Universal Studios originally passed on producing Star Wars because they simply could not understand George Lucas's script and thought the whole concept was far too confusing to be profitable.

A closer look

Universal Studios originally passed on producing Star Wars because they simply could not understand George Lucas's script and thought the whole concept was far too confusing to be profitable. To be fair, if someone pitched you a story about a farm boy, a space wizard, and an asthmatic cyborg fighting over a giant metal moon, you would probably throw them out of your office too. Instead of securing the rights to the most lucrative intellectual property in human history, Universal decided to focus their money on a slate of extremely forgettable films that nobody remembers today. This monumental blunder is still considered one of the greatest mistakes in Hollywood history, firmly proving that studio executives possess absolutely no creative vision and purely operate on blind luck and focus group data. At least they managed to eventually build a theme park ride out of Harry Potter, presumably wiping away their tears with giant wads of cash from overpriced butterbeer sales