The Real Star Wars Box Office
What’s up, Geeks + Gamers? It’s ODIN!
In a previous article, I talked about the complete collapse of the MCU since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. As bad as the box office has been for Marvel, Disney has a much bigger issue in the financial failures of their numerous Star Wars projects. It is clear to anyone who has been paying attention that Disney has no clear plans for Star Wars since they bought the rights from George Lucas almost a decade ago. Though many will point to the total box office for all of their films, the out-of-control budgetary spending paints a much different picture that is worth looking into further.
Billion-Dollar Franchise
Since the first Disney Star Wars film was released back in December 2015, it seemed clear that the over $4 billion spent to attain the rights would ultimately be well worth the investment. The hype surrounding the release of a new Star Wars movie from the company that gave us the MCU (which was still thriving) was shown to be very real when it made $2,064,615,817. Though some claim to have seen the cracks that would eventually be made into massive canyons around this time, for most people, Star Wars was back and ready to continue its march towards massive box office profits. Continuing to look at the numbers, this seems to have come to fruition with the next project, Rogue One, making $1,055,083,596, and after that, The Last Jedi making $1,331,635,141. On paper, these movies alone would seem to indicate that Disney made back the $4 billion it had spent. This is clearly a falsehood, however, if we remind ourselves how the box office actually works. The truth is that insanely high budgets, poor management by Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, ballooning marketing costs, and a predominant focus on foreign markets led to the first Star Wars film ever to lose money.
Solo Lost Money
The phrase “Solo Lost Money” may have become a catchphrase for the head of Geeks + Gamers, but the fact remains that it is absolutely true and, in many ways, an understatement. There has been extensive coverage of the behind-the-scenes chaos that led to the firing of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, but not nearly enough on what that meant financially for the film and the studio. By the time the Ron Howard-directed reshoots were finished, Solo’s budget had ballooned to $270 million, meaning the movie would need to make between $675 million and $810 million to break even. By the end of its run, Solo earned a paltry $393,151,347 worldwide, which meant the film had a net loss of over $200 million. This was the first clear sign that the incompetence of the powers that be would become very costly to the Disney brand. It was also an indication of just how out of control the spending for Star Wars had become.
Bloated Budgets Galore
As mentioned in a previous article, UK tax documents released in the last year or two revealed how much more money Disney spent on their Star Wars (and even Marvel) films than the original estimates. In the case of The Force Awakens, the tax documents revealed that the net spending for the film after the UK tax credit was $447,000,000. This number is insanely higher than the initial report of between $250 million and $300 million. Though the film went on to make over $2 billion at the global box office, those additional costs and the typical splits meant the film only grossed a net of $277,812,661. Spending as much as they did could be justified by their modest return on investment, but the rest of the story quickly throws that justification out the window. For the remaining Star Wars movies, Disney spent $232,400,000 on Rogue One, $300,000,000 on The Last Jedi, $270,000,000 on Solo (as previously mentioned), and $416,000,000 on The Rise of Skywalker. Taking into account typical marketing costs, which very well could have been higher for these films, the total cost for all of them is a whopping $2,498,100,000. It is true that they were able to make some profits on the first three releases, but it is also true that they lost over $300 million on the final two films. Altogether, for spending roughly $2.5 billion, they made only $251,503,873 in net profits.
Significance and Conclusion
By doing the math, we can demonstrate that, for the films alone, Disney was able to make about $250 million in profit. Because of the scope of the Star Wars brand, many might be quick to mention that they likely made a lot of money on post-theatrical television rights, merchandise, and other revenue streams. Though this might be true, the fact remains that they spent over $4 billion and were only able to get a very small portion of returns from the films they made. One also cannot forget that since the time of the pandemic, Disney has poured 100s of millions of dollars more into their library of Disney+ Star Wars shows that were at first met with middling responses and eventually with barely any response. Not only do the financials paint a very bleak picture for Disney and the Star Wars brand as a whole, but one must also consider the incalculable IP damage and what the potential long-term costs of that damage could be. One need only look at projected ticket sale differences from the start back in 2015 to the present. Looking at the average ticket prices and total worldwide grosses, The Rise of Skywalker sold roughly 114 million tickets globally… and The Force Awakens sold roughly 253 million. With a loss of over half of your moviegoing audience, one question is left: when will Disney fire the people running Lucasfilm?
