Yoram Globus

Yoram was born in Tiberias, on the lake of Galilee, Israel in 1943 to parents who immigrated from Poland. At the age of 3 he moved with his family to Kiryat Motzkin, near Haifa. His father, Shmuel, built a cinema which was unique at that time. When the cinema opened Yoram was 5 years old and very interested in all aspects of the cinema. He would help with whatever his father needed from hanging posters, being a cashier, to promoting movies and at the age of 10 Yoram becoming the projectionist. During high school he moved to Tel Aviv where his parents opened another cinema.

Yoram graduated business school and went into the army, retiring as a lieutenant.

In 1963, he partnered up with Menahem Golan, who was already a well-known stage and film director in Israel. Together, they were instrumental in creating the film industry in Israel. Over the years they were very successful, building a company which had experience in producing movies in Israel, co-productions in Europe, which became the number 1 producing entity in Israel. They distributed European movies, Israeli movies and for over 25 years represented Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount and DreamWorks in Israel. Their most successful projects including; Operation Thunderbolt (The Anthebe story which was nominated for Academy Award), Kazablan (Musical which was sold to MGM), “Lemon Popsicle”, “I Love You Rosa”, and “ The House on Chelouche Street” which was nominated for Best Foreign Film from The Academy Awards. With additional films which represented Israel in many festivals such as: Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, AFM, Milano Film Market and more.

In the early 1970s, Yoram and Menahem started to make movies in Europe (“Magician of Lublin” based on the book by Isaac Bashevis Singer) and in Hollywood (“Lepke” with Tony Curtis which was sold to Warner Bros. and “The 4 Deuces” with Jack Palance and Carol Lynley which was sold to Avco-Embassy). In 1978, Globus and Golan moved to Hollywood and acquired The Cannon Group, Inc. for $500,000, which was traded on NASDQ for 25 cents a share. They went to the Cannes Film Festival that year and licensed Cannon's movies for approximately $2.5M. After acquiring 51% of the company's shares they used the money to start making low budget action movies.

In the beginning of the 1980s, Yoram and Menahem recognized that Video was the next big thing and signed Chuck Norris for a 7 years exclusive deal, Charles Bronson for a multiple picture deal, discovered Jean-Claude Van Damme and signed him for many pictures. They started the ninja trend, discovered Michael Dudikoff , and signed him to a multiple picture deal. Some of the pictures resulting from these deals include: The “Missing in Action” series (Chuck Norris), The “Death Wish” series (Charles Bronson), ”Blood Sport” (Jean-Claude Van Damme), “American Ninja” (Michael Dudikoff).

The company elevated the production slate and apart of the action movies they started to produce in 1982 movies such as: “Sahara” (Brooke Shields), The Championship Season (Bruce Dern and Martin Sheen), “Wicked Lady” (Faye Dunaway), “King Solomon’s Mine” (Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone). Over those years, the Cannon Group stock was moved to the NY stock exchange and climbed up from 25 cents in the late 1970s to $48 in 1984. Cannon became the largest independent producer and distributor in the world.

By the mid-1980s, Cannon was producing an average of 40 films per year and had become the largest independent movie production company in the world with a net worth of over US$1 billion. Because of their fast, low-budget style of filmmaking, they earned the nickname "the Go-Go Boys." Among the films produced by Cannon are Bloodsport with Jean-Claude Van Damme, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace with Christopher Reeve, King Lear directed by Jean-Luc Godard, Runaway Train (1985), Over The Top with Sylvester Stallone and Street Smart with Morgan Freeman. During this time, Globus and Golan also acquired the rights to Spider-Man and Captain America.

With Cannon's success, Yoram expanded the group's operations into additional territories. Cannon acquired approximately 1,600 cinemas across Europe and the United States (some of which were later purchased by Silvio Berlusconi), also studios, an extensive film library and additional acquisitions, which widened the activities of Cannon and established the company as a leading conglomerate in the global film industry. During these years, Cannon would finance their movies utilizing a new approach, a strategy created and originated by Globus, which is now known as "the pre-sale strategy". Substantial pre-sales of unproduced films were made based on the strong salesmanship skills of Globus and the promotional advertising created by Design Projects. The financial deposits collected from these pre-sales were used to finance the production of the first film in a Cannon line-up, which when completed and delivered to worldwide theater owners, would generate enough capital to then make the next film. For this purposes, Cannon would often generate mock movie posters before they even had a script and would display large billboards at sales events such as the Cannes Film Festival.

During 1984, Cannon purchased Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment (see EMI Films) and their movie library for £175 million. Cannon then sold the EMI British Film Library to Weintraub Entertainment Group for approximately $85 million. In 1989, "Pathé Communications," a holding company controlled by Italian businessman Giancarlo Parretti, purchased 39.4% of Cannon for 250 million dollars. During that same year, Golan, citing differences with both Parretti and Globus, resigned from his position, leaving Cannon and Globus to launch his "21st Century Film Corporation." In 1990, Globus and Parietti merged Pathé with the American film company "MGM" at which time Globus became MGM president.

In 1993, having produced over 300 films, Globus returned to Israel to focus on his home company, "Globus Group," which includes a private "Globus" arm with a large film and television studio in Neve Ilan, Israel (where various Israeli stations broadcast, such as the Israeli News Company). Globus is responsible for a significant part of the Israeli film distribution industry ("Noah CPP") and owns the public arm "Globus Max," which owns and operates numerous theaters in Israel. In 1999, Yoram Globus won the Ophir Award for "Lifetime Achievement" by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television.

During 2014, two documentary films were made about Golan/Globus and their "Cannon Films" story. Warner Bros released Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, which was produced by RatPac-Dune Entertainment—And that same year, the Israeli documentary The Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.[2]

In 2015, Globus sold "Globus Max" and returned to Hollywood to launch a new film production company, "Rebel Way Entertainment." The company seeks to reconnect young and web-crazy audiences with the traditional theatrical experience.[3]

• Yoram Globus on IMDb