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Summary
Disney ’s figures may be a fiction , butStar Warsis still tremendously profitable for the House of Mouse . Disney officially make out the leverage of Lucasfilm back in 2012 , acquiring the studio apartment behindStar WarsandIndiana Jonesfor $ 4.05 billion ( $ 5.51 billion in today ’s money , factoring in inflation ) . Recently , the House of Mouse published figures claimingStar Warshad made $ 12 billion in profits , but analysis suggests those trope were n’t alone precise .
Forbesbroke down box government agency takings since 2012 , and bring out an clause claim that " Disney ‘ Star Wars ’ Box - Office Profits Fail To Cover Cost Of Buying Lucasfilm . " This article essentially argued that Disney had knead the figures in their recent report card , publish by the Securities & Exchange Commission ; deliberate analysis betoken they ’d intentionally avoid factoring production costs into the profit computing . Sohow profitable hasStar Warsreally been for Disney ?
Disney CEO Bob Iger ’s Koran The Ride of a Lifetime shine a lighter on Disney ’s purchase of Star Wars - and whether the enfranchisement is still a success .
Star Wars Box Office Takings Aren’t Enough To Make The Franchise Profitable For Disney
Box office takings have been healthy, but it will take time to make that back
It ’s actually very difficult to direct how much profit a movie release has made , in part because of the accounting practice taken by studio ; while they love denote eminent loge place return , they also use method of accounting practices to reduce taxis and expenses . David Prowse fiddle Darth Vader inReturn of the Jedi , and he never received residuals because - grant to Lucasfilm ’s accounting - the film never made a net income . That ’s despite it grossing $ 475 million on a $ 32 million budget back in 1983 .
The best approach is to take the estimated production costs as an disbursement , and recoup them from the worldwide box office . This will only generate a ballpark figure , of course of instruction , because theaters keep some of those takings ( and it ’s not possible to standardize , because each country ’s practices are subtly different in this respect ) . Here ’s how theStar Warsmovies wreak out allot to this , with all public figure set for inflation :
plastic film title
Worldwide box office
Estimated budget
net profit
Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalker
$ 2.7 billion
$ 702.6 million
Custom image by Debanjana Chowdhury
$ 1.8 billon
Rogue One : A Star Wars Story
$ 1.37 billion
$ 344.8 million
$ 1.25 billion
Star war : The Last Jedi
$ 1.69 billion
$ 382.3 million
$ 1.38 billion
Solo : A Star Wars Story
$ 489.07 million
$ 342.1 million
$ 146.97 million
$ 1.32 billion
$ 508.22 million
$ 811.78 million
full profit
$ 5.39 billion
It ’s important to take down that the budget are only gauge , because studios seldom announce them , and there ’s particular argument over the entire cost ofSolo : A Star Wars Story ’s reshoots . What ’s more , selling costs are unquantifiable , but will also wipe out into these profits;Solo , for exercise , is believed to have postulate to gross $ 500 million back in 2018 to stop even ( over $ 610 million factoring in puffiness ) . Still , this does support Forbes ' analysis;Star Warsbox part alone is n’t enough to have made a earnings for Disney .
Star Wars Has Become A Major Streaming Phenomenon
But how do you measure the shows' success?
The grandness ofStar Warswas perfectly illustrate in December 2023 , when IMDb published a ranking of the year ’s top ten shows . The class ’s two alive - actionStar WarsTV shows both appeared in the top 10 , withAhsokaranking second andThe Mandalorianseason 3 ranking fifth . Even more spectacular , though , was the fact only one other Disney+ TV show appeared on the list , and the MCU was entirely absentminded . Star Wars ' is Disney+ biggest hit- at least as far as original message is worry .
IMDb 2023 rank and file
TV show
10
Gen fin
9
The Bear
8
Ted Lasso
7
The Fall of the House of Usher
6
One Piece
5
The Mandalorianseason 3
4
Black Mirror
3
Succession
2
Ahsoka
1
The Last of Us
Star Wars Tie-Ins Are Another Revenue Stream For Disney
Looking beyond the movies & TV shows… to the comics & books
Even this is only scratch up the surface ofStar Wars ' value to Disney , because the House of Mouse has continue the George Lucas tradition of publishing a wealth of necktie - ins - range from novel to quotation books . accord to Wookipedia , the officialStar Warswiki , there have been a astonishing 246 new fiction books since Disney rebooted the canon in April 2014 . Meanwhile , publishing deals grant reissue of onetime " fable " books , with regular audiobook releases to boot .
Legends
canyon
Number of fiction books
359
246
Original novels
144
42
Novel version
Original next-to-last novel
125
45
third-year novel adjustment
20
35
Gamebooks
22
0
Young Readers books
93
Looking at the publication rate , though , it ’s wanton to see that many of these releases are associate with the latest Hollywood blockbuster . There have been no linkup - in novels for any of the recent Disney+ TV show , which means the transmutation away from the big screen has hurt publishing . Matters have been helped , however , by a focus on a major transmedia initiative set during the High Republic Era , centuries before the Skywalker saga .
Looking beyond the Koran , Marvel Comics retrieve the license for publishingStar Warscomics by belated 2014 ( although other publishing firm also secrete regular subject ) . Since January 2015 , there has n’t been a single week without at least oneStar Warscomic , and there have been one-year " Comic Book Events " too - ranging from " Vader Down " to the more late " Dark Droids . " Unfortunately , again , there are no figures to indicate how profitable these other medium are for Lucasfilm ; it ’s deserving noting Marvel is also owned by Disney , get sales highly profitable for the House of Mouse .
Star Wars Merchandise Is Also A Crucial Part Of Its Profitability
Star Wars is the world’s strongest brand
In February 2023,Brand Financeran the phone number and calculated thatStar Warsis officially the humans ’s biggest toy marque ( albeit with Fisher - Price catching up ) . This was the first timeStar Warshad been ranked as a toy brand , andBrand Financecalculated it was worth $ 262 million in this heavens alone - a calculation that cistron in marketing investment , stakeholder equity , and occupation performance . Two of the other top ten brands have licensing agreements withStar Wars , meaning there ’s substantial crossing too .
2023 Toy Brand Ranking
Brand Name
Brand Strength Index valuation
Hello Kitty
AA+
Hasbro
AAA-
Monopoly
Hot Wheels
Nerf
Barbie
LEGO
AAA
My Little Pony
Fisher - Price
Star warfare
Circling back , then , the introductory analysis by Forbes is correct;going by boxful office alone , Star Warshas not made a profit for Disney . But that ’s a very narrow position indeed , because there are a astounding number of different revenue flow . Unfortunately , by design , many of these are almost impossible to approximate , meaning there ’s no real way to calculate Disney ’s net income fromStar Wars . What is clean , though , is that - give the diaphanous issue of revenue stream - thereisa substantial net profit , albeit probably not so high as Disney ’s public figure .
That enounce , it ’s also easy to see why Disney wantStar Warsback on the big screen door . Disney+ has n’t really worked out the mode Disney hoped , meaning the House of Mouse clearly need the box federal agency takings back . A Hollywood megahit also has a monumental encroachment on tie - ins , as see from the fit of fresh books associated with each release , and the same is for sure true for merchandise . The soonerStar Warsis back in theaters , the good for Disney .
