Episode IV
1973 -- George Lucas' first hit film, American Graffiti, was released. It became incredibly successful grossing over $ 115 million at the box office and was dollar-for-dollar the most profitable film in the history of Hollywood at the time. Lucas was now a millionaire and one of the most sought after young directors in the world.
Alan Ladd, Jr. (who at the time was the head of Twentieth Century Fox) saw a smuggled print of American Graffiti before it was released in theaters and absolutely loved the film. Ladd was determined that Fox was going to be the next studio to profit from Lucas' genius.
1975 -- George Lucas conceives of and writes the basic story of Anakin Skywalker's rise, fall and ultimate redemption.
Lucas offers his Star Wars films first to Universal Studios, the film company that financed American Graffiti. Universal passed on Star Wars because they considered it to be an unfathomable and silly movie idea.
May 20, 1977 - Star Wars' opening day totaled $ 254,309 from just 32 theaters. It's first weekend box-office gross equaled $ 1.5 million. By the end of its first theatrical run, Star Wars was the most successful film in North American history with a gross in excess of $ 307.2 million.
When Lucas negotiated his deal with Fox to make Star Wars, the studio was shocked to learn that the red hot director was not asking for a lot of money. Instead, Lucas wanted control. He wanted to have the right to the final cut of the film, 40% of the net box-office gross, all rights to future sequels and ownership of all the merchandising rights associated with Star Wars.
Episode V
1978 -- George Lucas began to discreetly buy up land in San Rafael, California. Lucas purchased the 1,882 acre Bulltail Ranch for $ 2.7 million. Production on the sequel to Star Wars called Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back was underway.
Episode VI
1983 -- Star Wars Episode 6 Return of the Jedi premieres in about 1,002 theaters in May 25, 1983 and grosses over $ 23 million U.S. dollars in its first weekend with a complete box office gross of $ 252.6 million at North American cinemas.
After the release of Return of the Jedi, Lucas retires from making Star Wars movies to pursue other projects. Lucas vaguely promises to make a Prequel Trilogy one day when special-effects technology advances enough and becomes cheap enough so that Lucas can make the films exactly as Lucas envisions them without artistic compromises.
