Disney Spends Insane Amount of Money on Star Wars Productions
Forbes has compiled more evidence that Disney is still struggling to turn a profit from Star Wars. In 2012, the massive studio acquired Lucasfilm from founder George Lucas for $4 billion and took ownership of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Willow in the process. Under the stewardship of Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm has produced five Star Wars movies under Disney, as well as several TV shows for Disney+. However, the popularity of the Star Wars brand has been in an undeniable downward spiral, with each film in the sequel trilogy making less money than the previous one – to the point where The Rise of Skywalker made about half what The Force Awakens did – and Solo: A Star Wars Story losing money. Meanwhile, on Disney+, most of the shows failed to strike a chord, with the most successful one, The Mandalorian, dropping massively in its third season. But how much has Disney been spending on its Star Wars productions?
A lot, as it happens. Disney and Lucasfilm are making most of their Star Wars films and shows in the UK to take advantage of a credit that reimburses productions that film there to the tune of 25.5%. That means there are records of the production costs for each movie and series. According to Forbes, Disney spent a total of $2.9 billion on its UK-filmed Star Wars content, which includes all five movies, Andor, and The Acolyte. (I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the other shows take place largely on Tatooine, the ubiquitous desert planet for which filming in the UK would be impractical.) Disney was reimbursed $512 million based on the UK’s program, meaning they ultimately spent $2.4 billion on these productions. (Is that all?) Forbes also calculated the profits they made on the films (the shows, since they air on a streaming service, don’t really generate any measurable profits), and the total is just over $1 billion. This isn’t even enough to offset the cost of the movies, let alone the shows and the price of acquiring Lucasfilm in the first place. And this isn’t taking into account the money they lost on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny or the Willow TV revival that got removed from the face of the Earth. You can see the breakdown of each production’s costs and profit below:
Take a look at those numbers! Each film in the sequel trilogy cost over $400 million to make; they spent over $600 million on The Force Awakens alone. And keep in mind that this doesn’t include the marketing budgets, which were probably huge. On the other hand, it doesn’t account for profits from merchandise or home video, but considering how poorly the toys have sold and the downturn in the home video market (to the point where Best Buy doesn’t even sell physical media anymore), and I sincerely doubt they made enough to offset the massive costs of these productions, and certainly not the cost of buying Lucasfilm. I can understand Star Wars movies having high budgets; they need to be epic sci-fi spectacles, which don’t come cheap nowadays, and The Force Awakens had to convince Harrison Ford to come back to a franchise he’d have preferred to leave behind. But $600 million!? That’s insane, and it hobbled a very successful film’s ability to make its studio a profit befitting a hit of that size. The Rise of Skywalker cost almost as much – $588 million and some change – and only got them $52.9 million in profits; that’s not a rousing success, especially for something with Star Wars stamped on it. At this rate, unless Lucasfilm stops spending money like a drunken sailor and people flock back to theaters to see Rey’s next adventures, it doesn’t look like Disney will ever make their Lucasfilm purchase worthwhile. In a bit of poetic justice, the only one who made money from that deal was George Lucas.
Let us know what you think of Disney’s Star Wars spending in the comments!
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