Apparently Lucas put it in the contract that he had the rights to any sequels and the studio was okay with that clause because they didn’t expect it to be successful enough to have sequels
If memory serves right he renegotiated at some point during filming to more or less retain all rights cause the studio thought it was going to be a flop, he even got the merchandise sales. I imagine those executives were on suicide watch pretty damned quick. Given how even during this lackluster Disney era Star Wars still generates an absurd amount of money through merchandise alone I suspect that has to be one of the biggest fuck ups in film rights period.
Apparently Lucas put it in the contract that he had the rights to any sequels and the studio was okay with that clause because they didn’t expect it to be successful enough to have sequels
If memory serves right he renegotiated at some point during filming to more or less retain all rights cause the studio thought it was going to be a flop, he even got the merchandise sales. I imagine those executives were on suicide watch pretty damned quick. Given how even during this lackluster Disney era Star Wars still generates an absurd amount of money through merchandise alone I suspect that has to be one of the biggest fuck ups in film rights period.