30 October 2012: Disney buys Lucasfilm and Star Wars
Disney agreed to buy Lucasfilm from George Lucas for about $4 billion in cash and stock, and announced a new Star Wars film for 2015. Some critics thought the price steep for a franchise whose last films had disappointed fans. The sequels, spin-offs, merchandise and theme park lands that followed suggest Disney got a bargain. It was the third of Disney's major content buys, after Pixar and Marvel.
The lesson: Buying beloved stories cheaply and exploiting them patiently is a durable business.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Disney at the start of 2012 → $2,895 today, vs $5,312 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2012, the year it happened. That is 2.9 times the money, but $2,418 less than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Disney teaches: Expensive strategic pivots can take years to pay off; a company remaking itself for a new era can leave shareholders waiting a long time.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | $38.00 | $2,895 | $5,312 |
| 2015 | $94.00 | $1,170 | $3,301 |
| 2018 | $108 | $1,019 | $2,519 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Disney? Every starting year and the full story →
More Disney history
- 17 July 1955: Disneyland opens, chaotically
- 16 October 1923: Walt and Roy Disney start a cartoon studio
- 14 December 2017: Disney agrees to buy much of 21st Century Fox
- 21 December 1937: Snow White premieres and saves Disney
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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