Unlike Superman and Superman II, Superman III didn’t even bother teasing the next installment in the franchise. Really, by the time that movie’s end credits hit, did anyone even want another entry? Hadn’t the Salkinds done enough damage to the Man of Steel? And yet, as we all know, a fourth installment in the Superman series did indeed hit theaters…with a nearly unmatched thud.
If you remember from our previous instalment of What Happened to This Movie?!, Superman III was plagued with all sorts of problems both on and off the screen. So what happened this time around? Turns out, the series would be facing its greatest battles yet, with the rights being passed to another studio, its star only signing on so he could finance another movie altogether and the budget getting chopped in more than half!
And so, let’s suit up one more time and go “nuclear” as we find out: What Happened to This Movie?!
Even though Superman III was a super dud compared to its predecessors, its $80.2 million worldwide haul was enough for producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind to want to move forward with a fourth installment. But in the interim, with the flops of Supergirl and their own Santa Claus: The Movie, the father-son duo decided to land the idea back in reality. That reality came on the French Riviera, where the Salkinds sold the rights at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival for $5 million to Cannon Films. By that point, Cannon had movies like The Last American Virgin, Ninja III: The Domination, and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo to their credits, making them just about the worst possible fit for the most bankable superhero franchise out there. They, too, were also known for their quick-buck MO of pulling in profits by pre-selling home video and TV rights.
With a script by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal (the pair behind The Legend of Billie Jean and The Jewel of the Nile), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was headed towards production…once a few more pieces were put in order.
Christopher Reeve had grown tired of the Superman franchise, later saying he made “two too many.” Remember, he didn’t even want to be part of Superman III, with the studio considering replacing him with everybody from Kurt Russell to John Travolta. But Reeve was a bit more game this time around because he had the leverage. Not only did he agree to sign on at a $6 million salary, but he also got Cannon to give financial support for his passion project, Street Smart, which he hoped would remind moviegoers that he was a serious and trained actor. He, too, would get partial story approval and final say on the director.
Reeve’s number-one choice was Ron Howard, whose Splash and Cocoon were some of the highest-grossing movies of their respective years. This didn’t work out, so Reeve was considered to step in, although he had no directing experience and was only allowed to oversee some second-unit filming. Of all people, Richard Donner – whose relationship with the Superman franchise is storied to say the least – was approached to direct, but considering his history, he declined the offer. (He would end up directing Lethal Weapon that year.) But the strangest consideration by far was Wes Craven. Sure, he had some comic book experience with 1982’s Swamp Thing, but Superman IV as his first movie after A Nightmare on Elm Street?! Interestingly, Craven was game but left over creative differences with Reeve. Directing duties would eventually fall on seasoned Canadian filmmaker Sidney J. Furie.
So, the cast. Superman IV would have many returning faces, including Jackie Cooper as Perry White, Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen, and even Margot Kidder as Lois Lane. Her role had been greatly relegated following a clash with the studio over how they treated Donner on Superman II.
Gene Hackman would be lured back by Reeve to reprise Lex Luthor, having sat out Superman III while Robert Vaughn stepped in as the threequel’s main baddie. But that’s not the only role that Hackman had. He actually provides the voice for Nuclear Man (or is it Nucular…?). Actual portrayer Mark Pillow – replacing Clive Mantle (but more on him later) – to this day remains unsure why the decision was made to dub his voice, but he says it all comes off so “wooden” because of that change. As for Nuclear Man, he’s a bit of a Frankenstein’s Monster concocted from a piece of Superman’s hair. And Luthor couldn’t have pulled it off without his nephew Lenny, played by Jon Cryer, who would later take on Lex Luthor on the Supergirl TV series, in addition to The Flash and The Arrow.
Sam Wanamaker would also play media mogul David Warfield, with Mariel Hemingway playing his daughter Lacy. Of course, Lacy finds herself near the core of the battle between Superman and Nuclear Man.
With everything in line, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was approved at a budget of $36 million, a good chunk of which was Christopher Reeve’s paycheck. It, too, was already less than Superman III’s $39 million price tag, indicating Cannon’s priorities for the movie. After all, the studio had a lot of projects in development, going on to release more than two dozen movies in the year that Superman IV would come out. As Reeve wrote, the production was “hampered by budget constraints and cutbacks in all departments. Cannon Films had nearly thirty projects in the works at the time, and Superman IV received no special consideration.”
Indeed, the budget would be one of the biggest talking points for Superman IV even heading into filming, which began on September 29th, 1986. Get this: when all was said and done, the budget had actually been trimmed from $36 million all the way down to $17 million – that’s less than half of even Supergirl’s budget!
In one of the more telling scenes of just how money was being spent – or, rather, saved – the United Nations building was subbed for the Milton Keynes Central Railway Station in Buckinghamshire, England…which looks nothing like the iconic building in New York City. As Reeve remembered, “We had to shoot at an industrial park in England in the rain with about a hundred extras, not a car in sight, and a dozen pigeons thrown in for atmosphere.” Hey, at least there was a pigeon budget!
Writer Mark Rosenthal explained, “They would pad-out the shots, then duplicate them” (something seen in some flying scenes). “It’s everything that happens when you don’t have enough money to finish the effects.” As for the “wonderful funhouse of bad special effects”, portable blue screens and mattes were lugged around to allow for quicker shooting, thus less spending. Another cost-cutting method was at one point bringing in an Israeli crew who would work for much cheaper. (Of note, then-Cannon heads Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus are both Israeli.)
Even Jon Cryer, whose career was beginning to take off (having starred in Pretty in Pink not long before filming began on Superman IV), picked up on the problems. “I just noticed little things, like the craft-service table got more and more meager. And they took less and less time every day. We would get props that were especially, uh, crappy.” Reeve, for his part, would confirm the grim situation to Cryer in private, telling him ahead of the release, “It’s an absolute mess.”
Things were not looking good in this so-called “quest for peace.” But Cannon did have a plan, making a distribution deal with Warner Bros., thus restoring some faith in the failing company. Through this, they received a whopping $65 million credit through the First Bank of Boston…which could have really helped out Superman IV if they hadn’t sprinkled the dough across several projects. Great, so Dom DeLuise got an extra lunch on Going Bananas just so Superman IV could suffer!
After filming on Superman IV: The Quest for Peace wrapped in January 1987 and the editing was complete, it was time for it to be screened for the public. And that went just about as well as you’d expect by this point. Superman IV originally clocked in at 134 minutes, making it, at the time, the second-longest movie in the franchise. In this cut, we see Clive Mantle’s original Nuclear Man. But these scenes and some others between Clark Kent and Lacy Warfield didn’t make the final cut. Snipping these moments, in particular, led to several inconsistencies and illogical moments in the final cut, which wound up being 90 minutes (including credits), thus making it the shortest in the series.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace flew into 1,500 theaters on July 24th, 1987. And while it did debut at #1 in the United Kingdom, it didn’t fare so well Stateside. In its domestic release, Superman IV opened with just $5.68 million, landing at #4 behind RoboCop, fellow debut Summer School and a re-release of Snow White, which was turning 50 years old! Superman IV dropped to #7 in its second week, pulling in just $15 million in its total domestic run. Meanwhile, Christopher Reeve’s pet project Street Smart had debuted earlier that year to a whopping $325,835…1987 was not a good year for Reeve, to say the least.
And it would only get worse, with no peace being found in any of these quests. That year, writers Barry E. Taft and Kenneth P. Stoller filed a lawsuit against the studios and Reeve, claiming the actor lifted their idea, which had actually been patented as Superman: The Confrontation and involved the sort of nuclear weapons and disarmament storyline that would end up in the final movie. Apparently, they got their outline sent to Reeve, although the actor claimed he never actually got around to reading it. That was enough for the judge, who, after years of no true trial, dismissed the case in 1990.
The Quest for Peace would be nominated for two Razzies: Worst Supporting Actress for Mariel Hemingway and Worst Visual Effects, which it “lost” to another godawful fourth entry, Jaws: The Revenge. It currently holds a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 16% audience score. Christopher Reeve would say, “Superman IV was a catastrophe from start to finish. That failure was a huge blow to my career.” It also took its toll on Cannon and superhero movies in general.
Cannon continued to falter, with Over the Top and Masters of the Universe flopping at the box office that same year. It would only be a matter of time before they went under, and their legacy would be secure as undoubtedly one of the most unique companies ever to hit Hollywood.
Yet, talk of Superman V was still on the table for quite some time. Fortunately, this never happened, and it would take another couple of years before the superhero genre could rebound thanks to Tim Burton’s Batman. As for more Superman movies themselves, The Quest for Peace outright killed the franchise – and it would take almost 20 years for another Superman to actually fly to the big screen…with Superman Returns!