How was ESB a disaster? I know it went over budget, but didn't it also make more money than ANH? I'm sure there was the stress of making a successfull sequel, but other than that, how could any of it be considered a disaster? It was a successful sequel and it guaranteed him the ability to make another movie. If anything, I'd say that ANH was a bigger disaster. He had to redo all the FX shots when he got back from England, fire his entire FX team, and do all kinds of things with almost no time left before the release. But again, it made a ton of money, so in the grand scheme of things, even it wasn't a disaster.