You know the most millionaire cinematographic franchise of history

With the sale of the Star Wars franchise to the giant Disney, George Lucas closed the most important chapter in his life as a filmmaker, leaving behind a cultural phenomenon that revolutionized the film industry worldwide, which became the most lucrative business of recent times in cinematographic history.  

The beginning of Star Wars came more than 40 years ago, when a young man in his thirties known as George Lucas released the film ‘A New Hope’, a project that generated multi-million dollar box offices and revolutionized the art of cinematography. In this way, a great franchise was born that positioned itself in the market selling any type of product such as toys, t-shirts, pajamas, books, among others. 

At that time, Lucas negotiated with the Universal Studios company related to the financing of the film, keeping the rights derived from all the products of the franchise. 

a rough start

The beginning of the project was not easy at all, since the filmmaker had some missteps during pre-production. The filming left much to be desired and the actors he had at the time, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, were complete unknowns. However, the film managed to be released on May 25, 1977 with only eleven million dollars budget. 

Additionally, several people pointed out to George Lucas that his production would be a total failure, but to everyone’s surprise, the then Episode I, now known as Episode IV, became a huge box office success, grossing the modest sum of 786 million dollars worldwide.

With this success, the young filmmaker ventured with the trilogy and released two new productions, which did not reach the collection of the first installment, but were full of great dialogues and scenes that became a worldwide cultural phenomenon.

The George Lucas Fortune

Thanks to Lucas’s strategy of keeping all the rights derived from the Star Wars Saga for himself, long before the first film was released, the filmmaker was able to specify what is now known as the Star Wars galactic universe, where all the products created from the films became the reference of the franchise, since the consumer fans created an almost maternal bond to obtain everything from the saga. In this context, according to Forbes magazine, Lucas’ fortune exceeds six billion dollars.

But in 2012, George Lucas decided to finalize the sale of his production company Lucasfilm to the giant Disney for a total amount of four billion dollars, taking into account that both companies had a business relationship for many years. In this sense, it is important to note that, in 1987, the Lucasfilm Ltd company signed an agreement with the Mickey Mouse company to open the first themed attraction center dedicated to Star Wars within the Disneyland Park located in Anaheim, California., consecrating the famous Star Tours. 

This is how that contract became the first negotiation of a long relationship between The Walt Disney World Company and the production company Lucasfilm Ltd, ending after many years with the definitive sale of Lucas’s company to Disney. However, at the time of this sale, the Star Wars brand already had thousands and thousands of products on the market around the planet, all related to the two trilogies created by Lucas, which generated the filmmaker over 40 years an estimated profit of twenty million dollars from merchandising.

Disney ideas with Star Wars

According to the CEO of The Walt Disney company, Bob Iger, the goal is to introduce the Star Wars saga to the new generation of children but, at the same time, attract old fans with movies, products and series that are related to the theme. Likewise, it should be noted that for the year 2012 the company JP Morgan Chase & Co made a projection regarding the increase in sales for Disney related to merchandising for this saga, resulting in a 200% increase.

Thus, the strategy used by the company was to unite all the licenses that had the Star Wars guarantee logo and transform them into an official Disney product from that very moment. In such a way that all graphic novels, video games, comics, television series and any book that could fill gaps in history were agglomerated in 2014 under the name of Star Wars Legends, which marked the total disappearance of what was known. like the Expanded Universe created by Lucas for Star Wars.

In this way, Disney was able to continue with total freedom with the plot of the Skywalker family, precisely at the point where it had left off with the legendary George Lucas and was able to develop the new trilogy, as well as a set of spin-offs to give it breathing space and security. to the franchise until at least 2022.

The license for Lego

In another sense, it is appropriate to point out that another of the large companies related to Lucasfilm Ltd, with the point of licenses granted exclusively, is LEGO. It is known that the company that created the iconic mountable bricks began its relationship with the saga in 1999, the date on which the best Lego Star Wars of that time was released, the model identified with the number 7140 and which was an X- Wing that could be mounted.

This is how throughout these years we have been able to see this company reinventing itself by launching wonderful models of the Lego Star Wars line on the market, which includes characters and ships alluding to the movies, one of the most representative being the mountable bust of the character Darth Maul, which has a total of 1,868 pieces, or the legendary Millennium Falcon, a 7,541-piece ship that is all the rage among fans. And, surely, we will continue to see more amazing models, since the Lego Star Wars license has been extended until the year 2022.

As we have seen so far, the creation of George Lucas with Star Wars was to translate his vision and feeling into tangible elements, growing a brand that generated a lot of money, but that without a doubt became the best reference of science fiction in the film industry, also adding millions of fans around the world, regardless of age, sex, nationality or religion.