How big is the Star Wars franchise?

January 27, 2005 11:36 AM

A couple of people I work with and myself were having a debate on how big the Star Wars franchise is financially? With Lucasfilms being private they never release revenue. Does anyone know how many dollars of Star Wars videogames and toys are sold each year?
posted by rje7 to work & money (7 comments total)

First Google result for "star wars merchandising revenue" says $US3.5 billion in box office + $5US billion in merchandising as of last September, "according to director George Lucas's privately held company, Lucas Licensing".
posted by nicwolff at 11:57 AM on January 27, 2005

Whoops, that's the total revenue over the lifetime of the franchise, not the annual sales. Sorry. (And I should probably decide whether the "US" goes after the "$" or after the number.)
posted by nicwolff at 12:00 PM on January 27, 2005

I'm honestly surprised it's not in the trillions.
posted by agregoli at 12:07 PM on January 27, 2005

I'm honestly surprised it's not in the trillions.

Are you serious? A trillion dollars is around $150 for every person on earth.
posted by jpoulos at 12:11 PM on January 27, 2005

Well, you know, what's bigger than a billion? A trillion, of course! People forget about tens and hundreds of billions. And don't grasp that orders of magnitude increase by, well, orders of magnitude for each new digit. /derail /rant
posted by squidlarkin at 1:47 PM on January 27, 2005

I remember hearing that for the rerelease, PepsiCo bought the worldwide merchandising rights. (They include Pizza Hut and many other subsidiaries, IIRC.) $2 billion. And boy did their Star-Wars-themed ads suck.
posted by Aknaton at 6:47 PM on January 27, 2005

Yes, I'm STILL surprised it's not in the trillions.
posted by agregoli at 7:41 AM on January 28, 2005