Disney has been known to be big spenders when it comes to helping Star Wars to succeed, and according to new financial statements, the company has indeed had to allocate more funds than expected to three different movies – and at least one TV show. When Disney purchased Lucasfilm, and thus Star Wars, from George Lucas in 2012 for a whopping $4 billion, they set a precedent of spending big to make Star Wars a success. This is something that has continued in their productions.

As shared by Forbes, new financial statements from Disney reveal for the first time which Star Wars UK productions actually ended up going over budget. Perhaps surprisingly for many, most of the Star Wars sequel trilogy did just fine with their budgets, with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker even somehow managing to be under budget. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, however, was the outlier, as it did indeed go over budget. Also joining The Last Jedi are the franchise’s two anthology movies, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story.

In addition to these two movies going over budget was The Acolyte, one of only two live-action Star Wars TV shows produced in the UK. Unlike Andor, it looks as if The Acolyte did indeed go over budget, just to unfortunately underperform for the most part – thus leading to its cancelation. Since all other Star Wars TV shows to date have been produced in the US, it’s unknown as yet if The Acolyte has more company in terms of TV shows going over budget, but it’s likely that it’s not alone.

What This Budgeting Means For Star Wars

It’s More Than Just A Movie’s Price Tag

As noted by Forbes, budgets are not equivocal with the actual costs of a movie, but they are often indicators of unforeseen circumstances impacting a certain movie’s production. This was certainly the case for Rogue One, The Last Jedi, and Solo, all of which reportedly required reshoots at some point – with some being heavier than others. As for The Acolyte, it’s harder to tell what exactly may have impacted production, unless reshoots were also a necessity at some point.

Our Take On Star Wars’ Budgets

How Will Their Next Theatrical Productions Fare?

Looking at this list, it’s clear that the bigger the budget doesn’t also guarantee a higher quality of the outcome, which is further evidence of the fact that it’s mostly due to unpredictable circumstances. For example, both Solo and The Acolyte went over budget, though the former ended up performing poorly at the box office while the other failed to meet its streaming goals and was ultimately canceled. Of course, that’s the risk that’s taken with new stories, and it doesn’t mean that storytelling risk ought to be stopped.

What will be interesting to see is if the production of Star Wars’ next movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu, ended up going either under, within, or over budget. This was Star Wars’ first theatrical production to take place primarily in Los Angeles, presumably using the Volume technology in addition to various other built sets. Seeing as we haven’t heard much about reshoots for this movie, I would safely ᴀssume that Star Wars was able to keep this particular production within budget.

Source: Forbes

Star Wars

Created by

George Lucas

First Film

Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope

Cast

Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, Rosario Dawson, Lars Mikkelsen, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Frank Oz, Pedro Pascal

TV Show(s)

The Mandalorian, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Lando, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Resistance, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Star Wars: Visions

Character(s)

Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Rey Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Grand Inquisitor, Reva (The Third Sister), The Fifth Brother, The Seventh Sister, The Eighth Brother, Yoda, Din Djarin, Grogu, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Leia Organa, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren

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