Disney chairman Rober Iger announced today that his company is buying LucasFilm, home of the Star Wars franchise, for $4.05 billion. That’s about the same amount of money The Mouse House spent on Marvel back in 2010. With The Avengers grossing $1.5 billion at the global box office, that deal is already starting to pay off. LucasFilm could be another big success story for Disney.

Disney is looking at the massive franchise potential of the Star Wars universe. Star Wars has 17,000 characters living on thousands of planets and, according to the press release, spans 20,000 years. That’s a lot of spin-off potential.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2012/10/30/disney-planning-new-star-wars-movie-with-lucasfilms-purchase/