Via Geek.com
Movie budgets have been skyrocketing to absurd rates ever since Kevin Costner spent $175 million in 1995 dollars to make Waterworld. But you know which movie’s budget wasn’t absurd? Star Wars.
As we all know, George Lucas spent $11 million to make his epic science fantasy film, known to geeks like me as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Adjusted for 2012 dollars, that’s comes to a mere $40 million. (Click the image, above, to expand.)
On the other hand, it cost James Cameron $280 million to lens Avatar in 2009. Had he been filming his blue-skinned Na’vi circa 1977, it would have cost him $77 million to Lucas’ puny $11.
According to an article on Geek.com,
[W]hen adjusting the $775,398,007 A New Hope made in both domestic and international releases for inflation, the film has raked in $3,082,922,515 in revenue. Subtracting the $40 million in adjusted production costs, this leaves a tidy profit of $3,042,922,515.
Of course, this number doesn’t come close to Lucas’ total wealth. He earned 107th place on the Forbes 400 mostly from the sales of Star Wars-based merchandise.
Via Geek.com.