Because the prequels were shit with very few cool scenes in between. Word of mouth gets around.
The OT was never going to win for best picture or best screenplay, they are simple good vs. evil movies but they did it with charm, established cool ideas and made iconic characters and helped launch some big careers for many people involved. This didn't happen with the prequels or the sequels.
The only acting career that was launched by the OT was Harrison Ford. Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor have had good careers since the PT ended and it's way too early to judge the ST actors.
ANH and TESB were great movies, but ROTJ wasn't all that. The Ewoks were just as silly and stupid as the Gungans and the only thing that saved that movie was the ending. Obi Wans explanation for lying to Luke was complete B.S and Leia all of a sudden being Luke's sister after she gave him a deep one in the previous movie only proves that Lucas was making this up as he went along. In fact, he never STOPPED changing things as he retitled the first movie and kept changing scenes with each home video release. I'm glad the guy finally let it go to Disney or we might have been forced to watch Ja Ja in the 4K releases of ANH or ESB.
Box office was merely adequate as main Star Wars movies are expected to break the billion dollar mark easily - it is one of the few huge safe moneymakers in Hollywood. Slap the Star Wars Logo on any product and it will sell better significantly. So while they made good money even if the sequels were crap and got worse with each subsequent movie they were profitable but it should have been more.
All three of the main movies hit the billion dollar mark as did Rogue one. If that's not good enough box office for you then your standards are way too high.
And no, slapping the Star Wars label does NOT guarantee success as the Clone Wars movie and SOLO proved.
Kennedy is the boss of Star Wars and ultimately it is her responsibility. You need to understand that Hollywood is a cutthroat business,....
Really? Gee.....I'm in my forties and I never knew that Hollywood is just like every other business in the civilized world. Man, I'm so glad you're around to educate me. /sarcasm off
Anyways.......
....especially at the level where Star Wars is, and anything not meeting internal expectations will raise a red flag. CEO's have been fired or "let go" for exactly such things - while being profitable expectations were higher, which leads to a new CEO. If she had underperformed for longer her job would have been in real jeopardy, i'm sure of that.
She's been President since Disney acquired the franchise in 2012 and they have renewed her contract every time. She's 4 out of 5 on successful Star Wars movies which is far better than many other producers. And for lifetime as a producer, she is third behind Kevin Feige and Spielberg in domestic box office receipts,
with over $7.5 billion as of 2020. Also, with streaming becoming another option to the movie theater, box office isn't going to be the end all be all for much longer.
The Disney shows, especially Mandalorian, may have saved her job but to me it's telling what happens when you let good producers like Filoni and Favreau at the helm and give them creative control. That is a feather in her cap so to speak but then again she hired JJ Abrams and Johnson who really screwed up the sequels.
Mandalorian has been a huge success for Disney plus with the Book of Bobba Fett coming out next month and the Obi wan and Ashoka Tan series following in the next year or two. With streaming becoming more and more dominant, this is a wise move.
JJ Abrams did an excellent job with TFA and did the best he could with ROS after Johnson had flushed what he set up down the toilet. Johnson was a mistake for that trilogy, but with a trilogy of his own who knows?
Like it or not, Kennedy's not going anywhere.
