In 2012, the biggest studio in Hollywood paid just over $4 billion to George Lucas for the rights to Lucasfilm and Star Wars. The House of Mouse has since released three Star Wars films, two of which are part of a trilogy, two Star Wars games published by EA with more to come, and an endless amount of toys.
Disney has revived the franchise which had ridiculed in the early 2000s thanks to George Lucas’ prequel trilogy and given it new life, making mountains of money in the process. So much money that Disney has broken even on their 2012 deal in just five years and they haven’t even concluded their new film trilogy yet!
The release of the highly anticipated but critically divided Star Wars: The Last Jedi pushed Disney over the $4 billion mark for revenue earned off of films in the sci-fi franchise. This total doesn’t even begin to include games, books, toys, and whatever other licensed products that are available. The Last Jedi has already made $900 million in its three-week theatrical run and is likely going to make over a billion once we cross over into 2018.
Disney has several other Star Wars movies in development right now including Episode IX, 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, and an unknown spin-off set for 2020. Along with Star Wars, Disney also gained the rights to Indiana Jones which is set to get a fifth film starring Harrison Ford in 2020. The untitled Indiana Jones film will be helmed by acclaimed director Steven Spielberg.
Disney acquired a large portion of Fox earlier this month for over $50 billion and will take hold of properties like X-Men, Deadpool, Fantastic Four, Alien, Avatar, and many, many others. While that’s over 10 times what Disney paid for Lucasfilm, Disney will likely be able to make that money back in a decade or two given how many properties they will be able to profit off of in comparison.
