When Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012, it gave Disney ownership of the "Star Wars" franchise. The acquisition was not just for Star Wars but for George Lucas’ production company Lucasfilm. 01:48:29. Investing in Biotech is a Long Game: Schulman. Six years ago, Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion. As it turns out, Disney has snapped up the Lucas empire for a cool $4.05 billion. Scroll down to read more about what Disney got in the acquisition of Lucasfilm and how George Lucas has felt about the acquisition over the years. Doubtlessly, he prefers to ignore criticism over the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and over everything that was wrong with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. © 2020 Black Sands Media - All Rights Reserved. … George Lucas has thoughts on the current state of Star Wars.The franchise's creator has made no secret that he's disappointed that Lucasfilm, the company he sold to Disney in 2012 for $4.06 billion, hasn't followed his outlines for the direction of the series. You can watch the full interview George Lucas did with Charlie Rose in the below video. In the summer of 1976, George Lucas had a decision to make. George Lucas sold Lucasfilm Ltd, including Star Wars, to Disney to secure the future of the company he had worked so hard for most of his working life to build from scratch. Lucas’ deal is the fourth highest in the history of Disney beating out the $3.96 billion that the entertainment monopoly paid for Marvel Comics in 2009. Last year, Disney’s movies brought in $7 billion, half of which was from Marvel movies. When George Lucas sold Lucasfilm in 2012, he was given a payout of approximately $2 billion in cash and received 40 million of Disney’s shares at closing the day the acquisition was announced. For Lucas, Star Wars was finally coming into focus. The Mandalorian: This live-action Star Wars series, about the adventures of a gunfighter, will appear on Disney+, the company’s new streaming service. The previous record for Star Wars memorabilia sold at auction was set in 2008 when a buyer paid $402,500 for a miniature TIE fighter model used … Star Wars creator George Lucas sold his Lucasfilms to Disney for more than $4 billion. As for the creator himself, he has kept a relatively low profile since selling his valuable property to Disney. How Much Money Did George Lucas Make Selling ‘Star Wars’ to Disney? The ‘Star Wars’ creator sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012. George Lucas gave up $500,000 of his paycheck to get the full Star Wars merchandising rights Handout/Getty Images Fox clearly had very little faith in the small space opera called Star Wars … But he also expressed his disappointment in the direction they took, apparently discarding his entire idea and writing for the sequels. Why It Was So Hard for George Lucas to Sell Star Wars to Disney. Immediately after the acquisition, Disney’s CEO Robert Iger said that “our long term plan is to release a new Star Wars feature film every two to three years.” This was on top of the already planned release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. He was deep into the production of Star Wars, having poured most of his own money into producing the film. George Lucas sold the Star Wars for $4.05 billion to Disney on October 30, 2012. The Close Digital Full Show (02/26/2021) 05:05. We all know Disney has completely ruined Star Wars from all aspects. It was a $4.05 billion deal and obviously George Lucas had his reasons. DEADLINE: How in the world did George Lucas wind up in control of his space franchise, when he needed studio funding to make the first film? 2021 Showbiz Cheat Sheet, All Rights Reserved. According to the filing, The George W. Lucas, Jr. Fourth Amended and Restated Living Trust could sell 37,076,679 million shares of Disney -- amounting to about 2.1 percent of the company -- … When Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, Star Wars creator George Lucas pocketed $4 billion. However, his comments have changed over the years and it seems he might not be all too happy with the direction Disney has taken with the franchise. The fifth entry was originally supposed to come out this year, but Steven Spielberg is working on his West Side Story remake now, so this has been pushed back to July 2021. When Disney first announced the return of the Star Wars saga it was originally reported that the new films would be based on stories written by the franchise creator George Lucas. Few details are known about this set of movies, but the release date of the first is known: Dec. 16, 2022. He said “I sold them to the white slavers that take these things and, and …”. In fact, Disney paid $19.7 billion to acquire Capital Cities/ABC in 1995. The deal of the century for Disney was the acquisition of Marvel. Lucasfilm, as of now, still hasn’t made that much money. According to Forbes, Lucas has primarily been working on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, scheduled to open in Los Angeles next year. Lucas said in the new book “The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III 1999-2005” that he found the “Star Wars” franchise to be taxing on his family life. What they have done to simply earn huge mega billion dollar profits has destroyed Star Wars At the same time, for me, I look at it as I'm investing in Disney, because that's my retirement fund.” The $4 billion that Disney paid for Lucasfilm was more than the $3.6 billion they paid for Marvel in 2009. When Disney purchased Lucasfilms for $4.05 billion they got more than just the Star Wars film rights. We’ll take a look at how much of a bonanza Star Wars has been for the Mouse House, what Lucasfilm and Disney have in their pipeline, and find out whatever happened to Lucas himself. In 2012, Disney acquired LucasFilm for $2.2 billion in cash and $1.855 billion in stock. So he decided to sell it to Disney in order to gain time back. At the time, Lucas had some ideas for how "Episode VII" … Force Disney to sell all the rights to Star Wars and Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC back to George Lucas after Disney finishes their version of episode 9 (IX). When George Lucas put the rights to the famed space legacy up for sale, there was mixed reaction on what this could mean for the beloved films. That doesn’t include all the money made from toys and other merchandise, and soon Disney will have a new Star Wars outlet with the Galaxy’s Edge lands at their Florida and California theme parks. Since the first Star Wars film was released in 1977, the entire franchise has been a massive money-making success. POLLOCK: In 1971, I became George… He hit the jackpot. He wanted to enjoy his daughter’s childhood. One of his few appearances was in the sing-along finale of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Since the sale of the famed franchise, Lucas has stated that the entire decision was painful, however, he wanted to focus on enjoying raising his daughter instead of making films. That turned out to be a strategic move for Lucas. In a 2015 interview with Charlie Rose, Lucas seemed to be about to fly off the handle when talking about how painful it was for him to sell the franchise. So in a sense, they’re actually saving money. Few people made more money in 2012 than when George Lucas sold Lucasfilm, which includes Star Wars, to Disney.The legendary filmmaker made over … Why did George Lucas sell Star Wars for only $4 billion when that seems like the deal of the century for Disney? Indiana Jones 5: With all the noise generated by Star Wars, the guy with the whip tends to get lost in the shuffle, but he’s a Lucasfilm property too. Meanwhile the Star Wars movies had been out of the theaters for some time, although there was still some movement on the Clone Wars cartoon. Paul Duncan, editor and author of The Star Wars Archives. Lucas abruptly cut himself off before continuing the comment. George Lucas sold the Star Wars for $4.05 billion to Disney on October 30, 2012. They acquired the characters and options to basically pump out whatever they want under the Star Wars name. Does George Lucas Still Make Money From ‘Star Wars’. As of October 2018, the Disney Star Wars movies had grossed $4.8 billion worldwide, so they’ve already made their money back from the movies alone. When Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, Star Wars creator George Lucas pocketed $4 billion. On October 12, 2012 it was announced that George Lucas reached an agreement to sell all rights to the entire "Star Wars" franchise to Disney for $4 billion. However, he did point out that giving up something he had worked on for forty years was painful. In 1978, the year following the first "Star Wars," more than 40 million "Star Wars" figures sold for gross sales of $100 million-plus. To put that into perspective, $1 billion could buy you a family vacation to space. And that was before Avengers: Endgame broke every box office record in sight. And with only one major misstep so far (the underperforming Solo), that $4 billion has turned out to be money well spent. “For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” Lucas said at the time of the sale. George Lucas’s comments at the time of the acquisition were that he was confident that Lucasfilm and Star Wars will flourish and live on with its new home at Disney. 07:49. In an interview with author Paul Duncan for Duncan’s book The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III 1999-2005, George Lucas expresses that he gave up the films because he didn’t want to spend the next 10-years working. So even with Solo’s disappointment, the other movies have more than paid for themselves. “Star Wars” creator George Lucas recently revealed why he decided to sell the rights to the franchise and Lucasfilm to Disney.. What’s going on? He is definitely well aware of the power that the entertainment juggernaut holds within the industry. He has a net worth of $6.2 billion. He stated, “I thought I was going to have a little bit more to say about the next three because I’d already started them, but they decided they wanted to do something else.”. And it was less than the $7.4 billion they spent to purchase Pixar in 2006. His deal wasn’t the biggest acquisition payout Disney has made either. The concluding installment of the Skywalker story comes out Dec. 20. 1977-1983, just gave fans a look at his upcoming book — The Star Wars Archives. On January 1, 1976, he finished the fourth draft of the script, the one eventually used when production began in Tunisia on March 25, 1976. George Lucas swore that he would not make another Star Wars movie after the prequel trilogy was complete, and he has stuck to his word 1999-2005 — via his Twitter and specifically shared one excerpt from an interview he had with George Lucas where they discussed his decision to sell Star Wars. In October of 2012, Star Wars creator George Lucas stunned the entertainment world when it was announced he had sold Lucasfilm, and the rights to Star Wars, to Walt Disney for a … In 2012, Lucas sold Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company for a reported sum of $4.05 billion. George Lucas selling Star Wars to Disney was perhaps one of the most momentous things that could have happened for either company, and the … Disney has done exactly that since obtaining Lucasfilm in 2012. That said, Star Wars hasn’t exactly been a slouch. George Lucas Plans On Donating His Entire $5 Billion Star Wars Fortune To Charity Disney had also announced a trilogy to be headed by Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, but the status of that is unclear at this time. It was widely reported at the time that Lucas intends to give the … George Lucas shows he might regret selling 'Star Wars' to Disney in a new interview with Charlie Rose, calling the new owners white slavers. The four Star Wars feature films Disney has released since 2015 have grossed more than $4.8 billion at the box office. So the entity Disney paid the least for, Marvel, has actually brought them the most heat lately. The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi were absolute disasters. While Lucasfilm produced other movies like Indiana Jones, the business of what is and isn’t included in acquisitions can be confusing and tricky. That’s... a very large pile of money to comfort oneself over … Them it … Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens may have made all of the money and revitalized the franchise, but one relevant party wasn't impressed: George Lucas. The Benioff-Weiss trilogy: The Game of Thrones showrunners get their crack at Lucas’ world, although some fans are less than thrilled with that given the divided response to the GoT finale. Just terrible Star Wars films. Disney didn’t end up getting the rights to Indiana Jones outright they had to settle a distribution and marketing agreement. This also left us wondering how exactly Episodes VII through IX could have looked if George Lucas didn’t sell the franchise to Disney. In the interview, he had been trying to express that he needs to let go as he had given up his stake in the franchise. In 2009, Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment and its 5,000 characters for $4 billion. The Rise of Skywalker: You may have heard about this one. At that time, Lucas had reportedly said, “I'm completely confident that Disney will take good care of the franchise I've built. What George Lucas Made From Selling Star Wars to Disney Many questions come to mind whenever one ponders on the fact that George Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney. Most people understand that once you've sold something, it no longer belongs to you. According to Box Office Mojo, The Force Awakens made $2 billion worldwide, Rogue One $1.06 billion, The Last Jedi made $1.3 billion, and Solo made $392 million worldwide. Not only did Disney put out Episodes VII through IX, but they also made Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the television series The Mandalorian to name a few. It premieres on Nov. 12, with Jon Favreau (Iron Man) as the showrunner. Basically, Disney spent $4 billion to buy them multiple trips to a galaxy far, far away. The acquisition was not just for Star Wars but for George Lucas’ production company Lucasfilm. In fact, it was Paramount Pictures that owned the rights to that franchise, otherwise, it’s likely Lucas would have scored an even bigger payout for selling Lucasfilm. Disney buys Lucasfilm, the company behind Star Wars, from George Lucas for $4.05bn (£2.5bn) and will release a seventh Star Wars film in 2015. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers.”, $4 billion that Disney paid for Lucasfilm. To paraphrase the knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, “They have chosen wisely.”. Star Wars is now regarded as a business empire on various quarters and revenues from its films alone at the box office are estimated at over $9 billion. MERCH:https://teespring.com/stores/itchy-baccas-general-storehttps://www.cafepress.com/itchybaccasfinegoodsIf you enjoy my work, you … In the end, Lucas said things don’t always go the way you want them to. Disney CEO Bob Iger and Lucas himself broke down the deal in a video statement.