Media & entertainment
How George Lucas gave up his Star Wars paycheck for the merchandising rights
11 min
The gamble nobody understood at the time: Lucas took a smaller directing fee in exchange for sequel and merchandising rights, and accidentally built one of the largest entertainment empires on Earth.
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Show notes
George Lucas traded a four hundred fifty thousand dollar salary cut for full merchandising and sequel rights.
Major toy companies Mattel and Hasbro rejected the project before Kenner signed for a low flat fee.
Kenner sold empty boxes with vouchers because they were unprepared for the film's massive success.
Lucas used a fifteen million dollar bank loan to self-fund sequels and bypass studio creative interference.
Merchandise sales generated four and a half billion dollars by nineteen ninety-nine to fund the prequel trilogy.
Modern studio contracts now include Lucas Clauses to prevent creators from owning lucrative merchandising rights.
In this episode
- 1Intro1 min
- 2The Fifty Thousand Dollar Director2 min
- 3The Accidental Empire3 min
- 4The Power of the Sequel Clause3 min
- 5The Four Billion Dollar Legacy3 min
- 6Outro1 min
Sources
- Lucas controls a marketing Force - May 19, 1999
- By George, He Can Thank His Lucky ‘Stars’
- How George Lucas Won Control of the 'Star Wars' Movie Franchise
- The Star Wars Business Decision That Quietly Changed Hollywood Forever
- George Lucas On How He Built His $4 Billion ‘Star Wars’ Empire
- How a failure to pay $500,000 changed cinema history
- George Lucas's Unusual Star Wars Deal: A Creative Risk That Paid Off - Project Casting
- Why George Lucas Took A Half-Million Dollar Pay Cut On The First Star Wars Movie
- Reaching for the stars? How merchandising became the film ... - CITMA
- How George Lucas Bet on Himself—and Won Big with 'Star Wars'
- How George Lucas convinced 20th Century Fox to green light 'The Star Wars' film in 1973 | The Astromech
- https://www.citma.org.uk/resources/trade-marks-ip/intellectual-property-blog/reaching-for-the-stars-how-merchandising-became-the-film-industry-s-golden-ticket-blog.html
- George Lucas’s toy story
- The Loyalty of Laddie: Alan Ladd Jr. Gambled on George Lucas and We All Won - Star Wars News Net
- Star Wars will make its real money in the mall, not the cinema | Vox
- George Lucas on 'The Empire Strikes Back' for 45th anniversary
- Reaching for the stars? How merchandising became the film industry’s golden ticket - Barker Brettell
- Tom Pollock Legacy made Hollywood's Greatest Deal George Lucas Star Wars Sequel Rights
- How 'Star Wars' Made George Lucas Billions - Business Insider
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