these made back close to what they put into them. A lot of money was spent on projects that didn't quite warrant them, even if they do have cult appeal. I personally really like Over the Top, for instance.

At the same time, outside of American Ninja 2 and Death Wish IV, there wasn't much of Cannon's signature action this year. In fact, there were no Chuck Norris movies from Cannon in 1987! Even putting aside the bad spending, this was inexcusable.

Cannon stopped with their pattern of being the pulp masters of the B-movie world and tried to get in on being a big budget hit factory. That was a mistake. By the time 1988 rolled around they were hurting and it showed. While movies such as Bloodsport showed that old Cannon magic by using small budgets to their full effect, most of the rest felt as incompetent as early 1980 Cannon was. It was as if they had forgotten everything they learned. They were going downhill.

And we're savvy enough to realize things won't get much better from here on it.

While there are still some underrated movies to look forward in the seasons to come, we know that 1987 was more or less the end of Cannon. Their production went down, to the extent that we have to cover two years in order to get enough Cannon material for a normal Cannon Cruiser season! What we're dealing with now is the slow decay. Before the middle of the 1990s Cannon Films would be a memory.

From what I can gather there is a very clear lesson to learn in the story of Cannon Films. Stick with what got you to where you are. Success is work as much as it's chance, and relying on the latter is a good formula for failure. Cannon had both, but lost focus when it needed to have it most of all. After loosing their way they never quite managed to reclaim it again. And that is why they are gone now.

So while Cannon Films is no more, and all we have are the memories, we can still learn much from these cheesy flicks. They were made to give you a thrill, and that they still do even decades later.

I guess, if anything, we can be thankful for that!