19 Years Without Directing, This Filmmaker Still Tops 2024’s Richest Celebrity List (Beating Spielberg!)
The force is obviously on his side!
Summary:
- Forbes has just dropped their list of the wealthiest celebrities of 2024, and the first place here was taken by the acclaimed George Lucas.
- The Star Wars ’ director’s income for the last year is estimated at $5.5 billion.
- He is accompanied by Steven Spielberg, who took the second place in the list, earning $4.8 billion for his projects.
It’s quite an achievement for the cinematic industry to have its members in Forbes’ list of world’s celebrity billionaires. Among 15 stars, named by the magazine as the wealthiest famous people right now, there are the giants of directing, whose names have become familiar to the whole world, not only cinephiles, over the last few decades.
The highest place in the recent rating was taken by the accomplished George Lucas, who is best known for creating the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, He is reported to earn a colossal $5.5 billion this year, winning over other celebrities.
Surprisingly, his last filmmaking credit was 2005's Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which grossed $868.4 million with a budget of $113 million, which made it the back-then highest-grossing film in the U.S.
Since then, Lucas was only involved as an executive producer of the war film Red Tails (2012) and the sequel of the action saga, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), where he also participated as a consultant.
“I'm kind of sad Lucas never kicked off another big project after Star Wars,” complains Redditor @xwing_n_it in a discussion regarding the Forbes’ list, and we can’t agree more. However, the father of Star Wars is now quite busy with philanthropy and the curation of his franchise-related projects, both cinematic and amusement ones.
It’s curious that it’s not the first time the filmmaker tops annual wealthiest people list. He was already called out in this connection in 2000-2002, 2005 and 2018, and will presumably also head it in the future. The point here is that his earnings are supported by the sale of his successful production company, LucasFilm, to Disney in 2012.
The second richest celebrity has become Lucas’ close friend and fellow director, Steven Spielberg, who earned $4.8 billion.
Famous for the original Indiana Jones trilogy, Jaws and Jurassic Park franchises, the master of sci-fi previously stated (via Daily Mail) he hadn't taken a salary since the mid-1980s. However, it didn’t interfere with his taking such a high position in Forbes’ list, topping Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey.
It’s really an honor to see that the two richest celebrities in the world are both directors, who made the most memorable franchises of millions of people’s childhood.
The Star Wars and Indiana Jones films are now available for streaming on Disney+.
Source: Forbes