Yoram Globus

Yoram was born and Tiberius, Lake of Galili, 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 Dream Works 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 70’s Yoram and Menahem started to make movies in Europe (“Magician of Lublin” based on the book by Isaac Bashevik Singer) and in Hollywood (“Lepke” with Tony Curtis which was sold to Warner Bros and “The 4 Deuces” with Jack Palance and Carol Linley which was sold to Avco Embassy).

In the mid-late 70’s Yoram and Menahem moved to Los Angeles and acquired The Cannon Group. Inc. 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. Their fee was 25%. After acquiring 51% of the company’s share they used the money to start making low budget action movies.

In the beginning of the 80’s, 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 Dudakuf and signed him to a multiple picture deal. Some of the pictures included: The “Missing in Action” serious (Chick Norris), The “Death Wish” series (Charles Bronson), ”Blood Sport” (Jean Claude Van Damme), “Ninja” (Michael Dudakof).

The company elevated the production slate and apart of the action movies they started to produce in 1982 movies such as: “Sahara” (Brook Shields), The Championship Season ( Bruce Dern & 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 70’s to $48 in 1984.  Cannon became the largest independent  producer and distributor in the world. In the mid 80’s  they acquired the rights to  “Captain America and “Spiderman” During this decade Cannon produced over 250 movies including: “Superman IV” (Christopher Reeves, “Master of The Universe” (Dolph Lundgren), “Cobra” & “Over the Top” (Starring Sylvester Stallone), “Missing in Action” & “Invasion USA” (Starring Chuck Norris), “Death Wish” (Charles Bronson), “Blood Sport” & “Cyborg”(Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme), “Runaway Train” (John Voight), “Otello” (Placido Domingo), “Love Stream” (Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes) “Barfly” (Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway), and “The Assault” winner for Best Foreign Language Film from the Academy Awards. Some of the directors that they worked over the years included: Andre Konchalovsky, Jean-Luc Godard, Tobie Hooper,  Franco Ziffirelli, Fred Schepisi, Robert Altman, John Cassavetes, Barbet Schroeder, John Frankenheimer to name few.   Cannon was one of the most successful independent companies in America, having had great business relationships with Warner Bros (The Top Major Studio during the 80’s).

Apart from being the most successful independent producers and the top independent distributors in the world during the mid 80’s. Since 1982 Cannon started acquiring cinemas and within a few years, they owned 1,800 cinemas (450 in England [The largest chain in UK], 150 in Netherland [Dominating the big cities; Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Dan Hag among others], 200 in Italy and over a 1,200 in Mid-America).

In the late 80’s Yoram and Menahem decided to dissolve the partnership, staying at Cannon he brokered a deal with Credit Lyonnais a French Bank with Giancarlo Parretti and Florio Fiorini who joined Cannon. Together they acquired all the shares from MGM/UA which had a library of over 1,000 pictures from Kirk Kerkorian who was the owner of MGM at that time. Yoram was the key to the successful purchase of MGM, through a reverse merge and Yoram licensed the library of United Artists, MGM and Cannon for $800M, the total purchase price was $1.2B.

While he was at MGM, Yoram became the President and COO of MGM. During this time, the company produced pictures such as “Thelma and Louise,” (Gena Davis, Susan Sarandon – Directed by Ridley Scott), “The Russia House” (Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer.), “Not Without My Daughter” (Sally Fields), “Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man” (Don Johnson, Mickey Rourke).

In 1993, Yoram married his wife, Lea, and returned to Israel to build G.G. Israel Studio Jerusalem.  The company is the largest studio in Israel along with the largest distribution company and biggest cinema chain for over 20 years. In 2014 Yoram decided to sell all his business’s in Israel and return to America, where he launched Globus Group Media Entertainment with his son Ori Globus, who grew up beside him in the film industry.  Globus Group Media is an innovate production company in theatrical and new media platforms.