By Joe Flint 

The force is with Turner Broadcasting.

In a multiyear pact, the Time Warner Inc. unit has acquired the commercial-television rights to the complete library of "Star Wars" movies, including four future theatrical releases.

All but one of the "Star Wars" titles are controlled by Walt Disney Co. through its $4.05 billion acquisition of franchise creator George Lucas's Lucasfilms Ltd. in 2012. The rights to the original 1977 "Star Wars" film belong to 21st Century Fox.

Terms weren't disclosed but people familiar with the matter said the price tag for Turner Broadcasting is around $275 million, depending on the performance of the future releases.

One of the most successful movie franchises of all time, the "Star Wars" films have grossed over $6 billion in world-wide box office, trailing only the "Harry Potter" and "James Bond" series. "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," the next in the series, is set for release at the end of the year.

Besides Turner Broadcasting, other suitors for the commercial-television rights to the franchise included 21st Century Fox's FX Networks and Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal cable-network unit, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.

Under the terms of the roughly eight-year deal, Turner initially has rights to run the "Star Wars" movies on both its TNT and TBS channels. It will begin airing them on TNT next week. Turner will also be able to run some of the films on its Turner Classic Movies network.

The deal marks a return to commercial television for the franchise. Walt Disney Co. has kept the "Star Wars" movies off TV for two years. It has focused heavily on selling them through iTunes for as much as $20 each.

The agreement with Turner Broadcasting is separate from Disney's pact with the noncommercial subscription pay-TV channel Starz, which has the rights to the latest "Star Wars" movie, "The Force Awakens." Future "Star Wars" titles will go to Netflix as part of a deal Disney struck with the streaming service.

Despite the ubiquity of popular movies on television, streaming services and elsewhere, cable networks continue to spend heavily on feature films because they often age well and don't require heavy marketing efforts. Earlier this year, NBCUniversal struck a deal with Time Warner's Warner Bros. for the "Harry Potter" library as well as rights to J.K. Rowling's "Fantastic Beast" franchise, which has its theatrical debut this November. The movies will run primarily on the USA and Syfy networks.

--Ben Fritz contributed to this article.

Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 14, 2016 10:14 ET (14:14 GMT)

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