Star Wars
George Lucas’ unexpected Star Wars business gambit made him one of the wealthiest celebrities ever
Choosing to take a gamble on how he would get paid for Star Wars, George Lucas managed to game Hollywood for incredible earnings, helping him forge Star Wars into the phenomenon it is today.
George Lucas is one of the most outstanding filmmakers in history, a figure of enormous recognition for having conceived enormously successful sagas such as ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’. The director was able to create an empire that continues to this day and places him in Forbes as the largest fortune in the world among personalities from the world of entertainment and sports, followed by names such as Steven Spielberg, Michael Jordan, and Oprah Winfrey, among others.
It’s hard to believe that a project like ‘Star Wars’ was difficult to be accepted, but it was at the time. In 1971, Lucas managed to get Universal Studios to accept the production of two of his films: ‘American Graffiti’ and ‘Star Wars’, but the latter ultimately did not make the cut. Considered a kind of remake of ‘The Hidden Fortress’, a film by the great Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, its confusing script and other aspects meant that he had to fight hard to be accepted. When he achieved it, the rest is history, an overwhelming premiere in theaters, and a success that continues to this day.
George Lucas’ dangerous gambit
It’s hard to believe today that expectations surrounding ‘Star Wars’ were low, with even George Lucas deciding to reduce up to two-thirds of his own salary to achieve what would be his master move: keeping the rights of all possible sequels and of the marketing of products related to the saga. A bet that made history, and that allowed him to forge an empire that continues to this day, becoming the largest fortune in the world of entertainment.
‘Star Wars’ was a success and merchandising around the film was continually selling. Multiple sequels later, in 2012 Disney arrived to take over Lucasfilm for 4 billion dollars. A huge figure but it did not take long to demonstrate how profitable the purchase was going to be, with Disney seeing results and not just recovering, improving the amount invested in profits.
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