Why Lucas is quitting blockbusters

All I heard is he's giving away "The majority" which could be anything from $2.5 billion upwards. Not the full $4 billion.

 

Well, Lucas has directed 6 films -- THX-1138, American Graffitti, Star Wars, TPM, AOTC, ROTS -- and it's pretty much accepted that 4 of those 6 are good or great films. That's a pretty good batting average. He was the creator/writer/producer/usually director of the most successful film series in history (SW). He was the creator/writer/producer of another hugely successful films series (Indy). He was also the creator/writer/director of American Graffiti, which was a huge hit made on a shoe-string budget. So basically, all the films he was most involved in apart from THX were big financial successes.

Plus, if Selznik was the real guy behind "Gone With the Wind," which he is clearly thought to be, then Lucas was even more the guy behind TESB and ROTJ. Unlike Selznik, GL even co-wrote the screenplays. In addition, GL also had final say over the last draft of the screenplay, final say over the special effects and set design, and final say on the editing of TESB. Virtually no directors nowadays have that much control over their films. Plus, Kerschner could barely change a line from the script and the actors already knew their parts. With ROTJ, his involvement was even greater. GL was almost like a co-director. So, add 2 more films to that list. Plus, I think he played a pretty big role in the making the Indiana Jones films. He was onset all the time, and often acted as the second unit director. So, yeah, I guess you're right GL was really lucky in that he made 2 huge hits on small or medium budgets (American Grafitti and SW) that allowed him to write & produce or write, direct, & produce a half dozen more incredibly popular and well-received films.

 

GL named the character Indiana Jones.

 

Yeah. He was originally Indiana Smith, but Spielberg didn't care for "Smith."

 

So then Lucas asked, "How about Jones?"

 

Precisely