11 Incredibly Successful Movies (That Shockingly Made No Profit)
3. Return Of The Jedi
Yes, one of the original Star Wars trilogy films was unprofitable. At least that's what Lucasfilm claims.
You wouldn't know it looking at the box office receipts. Although it was the lowest grossing Star Wars movie at the time, it still performed well, gaining $475 million at the box office in its initial run, on a budget of $32.5 million.
Unfortunately for David Prowse, the actor who portrayed Darth Vader, he hasn't received a residual check because the film apparently never made profit.
According to Slashfilm, Prowse revealed this in an interview with Esquire Magazine.
“I get these occasional letters from Lucasfilm saying that we regret to inform you that as Return of the Jedi has never gone into profit, we’ve got nothing to send you. Now here we’re talking about one of the biggest releases of all time,” said Prowse. “I don’t want to look like I’m bitching about it,” he said, “but on the other hand, if there’s a pot of gold somewhere that I ought to be having a share of, I would like to see it.”
We can assume that, once again, Hollywood accounting tricks have turned a successful movie into an unprofitable one. Go figure.