# John Davis (producer)

John Andrew Davis (born July 20, 1954) is an American film producer and founder of Davis Entertainment.

## Background

Davis was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. He is the son of Barbara Davis (née Levine), a philanthropist, and former 20th Century Fox owner and oil and media industrialist Marvin Davis (1925–2004). His interest in cinema began as a youth when his father purchased the neighborhood film theater, where he sold popcorn and subsequently viewed up to 300 films a year. Davis graduated from Bowdoin College, attended Amherst College, and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Davis is of Jewish descent.

## Career

Davis, Chairman of Los Angeles–based Davis Entertainment, is one of the most prolific producers in film history. His film and television company has made more than 130 feature film and television projects, which have earned more than $8 billion worldwide.
Davis Entertainment produces projects for all major studios, broadcast networks, and streaming companies.
Upcoming Davis Entertainment releases include the Lionsgate’s “Flight Risk,” starring Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, and Topher Grace; Focus Features’ “Song Sung Blue,” starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson; Amazon Studios’ “The Pickup,” starring Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, and Keke Palmer; Paramount Pictures’ “Vertigo,” produced alongside Robert Downey Jr.’s Team Downey banner; Universal Pictures’ “Blood Runs Coal,” an adaption of Mark A. Bradley’s book of the same name and starring Academy Award winner Cillian Murphy; and Sony’s “On Your Feet!,” a feature adaptation of the Broadway musical telling the story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan, written and directed by Lissette Feliciano. Upcoming television projects also include the half-hour Peacock comedy “Laid” starring and Executive Produced by Academy Award nominee Stephanie Hsu, and created by Nahnatchka Khan; “Rear Window,” a reimagining of the Alfred Hitchcock classic, also for Peacock; and Lifetime’s “Mary J. Blige’s Family Affair,” (working title), starring Ajiona Alexus and Da’Vinchi and Executive Produced by Mary J. Blige.
Davis’s recent productions include the Netflix film “Uglies,” starring Joey King and directed by McG, which also reached number one on Netflix and was watched by 67 million people; Sony Pictures’ “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” which starred Zachary Levi and Zooey Deschanel; Predator origin movie “Prey,” directed by Dan Trachtenberg for 20th Century Studios and Hulu. The movie was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie, among various other awards. Other Davis movies include Jaume Collet-Serra’s “Jungle Cruise,” starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, based on the Disney ride; “Dolemite Is My Name”, the Eddie Murphy starrer which was nominated for Best Comedy at the 77th Golden Globe Awards and won the Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy; the action comedy “Game Night,” starring Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams and Kyle Chandler; the Oscar-nominated biopic “Joy,” starring Jennifer Lawrence; the $100 million-plus-grossing micro-budgeted sci-fi thriller “Chronicle”; and the animated film “Ferdinand,” which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Past movies produced by Davis include his first movie, the first Predator film with Arnold Schwarzenegger that spawned the franchise, Grumpy Old Men, and Grumpier Old Men with Walter Matthau and Jack Lennon, The Firm with Tom Cruise, Courage Under Fire with Denzel Washington, I, Robot with Will Smith, Waterworld with Kevin Costner, Dr. Dolittle and Dr. Dolittle 2 with Eddie Murphy, and the hit micro-budget movie Chronicle.
His other film credits include “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” starring Jim Carrey; the international adventure comedy hit “Gulliver’s Travels,” starring Jack Black; the sci-fi thriller “I, Robot,” starring Will Smith; the “Garfield” film franchise; “Courage Under Fire,” starring Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan; the blockbuster drama “The Firm,” starring Tom Cruise; “Waterworld,” starring Kevin Costner; the Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau trilogy of “Out to Sea,” “Grumpy Old Men” and “Grumpier Old Men”; “Behind Enemy Lines,” starring Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman; John Woo’s “Paycheck,” starring Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman; and the “Predator” franchise films: “Predator,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Predator 2,” and “Alien vs. Predator.”
New television projects include a pilot based on the Witch Mountain film franchise starring Bryce Dallas Howard that is set to premiere on Disney+ in 2023. Davis Entertainment has four series currently on the air - The Blacklist, a Sony Television production in year ten, the CBS hit series The Equalizer with Queen Latifah, Magnum P.I. with Jay Hernandez, and the comedy series Blockbuster on Netflix.
Past Davis Entertainment television series include NBC's action drama Timeless, as well as ABC's hit comedies Dr. Ken starring Ken Jeong, and Alex, Inc. starring Zach Braff and Michael Imperioli.
Davis was honored as The Hollywood Reporter’s Producer of the Year in 2015 and ShoWest’s Producer of the Year in 2004. He also won two People’s Choice Awards, for The Firm and Grumpy Old Men, and his films have received several Academy Award nominations, including a Best Animated Feature nomination for Ferdinand. He also earned a nomination for Outstanding Television Movie for Prey at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.

## Other projects

Aside from his entertainment career, Davis’ successful business ventures include Wetzel's Pretzels and the casual pizza franchise Blaze Pizza. His newest food ventures include Dave’s Hot Chicken, the fastest-growing food company in America, and PopUp Bagels, which was named twice the winner of the Brooklyn Bagel Fest for the best bagel in New York.
Davis has owned, operated, and started several small market television stations.

## Personal life

Davis is married to Jordan Davis. They have three children: Jack, Catherine, and Jensen, as mentioned in the Garfield: The Movie DVD commentary. Davis' three children said that the CG version of Garfield looked "evil" when they first saw him.

## Filmography

He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

### Feature films

Producer
* Predator (1987)
* Three O'Clock High (1987) (co-producer)
* License to Drive (1988)
* Little Monsters (1989)
* The Last of the Finest (1990)
* Enid Is Sleeping (1990)
* Predator 2 (1990)
* Shattered (1991)
* Fortress (1992)
* Gunmen (1993)
* The Firm (1993)
* The Thing Called Love (1993)
* Grumpy Old Men (1993)
* Richie Rich (1994)
* The Hunted (1995)
* Waterworld (1995)
* The Grass Harp (1995)
* Grumpier Old Men (1995)
* Courage Under Fire (1996)
* The Chamber (1996)
* Daylight (1996)
* Out to Sea (1997)
* Digging to China (1997)
* Dudley Do-Right (1999)
* Heartbreakers (2001)
* Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001)
* Behind Enemy Lines (2001)
* Life or Something Like It (2002)
* Daddy Day Care (2003)
* Paycheck (2003)
* Garfield: The Movie (2004)
* I, Robot (2004)
* Alien vs. Predator (2004)
* First Daughter (2004)
* Fat Albert (2004)
* Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
* When a Stranger Calls (2006)
* Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
* Eragon (2006)
* Norbit (2007)
* Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
* Marmaduke (2010)
* Predators (2010)
* Gulliver's Travels (2010)
* A Little Bit of Heaven (2011)
* Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011)
* Chronicle (2012)
* Devil's Due (2014)
* The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
* Victor Frankenstein (2015)
* Joy (2015)
* Ferdinand (2017)
* Game Night (2018)
* The Predator (2018)
* Shaft (2019)
* Dolemite Is My Name (2019)
* Jungle Cruise (2021)
* Prey (2022)
* Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024)
* Uglies (2024)
* Flight Risk (2025)
* The Pickup (2025)
* Predator: Badlands (2025)
* Song Sung Blue (TBA)
* The Sims (TBA)
Executive producer
* Storyville (1992)
* Denise Calls Up (1995)
* Lewis and Clark and George (1997)
* Bad Manners (1997)
* Dr. Dolittle (1998)
* The Settlement (1999)
* Rites of Passage (1999)
* Labor Pains (2000) (Co-executive producer)
* 29 Palms (2002)
* Happy Hour (2003)
* At Last (2005)
* Daddy Day Camp (2007)
* The Heartbreak Kid (2007)
* The Express: The Ernie Davis Story (2008)
* Our House (2018)
Special thanks
* Texasville (1990)

### Direct-to-video

Producer
* Devil's Pond (2003)
* Dr. Dolittle 3 (2006)
* Garfield Gets Real (2007)
* Garfield's Fun Fest (2008)
* Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts (2009)
* Garfield's Pet Force (2009)
Executive producer
* Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil (2006)
* Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief (2008)
* Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia (2009)

### Television series

Executive producer
* Wild Card (1992)
* The Blacklist (since 2013)
* Ironside (2013)
* The Player (2015)
* Dr. Ken (2015−17)
* Timeless (2016−18)
* The Blacklist: Redemption (2017)
* Alex, Inc. (2018)
* Magnum P.I. (since 2018)
* The Equalizer (since 2021)
* Rebel (2021)
* Blockbuster (2022)
* Laid (2024)
Producer
* Locke & Key (2011)
Production supervisor
* The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987)

### Television films

Executive producer
* Dangerous Passion (1990)
* Curiosity Kills (1990)
* Silhouette (1990)
* Caught in the Act (1993)
* This Can't Be Love (1994)
* Asteroid (1997)
* Volcano: Fire on the Mountain (1997)
* Miracle at Midnight (1998)
* The Jesse Ventura Story (1999)
* Little Richard (2000)
* Bobbie's Girl (2002)
* Nadine in Date Land (2005)
* Life Is Ruff (2005)
* Jump In! (2007)
Producer
* Voyage (1993)
* The Last Outlaw (1993)
* Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story (1994)
* One Christmas (1994)
* Kidnapped (1995)
Production manager
* Doomsday Gun (1994)