A couple of questions about the Force (in SW)

[Skywalker]

The PT brought Star Wars back into the limelight after it had started flagging somewhat in the 1990s and brought an entirely new generation of children into the fold and made them fans. Twelve years after the first prequel premiered, Star Wars is bigger than it's been in years and is still a pop culture powerhouse. Regardless of the prequels' quality as films, they've strengthened the franchise, not weakened it.

 

[Bishop76]

The PT didn't bring Star Wars back into the limelight - kids who grew up on the franchise becoming adults did.

In the early 90s, the franchise was reinvigorated by the Zahn trilogy and the Dark Empire comics and built on those for nearly 10 years before the prequels. In 1995, they started releasing action figures and vehicles from the original trilogy and they haven't stopped producing them from that point. That was about 5 years before the prequel trilogy. In 1997, 2 years before TPM, the special editions were released and people lined up around the block to see them again with the new, crappy footage.

There's no doubt the prequel trilogy continued this trend, but it wasn't responsible for Star Wars returning to the forefront of peoples' minds.

 

[Skywalker]

Lucas announced he would do the prequels in 1993, and started writing Episode I in 1994. You don't think it's a coincidence that the merchandising machine started ramping up in the years leading up to the production and release of TPM? Granted, the success of Zahn's books and Dark Empire showed Lucas that there was still an audience out there, but the prequel movies deserve a large share of the credit for Star Wars' current and continuing popularity.

 

[Bishop76]

Oh, it's no coincidence that the marketing machine went into full effect BECAUSE the prequels were down the road and I'm sure there was a lot of test marketing to see if there was interest and the SE's were nothing but a big tech demo to make sure the tech was acceptable to audiences, but the prequels themselves weren't what put Star Wars back on the map.

 

[Skywalker]

Not solely, no, but it's doubtful Star Wars would still be the huge money-making machine it is in 2011 without the prequel movies' release. Of course, if the prequels had been better, it'd be an even bigger money-making machine, but alas...

 

[Bishop76]

That I agree with. I actually think that the prequels drove a lot of people away from Star Wars. And yeah, they have kept it up and running (with the inclusion of Clone Wars) through 2011, but if all the prequel related products were of higher quality, I bet you're right that they would be rolling in a lot more dough.

 

[infinix]

There are two reasons why the PT basically prints money. One, the OT fans began the craze for the product and even though the product disappointed, we were almost obligated to see it through. I remember having to stand in line to buy my ticket a month before the movie came out. And then I had to stand in line a second time to actually watch the movie. With that much expectation going in, I almost deluded myself into thinking that TPM as an acceptably good movie.

The second reason was that TPM was very specifically engineered for consumption by children. I know it was Disney that began all of the Happy Meal toy and the product tie-ins, but TPM took it to another level. During the first three months of TPM's run, you could not go an entire commercial break without seeing a commercial related to TPM in some way.

If Lucas' goal was to made money, he accomplished that. But if his goal was to tell a great story, he failed miserably.