Stupid Disney-phobic Questions About Star Wars: Is Star Wars: Episode IX just an excuse for Disney to make a bunch of money?

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Is Star Wars: Episode IX just an excuse for Disney to make a bunch of money?
All things being equal, all movies (except those small movies made solely by independent “artsy” production companies that hardly anyone sees), are made with the goal of making someone - usually a studio and its stockholders - “a bunch of money.” That’s why movie studios exist: they invest (read “risk”) millions of dollars in a movie - in this case, Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker - with a certain expectation of making a profit.
The Walt Disney Company and its film division, Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios, are of course also making Star Wars - Episode IX to fulfill George Lucas’s on-again, off-again aspiration of creating a three-Trilogy Skywalker Saga, plus they have to finish the story that Lucasfilm began with 2015’s The Force Awakens and continued in The Last Jedi. Everyone involved in the creation of Star Wars (or any movie, for that matter), hopes that many people have a good time watching it, and all of the cast and crew spend lots of time and physical effort in an attempt to make a product that millions of people will pay to see and come out of it with a good emotional experience.
The entertainment business straddles three basic worlds of human endeavor: science and technology, the arts, and finance. It’s not just about “creating art” or “making people happy.” It’s also an industry, which leans heavily on science and technology in order to develop the tools to create illusions and fantasies for people to be entertained by. This aspect of making films, be they Star Wars or The Book Club, is expensive and often takes years of research and development to “get things right.”
And as its very name clearly states, the entertainment business is governed by the profit motive. Everyone who goes into show business has two basic drives: theneed to create and the need to be paid for one’s work. It’s a strange synergy of art and industry, but that’s essentially what making movies is all about.

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