Via Wired.com:

In 2012, George Lucas sold his company Lucasfilm to Disney for the staggering sum of $4 billion. Even more staggering is the $37 billion that Star Wars has raked in over the past 40 years. The Star Wars universe now comprises a vast array of products, from movies and TV shows to videogames and toys. But it all started with one movie, Star Wars (later Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope), whose modest $11 million budget was less than the average studio comedy at the time. The film’s brash, upstart quality is part of its appeal.

“It feels like an indie flick that just happens to have the most amazing, eye-popping stuff in it,” says Brian Stillman, who recently directed a feature-length documentary about Star Wars toys called Plastic Galaxy.

Those toys played a major role in the film’s success, and helped bankroll its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. But as with Star Wars itself, no one expected the toys to be popular. The demand caught fledgling toymaker Kenner completely off guard, and they resorted to selling empty boxes stuffed with promissory notes in lieu of actual Christmas merchandise. Even Lucas himself had no inkling about the public demand for Star Wars.

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