It's a pretty well-known bit of Star Wars trivia that George Lucas had serious problems with assembling the first cut of A New Hope. Throughout production and post-production the filmmaker was faced with an onslaught of obstacles, both in-house and with the studio. Apparently, Lucas was so depressed at one point that he took a vacation to visit his friend Steven Spielberg, who was working on Close Encounters of the Third Kind at the time.

According to Celebrity Networth , Spielberg revealed that, while on set, Lucas made a bet with him regarding Star Wars -- a bet that has continued to pay off handsomely for Spielberg ever since.

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"George came back from Star Wars a nervous wreck," Spielberg said. "He didn't feel Star Wars came up to the vision he initially had. He felt he had just made this little kids' movie. He came to Mobile, Alabama where I was shooting Close Encounters on this humongous set, and hung out with me for a couple of days."He said, 'Oh my God, your movie is going to be so much more successful than Star Wars. This is gonna be the biggest hit of all time.' He said, 'You want to trade some points? I'll give you two and a half percent of Star Wars if you give me two and a half per cent of Close Encounters.' I said, 'Sure, I'll gamble with that, great.' Close Encounters made so much money and rescued Columbia from bankruptcy. It was the most money I ever made, but it was a meager success story. Star Wars was a phenomenon and I was the happy beneficiary of a couple of points from that movie which I am still seeing money on today."How much money, you ask? Celebrity Networth estimates that Spielberg has made about $46.675 million from his deal with Lucas... and that number keeps growing every day.Via Slash Film

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