Steven Spielberg | Spielberg Still Cashing In Star Wars Bet | Contactmusic: STEVEN SPIELBERG still makes money from STAR WARS thirty years after coming out on top in a bet with movie mogul pal GEORGE LUCAS. Lucas was so convinced his first Star Wars film would be a flop in 1977, he bet Spielberg a percentage of the take his sci-fi epic, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind would be a bigger film.