Spielberg Still Cashing In On Star Wars Bet Posted By Mick on June 26, 2007
George Lucas was so convinced his first Star Wars film would be a flop in 1977, he bet his pal Steven Spielberg a percentage of his own sci-fi epic, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, in exchange for an equal share of Star Wars. Lucas felt that Speilberg's movie would be the bigger money maker.
Now 30 years later, it's obvious who is still reaping the rewards of that bet. The bet was only for 2.5% of the movie rights to each film so rest easy, George still has a whopping 97.5% to himself!