Any Maltese person reading The Observer on Sunday was served a good helping of humble pie. In an interesting but unfortunate comparison, at least for Malta, the Star Wars film saga was reported to be making four times the GDP of our country.

“If Star Wars was a country, its $20billion would place it 70th in the World Bank’s rankings of countries according to GDP, narrowly behind Syria, Serbia and Oman, but ahead of Bulgaria, Libya and Lebanon. George Lucas’s brainchild has made twice as much money as each of Uzbekistan, Jordan and Estonia, and four times as much as Malta, Afghanistan and Macedonia,” David Smith wrote for The Observer.

Since the release of Star Wars: Episode IV in 1977, a combination of box office, VHS and DVDs, video games, toys and other merchandise have added up to nearly $20 billion in estimated revenue. And the final installment, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which had its UK premiere in London’s Leicester Square yesterday, is set to push the total even higher.

In fact, the article continues with the comparison to the extent that the saga is estimated to be richer than the large majority of African countries, belittling the economies of the Republic of Congo, Niger, Chad, Swaziland, Malawi, Rwanda, the Central African Republic, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Eritrea and Liberia put together.

Even blockbusters such as The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the 21-film James Bond series do not hold a candle to Star Wars.