With Disney’s (DIS) recent acquisition of Lucasfilm and upcoming adaptation of the Star Wars franchise, excitement is at an all-time high among fans of the franchise. For what now seems like a paltry sum of $4 billion for the acquisition, it looks like Disney plans to squeeze a fortune out of every dollar it spent.

Theme park expansions

It’s been on the minds of everyone over the past few months as the excitement over the next Star Wars film hasn’t ebbed — when is Disney going to build a Star Wars-themed expansion in one of its theme parks?

The company did one better by announcing last week that it will begin construction on two separate expansions, one in its California-based Disneyland and the other at its Hollywood Studios resorts in Orlando. Both will be 14-acre expansions, making it the largest expansion the company has ever made to its theme parks.

It will likely all be worth it, however. Having a “Star Wars Land” in its flagship Disneyland Park will attract visitors who likely never would have come without it. By adding a whole new demographic to its target market, Disney has even more pricing power when it comes to its park tickets. The same goes for its Hollywood Studios resort in Orlando.

Distribution in China

Even more recently, Disney announced that it has made a deal with Chinese Internet giant Tencent to distribute the first six Star Wars films via streaming. Up until now, there hasn’t been a steady income stream for Lucasfilm in that sense, so it’s a great opportunity, not only to establish a long-term partnership with Tencent, but also to generate excitement about the franchise and encourage Chinese consumers to watch the upcoming film when it’s released.

Prediction

With its successes with Marvel Studios and Pixar, Disney is no stranger to box office records. With the new Star Wars film showing on every IMAX screen across the country for the first four weeks after its release, and competition proving to be light so far, it’s very likely that the film will not only break Jurassic World’s opening box office record of $511.8 million in three days, but it also has the potential to surpass Avatar as the highest-grossing film of all time (in the box office) — Avatar brought in just under $2.8 billion worldwide during its box office run.

That won’t be all, though. George Lucas had originally planned for nine Star Wars films, and if Disney can get this one just right, there’s no stopping the franchise from continuing to rake in the cash. Plus, it’s been rumored that Disney plans to model the new Star Wars universe after the Marvel universe, highlighting different main characters and going off on tangents to suck people into the stories.

Again, if Disney can be successful at that as it has been with Marvel, there’s no telling how much the company will make off this acquisition.

Image Source: www.businessinsider.com