How much is Star Wars creator George Lucas worth?

Everyone knows George Lucas as the creator of Star Wars, but what you might not know is that he is the richest movie celebrity in the world.

In 1971, Lucas formed his own production company, Lucasfilm, as well as the visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic, and that enabled him to create the Star Wars franchise - one of the most lucrative franchises in history.

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When Lucas was attempting to get Star Wars off the ground, he found trouble selling what he described to studios as a 'Western space opera'.

He found one champion in Alex Ladd of 20th Century Fox. Rather cunningly, Lucas knocked back $500,000 to direct the movie and instead took a significant percentage of merchandising sales. Since the first Star Wars movie was released in 1977, around $20 billion of merchandise has been sold.

Star Wars is a pop culture phenomenon and one of the most popular movie franchises of all time. Nine films have been produced so far which have made over $10bn at the box office.

Lucas himself was directly involved for only the first six - A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Before the sequel trilogy was produced, Lucas sold Lucasfilm and the rights to Star Wars for $4bn in 2012. Thereafter, he stepped down as chairman of the company.

He is also known for his work on the Indiana Jones film series as a co-creator, writer and executive producer alongside friend Steven Spielberg.

Interestingly, Lucas has only directed six films in his entire career - The original Star Wars, the prequel trilogy, American Graffiti and THX 1138.

According to Forbes, his current net worth stands at $4.7bn.

How rich is George Lucas?

According to the man himself, his plan is to leave the majority of his wealth to various philanthropic endeavours, such as The Giving Pledge.

The Giving Pledge is a charitable campaign set up by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, encouraging some of the richest members of society to leave at least half of their wealth to charity before or after their passing.

Other names who have pledged wealth include Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Ted Turner, David Rockefeller, and Larry Ellison.

After selling Lucasfilm to Disney, Lucas said:

"For 41 years, the majority of my time and money has been put into the company. As I start a new chapter in my life, it is gratifying that I have the opportunity to devote more time and resources to philanthropy."

He reportedly owns a $28m beach house in California as well as a $100m ranch, which is affectionately named 'The Skywalker Ranch'.