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1* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget, $17 million[[note]]The Cannon Group originally planned a $36 million budget, which was slashed only days before production began[[/note]]. Box office, $15,681,080.
2* BTeamSequel: Creator/RichardDonner and Richard Lester were both asked to return as director, but declined.
3* CaliforniaDoubling: Present in all the movies, but particularly prevalent here. Most of ''Superman IV'' was filmed in England, and it shows. For example, the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations Headquarters scene was shot at the Milton Keynes Central Railway Station. (According to Creator/ChristopherReeve, they were originally intending to shoot the scene at the ''actual'' UN building in New York, but due to budget constraints, they ended up filming it in Milton Keynes.)
4* ChannelHop: The film rights were licensed to Creator/TheCannonGroup by the Salkinds. Creator/WarnerBros, which distributed the first three films, also distributed this film in North America.
5* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: A bizarre combination of this and BeamMeUpScotty. It is an astonishingly widespread misconception that Creator/DolphLundgren played the body of Nuclear Man. He didn't, as he was too busy at the time filming ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse''. Nuclear Man was actually portrayed by Mark Pillow.
6* CreatorBacklash: Creator/ChristopherReeve was deeply ashamed about this movie (and angry about the poor quality of the previous sequel, ''Film/SupermanIII''), declaring the film to be "terrible" on the eve of its release, citing a haphazard scriptwriting process and the poor quality of the film's special effects. Co-star Creator/JonCryer also hated the film, even saying it was ''unfinished'' because of its ultra-low budget, though his presence had at least one (eventual) good result - he took the part of Lex Luthor himself in ''Series/Supergirl2015'' to make up for this movie, and turned in what is considered one of the better takes on the character.
7* CreatorKiller:
8** The failure of ''Superman IV'' most likely ruined Creator/TheCannonGroup's chances at becoming a legitimate film studio. They didn't give special priority to the sequel, as they were already overstretched with other productions at the time, and funnelled much of the original budget to those. Between failures like this, ''Film/Lifeforce1985'', ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse'', and ''Film/OverTheTop'', Cannon was forced to close up shop at the dawn of the 1990s.
9** While Creator/SidneyJFurie hadn't had a film that was a critical hit for well over a decade prior to this film, he'd at least had a few that were commercial successes, such as ''Film/TheEntity'' and ''Film/IronEagle''. Following this film's critical and commercial failure, while he did continue to rack up film and TV credits in the decades ahead, he never worked on anything else of note other than the second and fourth ''Iron Eagle'' films.
10* DeletedRole: Clive Mantle as the first Nuclear Man.
11* DeletedScene: Quite a lot of material (45 minutes' worth!) was cut for the movie's theatrical release, with some odd choices. One would think an extended action sequence of Superman fighting a super-powered opponent (the Bizarro-esque first incarnation of Nuclear Man) would be something you'd want to ''keep''. Other deleted scenes make the plot hang together a little better, and there's a nice character scene between Lois Lane and the weakened Clark/Superman at Clark's apartment.
12* DirectedByCastMember: Though not the entire film, Creator/ChristopherReeve receives credit for second unit directing.
13* ExecutiveMeddling: Cannon cut the film's budget and the running time. Creator/JonCryer said that they basically released an unfinished film.
14* FranchiseKiller: Sent ''Superman'' movies into deep space for two decades until ''Film/SupermanReturns'' came out in 2006 and retconned this movie.
15* GenreKiller: If it hadn't been for ''Film/RoboCop1987'' turning out to be a SleeperHit that same year, ''Superman IV'' might well have killed off the superhero/comic book movie genre.
16* HostilityOnTheSet: Creator/MargotKidder said she and Creator/ChristopherReeve did not get along during filming. Kidder states that Reeve's ego was inflated because he co-wrote the story. She also revealed that Reeve didn't get on with director Sidney J. Furie.
17** Mark Pillow (Nuclear Man) described Reeve as, while not ''un''friendly, a very focused and intense person to work with. On the other hand, he found Creator/GeneHackman a joy to work with and would hang out with both him and Creator/MarielHemingway off set.
18* MoneyDearBoy: According to Creator/JonCryer, Creator/GeneHackman apparently said this to him word for word when he asked him why he chose to do the movie.
19* NoBudget: Creator/ChristopherReeve summed it up:
20-->We were also 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. For example, [Lawrence] Konner and [Mark] Rosenthal wrote a scene in which Superman lands on 42nd Street and walks down the double yellow lines to the United Nations, where he gives a speech. If that had been a scene in ''Film/{{Superman|TheMovie}} I'', we would actually have shot it on 42nd Street. [[Creator/RichardDonner Dick Donner]] would have choreographed hundreds of pedestrians and vehicles and cut to people gawking out of office windows at the sight of Superman walking down the street like the Pied Piper. Instead, 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. Even if the story had been brilliant, I don't think that we could ever have lived up to the audience's expectations with this approach.
21* OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt: By some accounts, Creator/ChristopherReeve only agreed to do ''Superman IV'' to get ''Street Smart'' made. (Reeve also has co-story and second unit director credit.)
22* TheOtherDarrin: In the original French dub, none of the voice actors from the first three movies came back to reprise their roles, including Creator/PierreArditi (Clark/Superman, replaced by Hervé Bellon, who later voiced Creator/SamNeill) and Creator/FrancisLax (Lex Luthor, replaced by Claude Joseph).
23* PromotedFanboy: Part of the reason why Jon Cryer disliked the final product is because he's a Superman fan, having read the comics and enjoying the first movie, and so he thought they did the franchise a disservice. He has said he took the job of playing Lex Luthor on ''Series/Supergirl2015'' in part as a do-over.
24* RecycledScript: One of the Superman title annuals that became part of the ''ComicBook/{{Armageddon 2001}}'' crossover event is essentially a more tragic rewrite of this movie's storyline, with Superman using force instead of diplomacy and the goodwill of the nations to dispose of nuclear weapons. And what set him off on that crusade? ''The death of his wife Lois Lane by a nuclear bomb.''
25* StarDerailingRole:
26** Saying Mark Pillow (Nuclear Man) didn't get much work after this movie would be an understatement. This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zK6cBVTWPk telephone interview with Mark]] reveals that he's a pretty good sport about the whole affair all these years later, saying that he enjoyed his experience working with Creator/ChristopherReeve and Creator/GeneHackman, but also acknowledging the film was a trainwreck that pretty much torpedoed his chances of a serious acting career (and no, he also isn't sure why they decided to dub over him with Hackman's voice). He eventually settled down to become a family man, and served as a brand ambassador for numerous high-end wineries before eventually opening up his own.
27** This film's box office failure and several others stalled the career momentum of Creator/JonCryer (Lenny Luthor) after ''Film/PrettyInPink'', which he wouldn't recover from until ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' debuted. In an interesting twist of fate, he'd later play Lex Luthor in ''Series/{{Supergirl}}''.
28* TroubledProduction: The film basically had no real budget to work with, among other reasons because producers Golan-Globus were secretly siphoning away funds to finance other projects, which caused all kinds of problems for what should have been a huge film. As if that weren't enough, Creator/MargotKidder later said the working relationship between her and Reeve soured during filming and that Reeve didn't get along with director Sidney J. Furie either. Reeve only accepted to play Superman once more only if he had creative control over the script. Stuntman John Lees suffered career-ending injuries when working on the moon scenes, leading to a subsequent court case. Much of the special effects crew that worked on the previous films were hired during pre-production, but eventually left following salary disputes. Only Roy Field would remain loyal to the production.
29* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
30** Creator/WesCraven was originally slated to direct the movie, but was replaced due to CreativeDifferences with Creator/ChristopherReeve. Reeve recommended Creator/RonHoward as director, but Cannon Group went with Creator/SidneyJFurie, instead.
31** Reportedly, the original budget was about $35 million, but Creator/TheCannonGroup slashed it in half.
32** The planned soundtrack album (split between songs - mostly for nightclub scenes along with Music/JerryLeeLewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"[[note]]heard coming from Lenny Luthor's car when he breaks his uncle Lex out of prison[[/note]] would have been included as well - and Alexander Courage's score) was cancelled when most of the scenes for which the chosen tracks were written got cut from the movie. (This was before the phrase "Music From And Inspired By" became the ''bête noire'' of film music fans.)
33** Quite a lot of material (45 minutes worth!) was cut for the movie's theatrical release, with some odd choices. One would think an extended action sequence of Superman fighting a super-powered opponent (the Bizarro-esque first incarnation of Nuclear Man) would be something you'd want to ''keep''. Other deleted scenes make the plot hang together a little better, and there's a nice character scene between Lois Lane and the weakened Clark/Superman at Clark's apartment.
34* WrittenByCastMember: Christopher Reeve has co-story credit (and later won a case against the film's screenwriters when they claimed he didn't think up the plot). Since he's also credited with directing the second unit, this qualifies for DirectedByCastMember as well.
35* YouLookFamiliar:
36** Robert Beatty (U.S. President) previously played the Tanker Commander in ''Film/SupermanIII''.
37** Creator/EugeneLipinski AKA "Comrade Sinatra" previously played the Metropolis newsstand guy (the one whose papers flew off as Superman arrived) in ''Film/SupermanII''.
38** Creator/JohnHollis, one of the Kryptonian elders also appeared in ''II'' as a Kryptonian elder, the one who recited "Trees".
39** Mr. Hornsby's actor Don Fellows also played the "I answer only to the President" general in ''II'' (his voice was redubbed in the latter; Mr. Hornsby's voice is the actor's).

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