Disney bought Lucasfilm six years ago today and has already recouped its $4 billion investment

Ummm…

The deal, worth $4.05 billion in cash and stock, was announced Oct. 30, 2012 and marked the start of a new era in the Star Wars franchise. Disney would make back that investment and more in just a few short years. The four Star Wars feature films Disney has produced have grossed more than $4.8 billion at the box office, according to comScore.

UMMMM…

Someone needs a refresher course in the difference between “gross” and “net.” The general rule of thumb is that the movie company gets 50% of the tcket sales in the US, and 25% from the foreign box office take. So how much did Disney make?

(YAY! I get to do some math!)

From the graphic included in the article, box office receipts for the four movies are:

Force Awakens: $936,662,225 domestic (which works out to ~$468 million); $1,132,798,477 overseas ($283 M)

Rogue One: $532,177,324 US ($266M); $524,290,640 foreign ($131 M)

Last Jedi: $620,180,528 US ($310 M); $712,330,249 foreign ($178 M)

Solo: $213,765,308 US ($106 M); $179,094,450 foreign ($44 M)

Thus Disneys total take so far is *about* $1.786 billion, not $4.8 billion. Worse, these movies weren’t exactly free to make. TFA cost about $300 million. Rogue One cost about $265 million, TLJ about $317 million, Solo, $300 million. The total just to make the movies: $1.182 billion. And while marketing costs are usually not spelled out, they’re generally assumed to run about the same as the production budget. But Solo didn’t seem to be that well marketed, especially compared to the extreme cost. So, let’s say the total marketing budget for the movies has been about $1 billion. Thus the total cost to Disney to make and market the movies has been about $2.182 billion… with $1.786 billion in box office take. Which would mean that, so far, Disney has *lost* about $400 million on the star Wars franchise, rather than making their four billion dollar investment back.

Admittedly, Disney is doubtless making a whole lot of money from merchandising, as well as DVD/Blu ray sales. I’m pretty sure that Disney is, in fact, turning something of a profit. But they sure seem to *not* be doing as well as this truly bizarre article is suggesting.