The Cannon Group

The Cannon Group Inc. was a group of companies, including Cannon Films, which produced a distinctive line of low-to-medium budget films from 1967 to 1993. The company was resurrected in 2011 by Richard Albiston after he formed New Cannon Productions. The extensive group also owned, amongst others, a large international cinema chain and a video film company that invested heavily in the video market, buying the international video rights to several classic film libraries.

History

1967–1979: Beginnings

Cannon Films was incorporated on October 23, 1967. It was formed by Dennis Friedland and Chris Dewey while they were in their early 20s. By 1970, they had produced films on a larger production scale than a lot of major distributors, such as Joe, starring Peter Boyle. They managed this by tightly limiting their budgets to $300,000 per picture—or less, in some cases. However, as the 1970s moved on, a string of unsuccessful movies seriously drained Cannon’s capital. This, along with changes to film-production tax laws, led to a drop in Cannon's stock price. 1978 saw the German release of the science-fiction musical The Apple under the title Star Rock. Other notable films co-produced by Friedland and Dewey included Blood on Satan's Claw and Michael Reeves' The Sorcerers.

1979–1985: Golan Globus era

By 1979, Cannon had hit serious financial difficulties, and Friedland and Dewey sold Cannon to Israeli cousins Menahem Golan (who had directed The...... ...
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