“Star Wars” is perhaps one of the longest lived and insanely popular movie franchise in Hollywood. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that these movies have made a lot of money for George Lucas for nearly three decades.
This infographic goes over the history of the “Star Wars” franchise and documents how George Lucas is now worth upwards of $3 billion. Aside from the movies, which netted$4.55 billion, most of Lucas money comes from action figures and various other forms of merchandising, totaling around $9 billion. Looks like Lucas already knew about the upsides of merchandising as the infographic explains that the director agreed to a lower salary in return for 40 percent of the net box office profits, all rights to future sequels and ownership of all merchandising rights. As we all know from the all-knowing Yogurt of “Space Balls” merchandising is where the real money from the movies are made.
As you scroll through the infographic, it’s hard not to appreciate Lucas’ shrewd business moves even if you dislike the most recent series and the editing he did to the original. If nothing else, the man is smart. He has expanded the “Star Wars” legacy over the course of thirty years and appealed to children and adults from each generation. This infographic does a great job of breaking down the information and his road to success in easy to understand sections. This particular piece was commissioned by a personal loans site and designed by Adolfo Arranz. The images might be humorous, but the information is solid and taken from accredited sources like Forbes.com, boxofficemojo.com, msnbc.com and money.cnn.com.
Even without this infographic, it’s easy to see exactly how and why Lucas and the “Star Wars” franchise has been so successful. The original series created a story that was one part fairy tale and one part sci-fi. It offered stunning visuals and characters that were interesting enough to warrant two more movies and a whole slew of video games, figurines, lunchboxes and many generations of fans. Like him or hate him, Lucas certainly knows how to be successful.
If you like this, you might also like: 2010 Tech in Review [Infographic], Apple’s Rise to Number 1 [Infographic] and An Overview of Google Android [Infographic].
Via: Laughing Squid
