Superman (1978 film series)

Lore & Background

In 1973, Ilya Salkind, Alexander Salkind, and Pierre Spengler purchased the film rights to Superman. After several scripts and years of development, Richard Donner was hired as director. He shot two films, Superman (1978) and Superman II (1981), simultaneously, both starring Christopher Reeve. Donner had filmed 75 percent of Superman II before shooting was suspended after the first film's release. The Salkinds officially removed Donner in early 1979 and commissioned Richard Lester to finish Superman II. Lester returned to direct Superman III (1983). The Salkinds also produced the spin-off Supergirl (1984). They then licensed the rights to Cannon Films for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), which was poorly reviewed, while retaining ownership until Warner Bros. acquired the rights in 1993.

Reader's Guide

The Salkind/Cannon film series is significant as the first major live-action Superman film franchise, setting a benchmark for superhero cinema. Superman (1978) was a critical and commercial success, and its simultaneous production with Superman II was an ambitious undertaking. The firing of Richard Donner and replacement by Richard Lester for Superman II created a notable director's cut released in 2006. The series declined in quality with Superman III and the poorly reviewed Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, leading to the sale of rights. The series' legacy includes Christopher Reeve's definitive portrayal of Superman and the establishment of a serialized approach to superhero storytelling, influencing later franchises like the DC Extended Universe.

Did You Know?

• Richard Donner shot Superman (1978) and Superman II (1981) at the same time.
• The Salkinds officially removed Donner in early 1979 and hired Richard Lester to finish Superman II.
• Cannon Films licensed the rights for the poorly reviewed Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), but the Salkinds retained ownership until Warner Bros. acquired them in 1993.

The Long Road to Production

The journey to bringing Superman to the screen was neither quick nor straightforward. Ilya Salkind first conceived the idea in 1973, but securing the rights from DC Comics proved to be a protracted and difficult negotiation that stretched into the following year before the Salkinds finally acquired them. The project then cycled through multiple directors and screenwriters, with Guy Hamilton among the most notable names attached before Richard Donner ultimately stepped in to helm the picture. Tom Mankiewicz was brought in to overhaul the script and earned a creative consultant credit for his contributions. One of the most ambitious production decisions was the choice to shoot both Superman and its planned sequel, Superman II, back-to-back. Principal photography ran from March 1977 through October 1978, a span that inevitably bred friction between Donner and the producers. The conflict reached a breaking point when the studio decided to halt work on the sequel—already seventy-five percent filmed—and redirect all remaining resources toward completing the first feature. This stop-start approach left the franchise in an unusual state, with a sequel essentially abandoned mid-shoot while its predecessor still needed finishing.

A Story of Origins and Identity

The film constructs Superman's identity across three distinct phases of life. It opens on the dying world of Krypton, where the scientist Jor-El, a member of the planet's high council, warns his peers that their red supergiant star will soon explode. When the council dismisses his warning, Jor-El and his wife Lara make the desperate choice to launch their infant son Kal-El toward Earth just before the planet is consumed. The boy crash-lands near Smallville, Kansas, where the Kents are stunned to watch the newborn lift their pickup truck, and they raise him as Clark, believing he was sent with a special purpose. As a teenager, Clark is drawn to a glowing green crystal hidden in the family barn, which leads him to the Arctic and a Fortress of Solitude rising from the ice. There, a hologram of Jor-El spends twelve years training him in his powers and cautioning him never to alter human history. Clark then reinvents himself in Metropolis as a mild-mannered Daily Planet reporter, concealing his true face behind glasses and building a secret romantic life with Lois Lane. The narrative's emotional climax arrives when his failure to save Lois from an earthquake shatters his restraint, and he defies Jor-El's warning by racing backward around the globe to rewrite the day.

An Ensemble of Legends

The 1978 film assembled a cast that reads like a who's-who of late-twentieth-century screen acting. Christopher Reeve anchored the picture as both Clark Kent and Superman, and his performance drew particular critical acclaim. Marlon Brando brought gravitas to the role of Jor-El, the Kryptonian scientist and biological father, while Gene Hackman delivered a sardonic, scheming Lex Luthor. Margot Kidder played the sharp, driven Lois Lane, and the supporting roster included Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Glenn Ford, Trevor Howard, Valerie Perrine, Maria Schell, Terence Stamp, Phyllis Thaxter, and Susannah York. Brando's involvement, however, carried a shadow that extended well beyond the set. He filed a lawsuit against the Salkinds and Warner Bros. seeking fifty million dollars, arguing that he had been shortchanged on his share of the film's box-office profits. The legal dispute had a tangible creative consequence: it prevented Brando's Krypton footage from being incorporated into Richard Lester's subsequent version of Superman II, meaning the character's on-screen presence in the sequel was effectively erased. The episode became a cautionary tale about the financial and legal entanglements that can follow even the most celebrated performances in blockbuster cinema.

A Landmark That Reshaped Hollywood

At a production cost of fifty-five million dollars, Superman was the most expensive film ever made when it hit theaters. It premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on December 10, 1978, before opening in the United Kingdom on the fourteenth and in the United States on the fifteenth. The gamble paid off handsomely: worldwide box-office receipts of roughly three hundred million dollars made it the second-highest-grossing release of that year, and critics praised both Reeve's embodiment of the character and John Williams's sweeping musical score. At the fifty-first Academy Awards, the film earned nominations for Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound, and it received a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects. That recognition was well deserved; the picture was groundbreaking in its practical and optical effects work and in the way it wove science-fiction and fantasy storytelling into a mainstream Hollywood narrative. Its success is widely credited with paving the road for the superhero film franchises that would dominate the industry for decades to come. In 2017, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, cementing its status as a culturally significant work of American cinema.