Just how much money is Star Wars going to make for Disney?

MAYBE George Lucas should have held out for more money. One top analyst has come out with a jaw-dropping prediction for Star Wars.

MAYBE Star Wars creator George Lucas should have held out for more money.

Disney, which paid $US4 billion ($5.61 billion) for Lucasfilm in 2012, is looking at an $US8 billion ($11.23 billion) windfall from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the Mouse House’s much-hyped reboot of the nearly 40-year-old space saga, according to one top Wall Street analyst.

Goldman Sachs entertainment analyst Drew Borst’s forecast for the film breaks down into $US1.95 billion ($2.74 billion) in global ticket sales and $US6 billion ($8.42 billion) in merchandise sales next year.

And that’s just the first new film in the franchise. Disney plans to release five more Star Wars movies after this.

“We estimate Star Wars consumer products sales of $6 billion in FY16, double the sales when Disney acquired Lucas in 2012,” Borst wrote Tuesday in a client note titled ‘May the Mouse Be With You’.

The merchandise figure is on par with sales of Disney’s other blowout hit, Frozen, released in 2013.

Borst raised his prediction for ticket sales — from an earlier forecast of $US1.5 billion ($2.11 billion) — the day after early reviewers got a sneak peek at the film.

The movie, which includes some of the cast from the original 1977 film, had its LA world premiere on Monday night, drawing gushing tweets from attendees who have been sworn to secrecy on the plot.

Separately, Star Wars: The Force Awakens advance ticket sales have jumped from $US50 million ($70.2 million) to $US100 million ($140.3 million), unnamed sources told the Hollywood Reporter.

Exhibitor projections are for an opening weekend somewhere above $US200 million ($280.7 million).

The seventh film in the Star Wars saga opened in Australia on Thursday.

This article originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Just how much money is Star Wars going to make for Disney?