In the 1970s, the then-unknown George Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, and the movie was produced on a shoestring budget of just $11 million, the equivalent of $60 million (£44m) today. Lucas’s space opera went on to become the highest-grossing film of 1977, making $775 million at the worldwide box office, a staggering $4.2 billion (£3.1bn) in today’s money.

A New Hope became the highest-grossing film of all time until E.T. knocked it off the top spot in 1982. The movie that started it all, A New Hope quite literally spawned an empire. And it made George Lucas, who had agreed to take a pay cut in return for the merchandising rights to this and any other future films, very rich indeed.

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