Thisarticleisaboutthemediafranchise.Forthe1977film,seeStarWarsEpisodeIV:ANewHope.Forotheruses,seeStarWars(disambiguation). 　　TheStarWarslogo,asseeninallfilmsStarWarsisaspaceoperafranchiseconceivedbyGeorgeLucas.ThefirstfilminthefranchisewasoriginallyreleasedonMay25,1977,by20thCenturyFox,andbecameaworldwidepopculturephenomenon,spawningtwoimmediatesequels,releasedatthree-yearintervals.Sixteenyearsafterthereleaseofthetrilogy'sfinalfilm,thefirstinanewprequeltrilogyoffilmswasreleased,againreleasedatthree-yearintervals,withthefinalfilmreleasedonMay19,2005. 　　Asof2008,theoverallboxofficerevenuegeneratedbythesixStarWarsfilmshastotalledapproximately$4.3billion,makingitthethird-highest-grossingfilmseries,[1]behindonlytheJamesBondandHarryPotterfilms. 　　TheStarWarsfilmserieshasspawnedothermediaincludingbooks,televisionseries,videogames,andcomicbooks.ThesesupplementstothefilmtrilogiescomprisetheStarWarsExpandedUniverse,andhaveresultedinsignificantdevelopmentoftheseries'fictionaluniverse.Thesemediakeptthefranchisegoingintheinterimbetweenthefilmtrilogies.In2008,StarWars:TheCloneWarswasreleasedtotheatersasthefirsteverworldwidetheatricalStarWarsfilmoutsideofthemaintrilogies.Itwasthefranchise'sfirstanimatedfilm,andwasintendedasanintroductiontotheExpandedUniverseseriesofthesamename,a3DCGIanimatedseriesbasedonaprevious2Danimatedseriesofasimilarname.