Turns Out The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Wasn’t as Profitable as the Prequels

The Skywalker saga came to an end last year when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premiered back in December and while the sequel trilogy did experience commercial and critical success, it seems like the Skywalker movies under Disney didn't quite earn as much as George Lucas' prequels.

Celebrating the anniversary of first six live-action movies in the Star Wars franchise, Forbes decided to do a little study of the box office earnings of the three different Star Wars trilogies, and it turns out that Disney's Star Wars sequel trilogy wasn't as profitable as the prequels that George Lucas made in the early 2000s.

According to Forbes, the films raked in less money "in terms of rate-of-return (budget versus gross)." Sure, Star Wars: The Force Awakens might have been an overwhelming success with its $2.06 billion haul at the global box office, however, the film set the bar too high for its successors.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened to rave reviews and strong buzz, however, because of its propensity to subvert fan expectations and Star Wars tropes, the film was bogged down by a vocal portion of the Star Wars fanbase. Episode IX did relatively well, but its $1.33 billion global box office haul paled in comparison to The Force Awakens.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was the worst, earning only $1.074 billion.

While these numbers much larger compared to the prequel trilogy (Phantom Menace only earned $1.027 billion, Attack of the Clones only earned $656 million, Revenge of the Sith 868.4 million), Disney spent a lot to make the sequels.

Because of its low budge production, George Lucas' prequel trilogy ended up being very, very profitable for Lucasfilm. In fact, the studio would see a 5.6 return of investment with Attack of the Clones.

Disney, on the other hand, spent a lot producing the sequel trilogy. The studio spent 306 million alone on the production of The Force Awakens – not to mention the marketing cost of the movie.

The House of Mouse is still earning though, and they'll continue to do so as long as Star Wars keeps its pop-culture power.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is available for streaming on Disney+.
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