Hollywood’s biggest names turned out for the opening of George Lucas’s long-awaited Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.
George Lucas has finally opened the doors to his Museum of Narrative Art, and Hollywood arrived in force to celebrate. The Star Wars creator and his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson, marked the launch with a star-studded gala in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 19, ahead of the museum’s public opening.
The guest list read like a roll call of film royalty. Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Robert De Niro, and Oprah Winfrey were among the many names who turned out for the evening. Directors Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Jackson, and Denis Villeneuve also attended, alongside actors including Al Pacino, Mark Hamill, Keke Palmer, and Michael B. Jordan.
The project has been decades in the making. According to Variety, the museum cost $1.5 billion to build and was funded entirely by Lucas and Hobson. Lucas first proposed the idea about 20 years ago, which made its arrival a milestone long awaited by the film world.
A Star-Studded Night at the Lucas Museum
The scale of the turnout spoke to Lucas’s standing in the industry. Speaking from the stage, Hobson shared that her husband had been anxious beforehand about who would actually show up. She recalled him asking whether one big name after another would come, and said the room ended up filled with their friends.
The night had the feel of a major awards ceremony. Guests explored more than 10,000 square feet of gallery space, with unexpected pairings around every corner. Vin Diesel was spotted deep in conversation with Nolan, while Mark Hamill posed for photos in front of a Luke Skywalker exhibition and later caught up with Peter Jackson.
Musician Jon Batiste performed at the opening ceremony, and other guests included Jack Black, Nicolas Cage, Cynthia Erivo, Woody Harrelson, Alicia Keys, and Tyler Perry. The event was co-chaired by a group that included Cruise, Greta Gerwig, del Toro, Spielberg, and Pharrell Williams.
What the Museum of Narrative Art Will Offer
The museum is built around a simple idea, that storytelling through images deserves a home of its own. It is described as a first-of-its-kind institution dedicated to visual storytelling in all its forms, from painting, photography, and sculpture to illustration, comic art, and film.
Hobson told guests that she and Lucas built the museum because they believe narrative art passes values from one generation to the next. That focus on storytelling reflects Lucas’s own career, which reshaped modern cinema through the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises.
The museum sits in Exposition Park in Los Angeles, though the location came with a note of local history. Lucas made clear that the project could have been built in San Francisco, the city he originally had in mind, a reminder of the long road the museum took before finding its home.
After years of planning, delays, and anticipation, the museum is now open to the public. Its debut gives Los Angeles a new cultural landmark, and gives one of cinema’s most influential figures a lasting place to celebrate the art of telling stories.
