ctyankee

Fair point except it's not my thread ...

jekbrown

Im thinking LotR. For four reasons.

One, we all know lucas is going to release what HE wants, not what WE want so some people will probably be turned off by the whole thing.

Two, each LotR film will have atleast 4 versions (dont forget pan/suck) plus atleast 1 kind of "uber set" when all 3 are done. As mentioned, lucas is going to release exactly what HE wants... prolly just 1 version (se prolly) of each movie. Many of your hardcore fans will buy multiple, if not all, the different versions that are available. Other peeps will buy pan-scan... but when they go to a WS tv they will get a ws version etc etc etc.

thirdly, 4 words: episode 1, episode 2. These films are like baggage... I kinda liked Ep 2... but at the same time these newer flicks rub me in such a wrong way that they make me look back at eps 4-6 and think "did i REALLY like these films?".

fourth, and related to #3, the LotR films have marketable momentum. The first one was very good, the second one was GREAT and both are recent. Lets face it, there hasnt been a GREAT star wars movie since Empire in 1980. Thats 23 years. I know all you big kids out there feel like it was "only yesterday" but it wasnt... and with younger people being a large segment of the buying demographic this kind of thing DOES matter. My gf was born in 1980... SW just isnt a big deal to her... it was before her time and she really doesnt see why people get so excited. LotR doesnt have this problem.

AFA the squabble as to which series is "bigger" i dont think it has any relevance. Sure, some peoples grandma may know vader better than sauron (though I have one grandma who doesnt watch movies/tv AT ALL, but she reads a LOT)... but these types of peeps dont buy dvds anyway. People who buy dvds know full well what the heck LotR is just as well as they know what SW is.

j

sinister

when 2006 comes the people that will be around 21 and under won't care because they don't know what it's about. by then the LOTR's and harry potter dvd's will be the highest selling dvd's of all-time selling to the young, middle aged, and old and star wars won't. lucas loses fans with every prequel while jackson's movies get stronger.

mike45

Of course Star Wars will out sell LOTR. Which is not neccessarily a meaningful thing or good thing. It just proves, if you lead them by the nose they will buy it.

Ian11

Uh, I'm a fan of both. Without our praises or criticisms they're both going to do well and makes tons more money for them. And as a fan and movie enthusiast nothing is as irrelevant as total grosses and sales. Harry Potter may beat the tar out of both in the end in terms of sales. Who Knows? And Who Cares? Lots of kids out there. No surprise Harry Potter did well. What is a miracle to me is that LOTR was at least as succesful as Harry Potter and being compared to Star Wars despite today's short attention spans. Regardless, Lucas will win out in the end (total sales) because he is the king of holding back, tacking stuff on, and repackaging it for multiple editions. Part of it has to do with fanboys trying to buy more, create more hype, and in artificial ways "prove" its better.

As far as cultural impact....No question the original Star Wars series was huge and remains so. With Lord of the Rings (which is the Grandaddy of them all) Tolkien pretty much invented the modern fantasy genre by creating a self contained world with its own history. Just take a look at the fantasy section in your local bookstore and the gaming world it spawned. Without Tolkien; no Lucas and no J.K. Rowling either. He invented the way fantasy stories are conceived, told, and marketed although he probably wouldn't approve of the way its proliferated and watered/dumbed down. Lord of the Rings set the mold for the fantasy genre for those us who's memories don't begin in 1977.

And in terms of longevity for the films, Lord of the Rings will age better than Star Wars in the long run because Peter Jackson made these films with a more "timeless" feel. Its already taken more seriously by film critics (probably win the Oscar for Best Picture as well), the literal minded, action/fantasy fans, kids, as well as the avg. moviegoer. I'll always love Star Wars (IV - VI) and the way it changed my perception of movies. Star Wars is also strongly rooted in myth, cultural archetypes, its inventiveness, its very human characters, and good yarn and that is what is ensuring its longevity. Not just special effects, box office draw, or hype. Just like it has done for LOTR.

And "fanboys" name calling and making fun of other "fanboys". Sheesh.

Dazed

Star Wars (but I hope im wrong)

The Bus

My guess is Star Wars, by a nose.

C Roberts

Just because SW has been around longer doesn't mean LOTR can't surpass it. J6P likes to buy all the latest blockbusters too. Kids are just as likely to enjoy LOTR as they are SW. SW are essentially fantasy movies in a sci-fi setting anyway; swords, magic, villains in black armor, its all there.
Its hard to predict right now which one will sell more, but I don't think its necessarily dependant on which has the bigger cultural impact.

immortal_zeus

I'd be very surprised if Star Wars didn't break all sorts of records the day it is released.

TK-421

Star Wars without question... not only because of all the people who know about it and want it, but the pent up demand will cause people to buy it in droves whenever it's finally released.

I bet if you ask the person behind the counter at Best Buy how many times a week they have to say that Star Wars 4-6 aren't on DVD, they'd probably tell you too many.

chanster

Sorry to threadcap... then don't. - Static

ctyankee

Fair point. Originality is not just about having a new idea but taking older ideas and giving them a new slant. Lucas deserves credit for this as well as the innovations that allowed the Star Wars world to come alive. Jackson also deserves credit for making the Tolkien world come alive.

But the point of the thread is not what film or director is more deserving, it is about what trilogy will sell more.




Timeless, perhaps ... just as popular now as back in the 70's early 80's ... not a chance.

You don't see many teenage boys with Star War posters on their wall. If some kid quotes Star Wars in school it is a ticket to the outcast table. Face it, kids find their own films from their own time/generations ... not their father's or grandfather's films. Someone that saw Star Wars when they were 16 will be 45 in 2006.

And the current 16 year-old will becomes an adult that will buy the films that made an impression on them when they were young (and that they fondly remember) - just like we are doing now.

Every grandmother knows about the Beatles too and so do their grandchildren. Familiarity however does not mean that these demographics will put the White Album back on the top album sales just because they are pop icons.

So for the SW trilogy DVD advocate, here is the challenge:

We know you want it ... that's crystal clear waaaayyy before this thread came around. But apart from mostly 35 to 55 year-old men - what other demographic will be buying SW in droves and for themselves and why?

jessebo

I'd love to see a bunch of people not buy star wars. it would serve George Lucas right...

D G D

I for one will definitely be upgrading my SW DVD's from the 5-Star Collection copies that I somehow obtained!!

I say SW will win, unless you combined the sales of both LOTR editions (theatrical & extended) - then it will be a close race.

GuessWho

Star Wars attracts pepole who have been into movies anywhere from 1977-2003

LOTR attracts people who have been into movies from 2001-2003

jarryjayo

A lot of starwars fans love LOTRs so I think star wars will clearly win because lets face it, both are some of teh best movies that have come out in some time.

I was a star wars fan before a LOTRs fan. then the movies came out and my brother inlaw talked me into reading the books and I fell inlove with the idea of middle earth. Feeling a little bit upset about Lucas style of directoring and wanting something else. I love LOTRs better in some ways. but I will buy Starwars box set again if they release it. not that that will happen for some time anyway. I think on part because lucas wants to wait and keep us hungery for it. like the indy box set. lets face it, he's like bill gates of the movie world, he knows how to make money with marketing.

he got me with the 300canadian dollar laser disc version and I think he'll get me again with the 79 dollar dvd version

tonymontana313

Somehow you seem to be ignoring the vast public that has been waiting for the Lotr movies for half a century.

PixyJunket

Who are the exact same people who would buy Star Wars.

jim_cook87

Not enough information. How are we counting? Are we counting individual movie sales or complete trilogy sales? And what will be available?

With LOTR we've got FOTR(FS), FOTR(WS), FOTR(EE), FOTR(Gift Set), TT(FS), TT(WS), TT(EE), TT(Gift Set), and we'll get the same for ROTK. And we can speculate as to whether or not there will be a box set of all 3.

With SW what are we going to get just a box set, or will there be a box set and separates? Will there be some special release of the originals or only the Special Editions?

I have to ask these questions because if SW is only available as a boxed set, with no alternate versions, LOTR wins hands down. How many people have bought both a theatrical release and an EE of FOTR and will do the same for TTT and ROTK? That gives LOTR a big advantage. If SW is only in a box set, many people will pass on the high price that will slowly pick up the three separate LOTR movies.

Statistically my bet is that LOTR will have the larger number of sales due to the multiple separate releases and people double dipping. But if SW is released as separates I'd bet there will be more homes with SW in their library...

BizRodian

Who cares?

And why is there this vast myth that Lucas will in NO WAY release the original versions of the trilogy. He's said he likes the movies his way, but he's released stuff with seemless branching before. People close to Lucas also said they "might" have the OT in there.

Personally, if I were Lucas, I'd release only the SEs just to piss off all the stupid fanboys... while my real target audiance wouldn't care.

Let's hope Lucas is a better man than I!

milo bloom

To be fair, there's really only two issues of each LOTR movie, and even that's a stretch since they're different cuts of the movie. And since none of the extras are duplicated on the two releases, it's more like a six disc set released in two parts.

And the gift sets don't count since the actual movies in them are the same as available separately. You don't have to "double dip" to get everything.

As for the rest of this discussion, I'm not sure I want to get into it, but I wanted to clear this up about the LOTR DVDs.

El-Kabong

Upon second thought - you are right. Star Wars was so unbelieveably huge in the 70's, so far beyond the scope of anything we see today that there is no matching it. I'd wager that there's no way that we will ever see anything on that scale ever again.

So Wars has gone from Inredably-Super-Mega-Hyper-Large to just an unstoppable behemoth.

Still, it's undenyably popular. Even as much as Attack of the Clones "sucked", it made huge phat bank at the box office. For the sixth movie in a series to pull that kind of numbers indicates that the brand name is still amazingly strong.

Even after you account for all the SW geeks and their multiple viewings, theres still got to be some mainstream draw to get that kind of BO. And all that popularity is going to directly translate into the DVDs flying off the shelves.

***EDIT*** One more point in Wars' favor? Retro is in. The 70's and 80's are coming back in a big way.

And of course a completly non-geek movie like Rings is the fast track to peer group popularity.

When you get right down to it, on some level both movies have that stench of "nerd" about them.

Aside from the Geek Demographic? I think it'll sell real well to the family movie demographic - parents and grandparents buying it for their kids and grandkids.

sracer

It won't even be close. Star Wars.

If drivel like Ep1 and 2 and sell big numbers, then the OT will do exponentially more so.

There are 10's of millions of SW fanboys that will buy ANYTHING SW-related. Whether Lucas releases the original OT, SE, or his fully digitized re-shoot, people will eat it up.

I have the OT:SE on official VCD as well as 5-Star DVD... and I'll hold my nose and by the official DVD release of the OT:SE if it is released. But I WON'T buy any of that digi-crap redux/reshoot that has been rumored. But there will be plenty of people who will. (if that comes to pass)

Demand for the OT is so pent up, that there are whole legions of consumers wanting it without even remembering why.

sracer

As for vilifying Ralph Bakshi for his Lord of the Rings film... he most certainly was! He was burned in effigy, voodoo dolls poked, hate mail, etc.

I'm probably the only person on the planet that loved it.

island007

It seems like he still does well.
http://www.the-movie-times.com/thrsd...0openings.html

I like both trilogies and would own both if given the chance.

Also, I know of quit a few boys that loved SW 1 & 2. They run around with Qui Gon Jin or such on their shirts.