With Star Wars: The Force Awakens breaking records at the box office since opening Dec. 17, the franchise’s total value only swells by the day.
Reaping in $238 million at U.S. turnstiles and $517 million globally last week, the seventh chapter in the Star Wars canon adds millions of dollars more to the value of the entire series. Taking into account other ancillary revenue streams such as merchandise, licensing, DVD sales and even the brand name itself, here is Fortune’s breakdown of the franchise’s value, using actual and estimated data from a variety of sources:
Box Office
Using data from Box Office Mojo, the total worldwide box office gross for all seven original films, the three “special edition” re-releases, the re-issues of the first two movies in 1982, and the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2008 comes in at $5.149 billion. Keep in mind, this isn’t actually adjusted for ticket price inflation as Box Office Mojo doesn’t track inflation-adjusted worldwide grosses, so the actual, inflation-adjusted total is likely to have been much higher: Fortune has estimated that the seven episodes alone could total $7.3 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars for global sales. We will use this estimate for the box office takings of all the films: $7.3 billion.
Home Entertainment Sales
Star Wars lives far beyond the big screen — from old-school VHS to current digital downloads, the franchise has a force that awakens living rooms too. According to Statistic Brain Research Institute, the revenue generated from DVD sales, rentals, digital sales and VHS sales amount to around $5.291 billion. Add in the estimate by Bloomberg that The Force Awakens should bring in around $458 million in its first year of release post-cinema — which would be on the conservative side — and the total here amounts to: $5.749 billion.
Toys and Merchandise
When Sphero’s adorable replica of the BB-8 droid from the newest Star Wars came out, it instantly became one of the hottest toys on the market, and a display of the franchises’ power on the shelves of retail stores. Using both Statistic Brain and CNBC’s calculations, the total revenue from toy licensing linked to Star Wars since 1977 is estimated at $12 billion. Add in Bloomberg’s future revenue estimate of $5 billion from merchandise linked to The Force Awakens, and the total value comes in at: $17 billion.
Video Games
Based on analysis done by 24/7 Wall Street and off the list by VGChartz of the total number of Star Wars-related units sold — there are around 100 Star Wars titles — the franchise has earned $3 billion in sales so far. Bloomberg estimates two upcoming titles, Disney Infinity 3.0 and Star Wars: Battlefront, will bring in $1.28 billion. Estimated total: $4.28 billion.
Intellectual Property
We can use the 2012 price that Disney (DIS) paid for Lucasfilm, the company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas and home of the Star Wars franchise: $4 billion.
Miscellaneous
Other sources of revenue for Star Wars include books ($1.82 billion), the Clone Wars animated TV series ($4.5 million), licensing fees ($825 million) and the resale market for all Star Wars collectibles (around $1 billion). Using estimates from Statistic Brain and 24/7 Wall Street, we can add this into an estimated value of: $3.65 billion.
Total: $41.979 billion
This falls in line with other estimates of between $27 billion and $42 billion for the franchise. According to The Telegraph, this would beat the combined value of the Harry Potter and James Bond franchises (around $33 billion), and dwarf other entertainment franchises like Twilight (around $6 billion) and Lord of the Rings (also around $6 billion).
Star Wars would also exceed the GDP of countries like Jordan and Paraguay.
