Back when Star Wars was getting made, George Lucas made a bet with Steven Spielberg. He shouldn't have, because that ended up costing him over $40 million.

The bet was made when Lucas visited Spielberg on the set of Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1997, just before Star Wars: A New Hope came out. The two were arguing which movie was going to do better, but they were rooting for each other's films.

Lucas said Close Encounters would make more money, while Spielberg insisted on Star Wars.

Weird fucking bet if you asked me.

The bet

Each of them would give the other 2.5% of their respective stakes in their own film, if it was the most successful.

Close Encounters made $303 million. Very impressive right?

No.

Star Wars pocketed $775 Worldwide, in 1977 alone.

Spielberg has continued to get his share from theatrical re-releases, home video sales, and more; Yahoo estimates he's made $40 million so far.