Star Wars is an American epic space-opera media franchise created by George Lucas. The franchise began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The first film, later subtitled Episode IV – A New Hope, was followed by the sequels Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983), forming what is collectively referred to as the original trilogy. A prequel trilogy was later released, consisting of Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) and Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005). Finally, a sequel trilogy began with Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015), continued with Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017), and will conclude with Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019). The first eight films were nominated for Academy Awards (with wins going to the first two released) and were commercially successful. Together with the theatrical anthology films Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), the films combined box office revenue equates to over US$9 billion, and is currently the second-highest-grossing film franchise. The film series expanded into other media, including television series, video games, novels, comic books, theme park attractions and themed areas, as well as other kinds of media, resulting in an all encompassing fictional universe, which, in 2014, required an almost total reboot, resulting in the formation of the distinct Star Wars Legends continuity of (fictional) events, now obsolete, which includes media preceding the reboot and a few later releases. Star Wars holds a Guinness World Records title for the "Most successful film merchandising franchise". In 2018, the total value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at US$65 billion, and it is currently the fifth-highest-grossing media franchise of all-time.