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Disney has reportedly earned back the $4 billion it paid for Lucasfilm

ComScore calls the galactically brilliant deal "one of the smartest acquisitions in history."

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
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The Lucasfilm acquisition put Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and Disney on the fast track to financial success.

Jonathan Olley

Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm six years ago apparently was a galactically good investment, it turns out. 

The $4.05 billion deal was announced in 2012. Disney has made over $4.8 billion from the four Star Wars films released since then, and that's not counting licensing and merchandise deals, CNBC reports.

Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The four features are The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, and Solo: A Star Wars Story.

"This was one of the smartest acquisitions in history," Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for the analytics and media measurement company Comscore, told CNBC.

Of course, those films cost big bucks to make, but they mostly earned their keep and then some. Deadline ranked The Last Jedi as the most profitable film of 2017, calculating a net profit of $417.5 million. Solo: A Star Wars Story, was the most disappointing of the four, with The Hollywood Reporter estimating it will lose $50 million-plus.

Disney also makes money on Star Wars home video sales, clothing, toys, novels and other  items. And two Star Wars Land attractions located in California and Florida Disney theme parks will keep the galactic credits flowing when they open in 2019.

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