A long time ago, in a galaxy called “Mobile, Alabama,” George Lucas and Steven Spielberg made a friendly agreement that would go on to earn the latter a cool $40 million without lifting a finger. The agreement? Lucas would trade Spielberg 2.5% of the gross profits from Star Wars in return for the same piece of Close Encounters of the Third Kind‘s profits. While the deal ended up earning both filmmakers millions of dollars in passive income, Spielberg definitely got the better end of the bargain.
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George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have been BFFs for close to 60 years, and they’ve collaborated many times, most famously on the first four Indiana Jones films. What many fans might not know is that the two men frequently visit each other’s film sets even when they aren’t officially working together. Usually, it’s to hang out and see what the other is working on and occasionally offer a creative solution or two, but not always…
The making of Star Wars: A New Hope — initially just titled Star Wars — almost destroyed George Lucas. Lucas was so stressed that in the middle of the production, he had to be admitted to the hospital because everyone was convinced he was having a heart attack. Luckily, the director’s chest pains ended up being the result of a severe anxiety attack and not cardiac arrest; still, it was clear that George needed a rest, so he took a weekend trip to Alabama, where Steven Spielberg was filming Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
When Lucas got there and saw the movie his friend was making, his mind was utterly blown. As Spielberg once told Turner Classic Movies, “He [George] said, ‘Oh my God, your movie is going to be so much more successful than Star Wars! This is gonna be the biggest hit of all time.” Lucas reportedly didn’t have a lot of faith in his own movie, calling it a “little kid’s movie” that didn’t adequately convey the vision he had in his head. Spielberg, on the other hand, was a Star Wars supporter from day one.
Early in the production, Lucas held a special screening of a Star Wars rough cut for his close friends and as the story goes, everyone but Spielberg thought the movie was going to be a colossal flop. The Jurassic Park director was the only one at the screening able to look past the missing effects, and confusing dialogue to see the film Star Wars would eventually become.
So it’s no surprise that when Lucas asked his friend to put his money where his mouth was, and gamble on the success of Star Wars by exchanging profit points, Spielberg didn’t hesitate for a second. And he’s lucky he didn’t, because Spielberg’s uncanny ability to see a future where Star Wars becomes a global phenomenon earned him quite an impressive chunk of change, not that Lucas didn’t also make money on the deal.
With a worldwide gross of $306,889,114, George’s side of the deal netted him close to $8 million — not an insignificant amount of money, even by today’s standards. But everything is relative, as they say, and compared to what Spielberg’s piece of Star Wars earned, $8 million is chump change. With all the rereleases of Star Wars: A New Hope over the years, including 1997’s Special Edition, Spielberg is rumored to have pulled in just around $40 million dollars from his 2.5% claim of the film’s profits — a claim that, according to the director is still bringing him money to this day.
Of course, that $40 million is itself a drop in the bucket compared to how much money Lucas earned from Star Wars over the years. Already a billionaire by the time Disney came calling with a $4 billion offer for the franchise, George no doubt didn’t lose a wink of sleep handing Spielberg his cut of the profits. Not that Spielberg was exactly depending on it. As one of the most successful directors of all time, we’d be willing to bet Steven would be living comfortably with or without the Star Wars profit-sharing.
Either way, it’s a heartwarming story from a business mainly known for backstabbing and double-crossing. Even in Hollywood, there are still genuine friends out there supporting each other’s work – and getting duely rewarded for it.
Star Wars: A New Hope is available to stream on Disney +.
