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How did director George Lucas become a multi-billionaire with such a slim resume of movies? 
His 2nd film American Graffiti was a blockbuster hit, earning $200m from a budget of just $775k
His reward for making Century Fox a fortune was $150k
His 2nd film American Graffiti was a blockbuster hit, earning $200m from a budget of just $775k
His reward for making Century Fox a fortune was $150k
When he finally got the green light for Star Wars to go ahead the studio offered him a $350k pay rise to reflect the success of his last movie
He turned it down
He turned it down
Instead of accepting a near 300% pay rise he asked to be paid $150k again
With 2 small additional requests
With 2 small additional requests
1 â He would keep all merchandising rights
2 â He would also own the rights to any sequels
While it might seem difficult to understand today why the studio willingly handed these rights over to save $350k, the timing worked perfectly in Lucasâ favour
2 â He would also own the rights to any sequels
While it might seem difficult to understand today why the studio willingly handed these rights over to save $350k, the timing worked perfectly in Lucasâ favour
Fox had just lost an small fortune through merchandising the expensive failure of Doctor Dolittle and had little desire to get back into the merch business anyway
Of course Star Wars would prove to be a galactic hit at the box office but the kicker was the $100m worth of toys that sold following the release
To which George received all of the royalties
To which George received all of the royalties
The next 5 Star Wars movies went on to earn $3.5b at the box office alone with the merch and toys generating over $12b
And then finally in 2012, Disney offered to pay George $4b to take over the franchise outright
If you have the balls to trade a guaranteed $350k salary add-on for a shot in the dark that nobody else could see the value in
You deserve to be a billionaire!
You deserve to be a billionaire!
