For those who were concerned that The Walt Disney Company spent too much to acquire the Star Wars franchise when they purchased Lucasfilm from George Lucas in December of 2012 for $4.05 billion, rest assured — Disney has apparently made approximately $12 billion in profits from their Star Wars properties. That's nearly three times what they paid for the legendary IP!

The figure was revealed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing for March 2024 entitled, “The Right Board, The Right Strategy: Disney's Plan For Shareholder Value Creation” and it's about as dense and dry of a read as you'd expect from a lengthy financial document to appease investors.

After luring you in with a collage of fun images from Disney's key properties and recent hits — like a pic of Emma Stone from Poor Things, Jeremy Allen White from The Bear, Mirabel from Encanto, Joy from Inside Out and of course Bluey — the document then gets into the nitty gritty on profit margins, revenue and a bunch of other stock-related information that condenses your beloved childhood classics down to financial x's and o's and withers your own personal Joy emotion down to nearly depleted.

The report seems designed to assure stockholders that The Walt Disney Company has a plan of succession for when Bob Iger steps down as CEO, and to convey confidence that the company will remain strong in the age of streaming despite the viewing shift being a drastic disruptor to the media sector.

The massive Star Wars financial figures come up on a page of the report with the heading “Enduring franchises highlight our powerful IP and unique monetization capabilities.” What follows is a series of timelines from some of Disney's biggest intellectual properties with highlights of their historic achievements (especially in terms of profitability).

On the Star Wars timeline, among the key dates noted after Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm is May 2019, when the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme park addition to Disneyland opened — a massive success thanks to the groundbreaking rides Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.

Other dates of note include the releases for the trilogy of Star Wars films Disney created to make up Episodes VII, VIII, and IX of the saga that George Lucas started back in 1977 — The Force Awakens (Episode 7); The Last Jedi (Episode 8); and The Rise of Skywalker (Episode 9).

The release dates of other spin-offs like Rogue One and Solo are also highlighted, as are the premiere dates for successful Star Wars television ventures like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Andor.

Of course, the larger-than-life merchandizing created by each and every one of these new properties must figure into the staggering $12 billion profit margin as well.

George Lucas, who's proven himself quite adept at having the foresight to see into the future of an expansive universe, pretty much predicted this one as well — he admitted selling Star Wars was a painful experience, although he said that in reference to losing creative control, not necessarily because of the monetary aspect. Making $4.05 billion from the sale of the studio he founded in 1971 is nothing to sneeze at, but it can't feel great to know it's made 2.9 times that sum since changing ownership hands.

Disney‘s purchase of Star Wars for $4.05 billion from George Lucas seemed like an astronomical sum back in 2012, and now an announced profit of $12 billion looms even larger.