Producer Kathleen Kennedy, C-3PO and Mark Hamill attend the 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' press conference at the Ritz Carlton Tokyo on December 7, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. Christopher Jue | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Disney's purchase of "Star Wars" production company Lucasfilm is proving to be one of the smartest acquisitions ever made in corporate America. The deal, worth $4.05 billion in cash and stock, was announced Oct. 30, 2012 and marked the start of a new era in the Star Wars franchise. Disney would make back that investment and more in just a few short years. The four Star Wars feature films Disney has produced have grossed more than $4.8 billion at the box office, according to comScore. "This was one of the smartest acquisitions in history," Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore, told CNBC. While box office grosses are a solid measure of a film's success, they still don't tell the whole story. There are hundreds of millions of dollars of costs that come into play, along with dozens of other "Star Wars" revenue streams.

The receipts don't account for the estimated $200 million to $300 million Disney shelled out per film in production costs or the money spent on its robust marketing campaigns to promote each release. Then there's also the money Disney makes on DVD, BluRay and digital sales, not to mention licensing agreements for the brand and sales of its own Star Wars apparel, toys and novelizations. Ahead of the release of "The Force Awakens" in 2015, Disney's earnings got a boost from sales of Star Wars merchandise on Force Friday, a September event designed to excite fans of the franchise to purchase newly released goods. Not to mention, Disney has two Star Wars Lands under construction at theme parks in California and Florida due to open next year. Between the box office receipts, merchandise sales and licensing agreements, Disney has more than made back it's original investment, Dergarabedian said.

Stars Wars plush set. Source: ThinkGeek

Bob Iger, who became Disney's CEO in 2005, is no stranger to making big acquisitions. Iger facilitated the purchase of Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billion and Marvel Entertainment in 2009 for $4 billion. Both production companies have gone on to make billions at the box office — a whopping $17 billion for Marvel across 20 films and $13.2 billion for Pixar over 13 films, according to Box Office Mojo. Lucasfilm is poised to do the same, as its first three films all made over $1 billion at the global box office — "The Force Awakens" made $2 billion. "Solo: A Star Wars Story" was the only film that was widely panned at the box office, making under $400 million worldwide. "'Solo' still made a lot of money," Dergarabedian said. "By any other measure 'Solo' was a success, but in the realm of 'Star Wars' anything less than a grand slam home run is seen as a disappointment. So [that film] was held to a higher standard, no question, but that's because of how well the films have done even before Disney."

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away