10 Ingenious Ways Film Directors Beat The Studio

5. George Lucas Took A Low Directing Fee To Keep Merchandising & Sequel Rights - Star Wars: A New Hope

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Lucasfilm

As much as Star Wars fans may have a love-hate relationship with George Lucas, there's no denying that the man made one of the shrewdest decisions in Hollywood history when assembling the original Star Wars.

After numerous studios passed on Lucas' pitch, he finally struck gold with Fox, who agreed to finance Star Wars for $8 million in order to foster a working relationship with Lucas, whose previous film American Graffiti was nominated for five Oscars (including Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Lucas).

Considering the phenomenal box office success of American Graffiti, Lucas was advised to re-negotiate his Star Wars directing fee from $150,000 to $500,000, but he instead suggested a deal to Fox: he'd stick to $150,000 if he retained the full merchandising and sequel rights.

Fox agreed, and were soon enough left kicking themselves when Star Wars became a box office and merchandising goliath.

Lucas bet on himself and it paid off dividends, enough that practises with regard to merchandising and sequel negotiations changed drastically in the years that followed.

Lucas ended up selling the entirety of the Star Wars IP, merch and all, to Disney for $4 billion in 2012, confirming just how thoroughly he outsmarted a studio who assumed his film had only limited commercial appeal.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.