Star Wars franchise surpasses $4 billion, the price of Disney's Lucasfilm buy

It's been just over five years since Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, and Star Wars has now paid for itself.

The latest ticket sales from Star Wars: The Last Jedi brings the combined box office total for The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and The Last Jedi past the $4.05 billion mark. Though that number doesn't account for the costs to produce and market each of those films, it still validates the purchase.

The Force Awakens, directed by J.J. Abrams, grossed $2.07 billion worldwide after its December 2015 debut, while Gareth Edwards' Rogue One earned $1.06 billion. Now Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi, which earned an additional $42.1 million from Thursday screenings, has now reached a global total of $934.2 million.

And Disney's plans for Lucasfilm aren't over yet. Solo: A Star Wars Story, the latest standalone Star Wars chapter, will debut in 2018, followed by Abrams' Star Wars: Episode IX in 2019. During an appearance on the official "Star Wars Show," Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said they're already looking at "the next 10 years" of Star Wars — which we now know includes a brand-new trilogy from Johnson.

But Lucasfilm also comes with Indiana Jones, and Steven Spielberg is working on another installment with Harrison Ford.

This merger followed the studio's acquisition of Marvel Studios in 2009 for an estimated $4 billion, and that division has grown to become one of the most powerful forces in Hollywood with hundreds of billions to its name.

The Mouse House most recently purchased elements of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion, which includes franchises like X-Men, Fantastic Four, Alien, Avatar, and Planet of the Apes.