Roger Birnbaum is an American film producer who initially lived in Teaneck, New Jersey. His father was a World War II veteran who went into the embroidery business with his father after the war, and used his profits in 1967 to build the Stonehenge, a residential building in New Jersey. Birnbaum graduated from Teaneck High School in 1968 and attended the University of Denver.
Right after college, Birnbaum begin working in the music of business, at Arista Records under Clive Davis, then at A&M Records, which Birnbaum was allowed to transfer into film. He went to the Robert Stigwood Organization in 1978 as special assistant to the board of directors. He was then partner of Henry Winkler at his Fair Dinkum Productions company for five years from 1980 to 1985 when he supervised films, including Das Geheimnis des verborgenen Tempels (1985) and Der Volltreffer (1985), then joining Guber-Peters Company in 1985, where he developed numerous feature films, including Caddyshack II (1988), Gorillas im Nebel (1988), Batman (1989), Johnny Handsome - Der schöne Johnny (1989) and Rain Man (1988).
He moved to United Artists as president of worldwide production in 1987, and then moved to 20th Century Fox as executive vice president in 1988 under Joe Roth. Therefore he oversaw production of several Fox films, including Kevin - Allein zu Haus (1990), Edward mit den Scherenhänden (1990), Stirb Langsam 2 (1990), Der Feind in meinem Bett (1991), Weiße Jungs bringen's nicht (1992), and Predator 2 (1990), which had became blockbuster hits.
In 1992, he quit 20th Century Fox to join The Walt Disney Studios with Joe Roth under an affiliated production entity, Caravan Pictures, to fill the Disney Studios' then-yearly 50 to 60 production and distribution slots. While its first outing, Die drei Musketiere (1993) was a hit, the next several films were misses, including Angie (1994). Roth left in 1994 with Birnbaum taking in charge. Under its sister outing, Roger Birnbaum Productions, Birnbaum produced films for studios other than Disney, including Maximum Risk (1996) for Columbia Pictures and Rush Hour (1998) for New Line Cinema, as well as a slew of television movies.
In 1998, Birnbaum teamed up with Gary Barber where the company transformed its existing Disney-based Caravan Pictures and its production sister Roger Birnbaum Productions into a single entity, Spyglass Entertainment, based at Disney. Some of the films, including The Sixth Sense - Nicht jede Gabe ist ein Segen (1999) and Shang-High Noon (2000) for big hits, most others during Spyglass' earlier years, including Glauben ist alles! (2000) outperformed at the box office.
Due to straining relations between Spyglass and Disney, the company briefly moved to DreamWorks in 2002, before joining Sony Pictures in 2003. The company continued shipping films for Disney for a few more years, while financing and producing films for 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures, as well as Warner Bros. Pictures, in addition to Sony. The company continued to produce more hit films, including Die Geisha (2005), 27 Dresses (2008) and Mein Schatz, unsere Familie und ich (2008), in addition to financing hit blockbusters like Star Trek (2009) and G.I. Joe - Geheimauftrag Cobra (2009).
In 2010, both Birnbaum and Barber moved to MGM, while absorbing the existing Spyglass development slate. Birnbaum eventually left MGM in 2012 and return to "hands-on" producing on an exclusive basis until 2015. He has since founded three production companies, Pin High Productions, Cave 76 Productions and with Eli Roth, Arts District Entertainment. He produced films, like Die glorreichen Sieben (2016), Death Wish (2018) and Glam Girls - Hinreißend verdorben (2019) for MGM, and Thanksgiving - Es ist angerichtet (2023) for Spyglass Media Group.
