GEORGE LUCAS – EST. $7 BILLION

Nowadays, almost everyone can recognize George Lucas. After releasing what’s now known as Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope in 1977, the franchise has since become an integral part of pop culture, thanks to its follow-up films, TV shows, and books, to name a few. Aside from being one of the most brilliant filmmakers of our generation, George Lucas is also quite the businessman.

The brains behind Star Wars and Indiana Jones might not have done any new projects in recent years, but that doesn’t mean the money has stopped coming for the famed director. Most of his investment money came from the sale of his two companies. First, LucasFilm was sold to Disney for $4.1 billion. This was followed by the sale of Pixar to Steve Jobs for $5 million. Of course, on top of it all, he also receives income from film merchandise—an empire that has since made $20 million in sales.