How Much Did Disney Make From Buying Star Wars And Marvel?

When Bob Iger became the CEO of the Walt Disney Company in 2006, he defined his tenure early on. It wasn't through any specific films or new theme parks or attractions, but through an acquisition: He immediately set to work with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter on not only ironing over the previous tensions between Pixar Animation Studios and Iger's predecessor, Michael Eisner, but to also purchase the company. By 2006, Pixar had become an official part of the Walt Disney empire, not just a beloved studio that had essentially been contracted to make a few films. 

Iger would further cement his own brand as the House of Mouse's CEO by engineering the purchases of both Lucasfilm and Marvel in the early 2010s. At the time, buying Marvel made a heap of sense. By that point, the House of Ideas had only barely become a serious force in filmmaking thanks to the quick and undeniable success of the 2008 film "Iron Man" and the resulting Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Of course, it's worth noting that when Disney bought Marvel, the latter had yet to pull off the MCU's first big team-up movie: the 2012 smash hit "The Avengers.")

Lucasfilm, however, was a bit more of a risk. On one hand, when people thought of George Lucas and his empire, they thought of "Star Wars" and Indiana Jones. Each of these franchises had been revived by the 2000s, and while those revivals had been successful at the box office, they had not been without their detractors or criticism. Hence, in the 2010s, Lucasfilm had two pieces of beloved cinema history but no guarantees that it would make Disney money. 

This brings us to the question of the day: How much money has Disney made from these purchases, which roughly cost a combined $8 billion? As of 2025, the sum is somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 billion.

When Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, it did so with the express intent of making more "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" projects, even with the knowledge that the latter was a bit more of a risk considering the fact that star Harrison Ford was already 70 and wasn't getting any younger. Of course, we now know that, for a number of reasons, Disney took longer than expected to get "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" off the ground. In the end, longtime director Steven Spielberg only served as a producer on the film, with James Mangold taking over behind the camera in his stead.

But "Star Wars," arguably, was the biggest crown jewel, even more so than anything offered by Marvel when Disney bought it in 2009. Even with the acknowledgement that lots of people either initially or retroactively couldn't stand the prequel trilogy that George Lucas helmed between 1999 and 2005, Disney felt it could revive interest in the Skywalker Saga by taking the story forward. The vast success of the sequel trilogy — don't forget that "Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens" grossed over $2 billion at the global box office all by itself, more than half of which came from domestic ticket sales — is just one reason why Disney, less than a decade later, was able to tout that its $4 billion Lucasfilm acquisition had netted the company a return on the investment of roughly 2.9 times. That means Disney has essentially claimed that Lucasfilm has given it a profit of nearly $12 billion. 

That return was part of a very large report that Disney made for its investors and shareholders in March 2024 when the company was in a fierce proxy battle that it eventually won against activist investor Nelson Peltz (as covered by The Hollywood Reporter). It's undeniably true that the sequel trilogy, with two titles directed by J.J. Abrams, has been riddled with controversy, from the frustrating backlash from some very loud fans regarding the excellent 2017 film "The Last Jedi" as well as the lack of success of certain other Lucasfilm titles, like "Solo: A Star Wars Story." And let's not forget the expensive but short-lived Galactic Starcruiser theme park experience at Walt Disney World.

As a whole, though, Lucasfilm has been a cash cow for Disney. For every "Solo," there's been a "Mandalorian." Likewise, for Galactic Starcruiser, there's also been the wildly successful and creative theme park attraction Rise of the Resistance at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. If anything, the lows for Lucasfilm have been unavoidable; whereas the MCU took a lot longer to fall out of the highest favor of its worldwide fanbase, the backlash to some "Star Wars" content was swift and immediate. But even with the sequel trilogy, the box office returns were mammoth all the way through. Couple that with the presence of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge (a theme park land where you can buy your own lightsabers and droids), all the additional merchandise, and the constant presence of new Lucasfilm titles on Disney+ like "Andor" and "Skeleton Crew," and it's not shocking that Lucasfilm has been a big financial boon for Disney.

When Disney bought Marvel in 2009, it couldn't know for sure how successful the MCU was going to be. Still, that was a bet that paid off very handsomely indeed. In the same 2024 report to investors and shareholders, Disney revealed that its $4 billion purchase of Marvel had seen a return on investment of 3.3 times. That meant it had estimated a return of $13.2 billion, another remarkable number that speaks to the value that the studio had from 2009 through to 2024. Considering that Marvel has remained in the Disney stable since then, in addition to having made a lot more films and TV shows for the House of Mouse to date than Lucasfilm has, it's no shock that Disney has made more money from this acquisition.

At the same time, this speaks to a potential ceiling for how much money Disney could ever make on the world of superheroes. Think about it: like Lucasfilm, Marvel has created undeniably successful movies like "The Avengers" and "Avengers: Endgame," i.e. films that made a ridiculous and impossible amount of money both domestically and internationally. And like Lucasfilm, Marvel has had at least one hugely successful streaming title in "WandaVision," which is the kind of thing that has spun itself off into the theme parks and merchandise. Indeed, Disney has now dedicated sections of its theme parks to Marvel attractions, allowing guests to experience rides based on the MCU films and worlds they love, meet their favorite characters, and, of course, buy plenty of merch.

But Marvel hasn't had the same amount of massive successes as Lucasfilm ... nor has it had the same number of big-time flops, in a way. For example, Marvel hasn't had its own Galactic Starcruiser situation at the parks. Its distinctive attractions may not be as mind-blowing as an E-ticket to a galaxy far, far away, but it hasn't had too many swings and misses. And the MCU's first true stumbles at the box office didn't start until 2023, nor have they felt as painful or inspired as much intense negative fervor among fans.

At the end of the day, when you just look at the ledgers, Bob Iger can know that part of his legacy is firmly cemented. Arguably, though, Iger could have had a smoother time sailing off into the sunset if he actually had sailed off into the sunset and permanently handed off the reins of the Walt Disney Company to Bob Chapek rather than coming back a few years later. In fact, in the early part of his return, Disney was a roller coaster in the worst way, with the aforementioned proxy battle that enabled the public to even know how much money Disney felt Lucasfilm and Marvel had made for it. Still, these acquisitions have been a huge success for Disney, even if that success means the studio that was started all by a mouse feels as far away as the galaxies and universes depicted in the MCU and the "Star Wars" franchise.