After 10 years of absence, a total of $533 million was spent on this film! Nothing is too good for one of SF’s greatest sagas

News culture After a 10-year absence, $533 million has been spent on this film! Nothing is too good for one of the greatest sci-fi sagas

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A film as eagerly awaited as it is feared by fans

Difficult to do more mythical than the Star Wars saga. With a few other rare competitors like The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potterit is simply one of the most popular stories in the contemporary world. It must be said that it has been able to mark several different generations thanks to its three different trilogies, all released at least a decade apart. But while everyone thought that the story of the Skywalkers was over when Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith In 2005, Disney and George Lucas surprised the world.

Remember. On October 30, 2012, one of the most unexpected news in the world of pop culture broke: George Lucas sold the rights to his Star Wars universe to the entertainment giant Disney for the modest sum of 4 billion dollars. While the galaxy far, far away only survived thanks to its derivative products and its extended universe as vast as it was incoherent, Disney promised to reproduce films and wipe the slate clean on all ancillary content to establish a new canon. Enough to delight many fans who were finally waiting for a return of their favorite license to the cinema… but also to scare all those who did not have the slightest confidence in Disney to respect Star Wars. 10 years after the release of Episode III in theaters, the sequel to the Skywalker saga arrived in theatersand suffice to say that the company with Mickey’s ears knew how to release the floodgates for the occasion.

A huge budget which has still not been exceeded to this day

It’s a sad reality: Star Wars fans are very difficult to please. It must be said that there are particularly many of them, and that not all of them have the same expectations regarding the future of their favorite universe. So when a seventh episode arrived at the cinema, suffice to say that spectators were as impatient as they were fearful to discover what JJ Abrams and Disney had concocted for them. Heresy for some, excellent return for others, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was certainly not unanimous, but one thing is certain: it cost Disney a lot of money.

In order to ensure as impressive a return as possible, Disney has indeed chosen not to be very careful about the costs of such a project. Result : the bill for this seventh Star Wars film amounted to no less than $533 million, making it the most expensive film in the history of cinema. Since its release in 2015, no other production has reached this amount, not even Avengers : Endgame which cost “only” $356 million. Of course, given the scale of the phenomenon, this investment was largely reimbursed since The film grossed over $2 billion at the worldwide box office.

And if you were expecting to see another movie with this much budget anytime soon, you better change your mind. Indeed, since the end of this new trilogy, Disney has instead chosen to reduce the budget of its productions. The next film in the Star Wars universe (which should focus on the Mandalorian and his little friend Grogu) should also cost less in total than a full season of the series from which it comes. If even Disney refuses to spend big bucks again, it’s hard to imagine another production company agreeing to do so.