The calendar yesterday may have read Oct. 30, the day before Halloween. But for Star Wars fans everywhere, it was more like an early Christmas.
Yesterday afternoon, surprising—nay, shocking—news began to circulate with the speed of the Millennium Falcon making the jump to hyperspace: George Lucas had sold his beloved, privately and wholly owned Lucasfilm to Disney. One of the most fiercely, stubbornly independent filmmakers of all time had turned over the keys to one of the most lucrative, influential franchises of all time to arguably an even more storied and influential new keeper.
It’s the kind of deal, I’d imagine, that might have made even old Walt smile. And one that came with another announcement that gave goosebumps to Star Wars aficionados worldwide: Star Wars VII, 2015 … with the promise of more to come from a galaxy far, far away after that.
The cost for the whole shebang: a measly $4.05 billion.
“Measly,” you say?
Well, let’s look at the numbers.
A quick trip over to the actuarial geniuses at Box Office Mojo with my calculator yields these insights regarding what the films alone have grossed internationally. The combined international take of all six Star Wars films: $4.3 billion.
But that’s just the movies’ box office numbers. That figure doesn’t count DVDs. Lego sets. Action figures. T-shirts. Posters. Lunch boxes. Underwear. And all the other merchandise spin-offs we’ve seen since Star Wars debuted on May 25, 1977. Back in 2010, in fact, msnbc.com reported that the total sales of Star Wars toys alone in the preceding decades was a staggering $40 billion—nearly ten times the revenue of the films. And that doesn’t even count the hundreds of dollars I’ve spent on Star Wars Lego sets for my son since then.
With numbers like those in mind, $4 billion starts to sound like a screaming bargain. On top of that, the deal also includes a number of lucrative Lucasfilm subsidiaries, including the pioneering special effects house Industrial Light + Magic, the videogame company LucasArts, the sound mastering studios at Skywalker Sound and the other movie-related enterprises under the Lucasfilm Ltd. banner.
Regarding his motivation for selling his company, Lucas said,
For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next. It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I've always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I'm confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney's reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products.
Lucasfilm joins Disney’s already potent entertainment, news and sports portfolio. The Mouse House added Marvel Comics to its lineup in 2009 (another $4 billion deal). Already in place, of course, were Pixar (purchased in 2006 for $7.4 billion), ABC and ESPN. Oh, and it already had a few characters named Mickey and Minnie and Donald and Daffy and Dumbo and Cinderella, of course.
If Disney’s stewardship of Marvel Comics is any indicator—The Avengers, anyone?—longsuffering fans who endured the disappointment of the new trilogy might yet be rewarded.
As a longtime fan myself (and, yes, I know that there are spiritual elements in these stories that deserve careful, intentional navigation), I’m hard pressed to think of a creative team that would be more likely to return the franchise to its original storytelling glory. Imagine, for a moment, the likes of Joss Whedon, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof or Andrew Stanton getting a crack at writing and/or directing new entries. For that matter, why not think even bigger than that and give Spielberg himself a call and see if he’d have any interest.
All in all, the possibilities for taking the franchise back to hyperspace once more seem tantalizing limitless under the ownership of a group of folks who know a thing or two about stoking the imagination.
Recent Comments