I don't know about that. You don't really need to search for originaltrilogy.com. Most Star Wars fan sites and even some DVD sites link directly to it so I don't think it's as obscure as you think it is. I'm with Terrell on this, and I know some members of this forum already admitted to signing the petition but would still buy this coming set. A lot of those signatures are "hopefuls" that the Classic Trilogy will still be released on DVD and probably only a handful are the really pissed off, I'm-not-buying-this-no-matter-what type of people.

How many of those around here who aren't buying this set signed the petition? Just curious.

chanster, try using your brain. I'm not arguing inflation nor am I comparing box office of different eras, and you know it. The fact remains that Empire Strikes Back made considerably less than Star Wars.

What the hell does that have to do with domestic box office, which is what I was referencing.

Jesus, you're not even making this hard. The only thing you proved with that statement is that far more people went to the theater back when the original trilogy was made, and ticket prices were far, far less.

Yeah, I'm sure ole George is at home crying right now over 310 million dollars. If that's what you call killed, I'd love to be killed anyday of the week. chanster, can you please tell me what percentage of films released nowadays have made 300+ million dollars? Can you show me any other 25+ year old franchises that have had a fifth film make 310 million dollars? Hell, how many franchises in history have one film that made 300 million? Three, Four, Five........at best.

well I signed the petition and will buy the set, too many other films out there to get really worked up over Star Wars. This coming from someone who has seen each of the original trilogy about 50 times each in a theater. Grandpa (R.I.P.) owned a theater back in the day so summers for me were always spent in the family business, ya know till I found out about girls and stuff

Lucas says that about every film he makes. He's a pessissmist. He thought ESB was going to bomb, even after the mega-success of ANH. Those elements required in Episode III are the exact elements fans have been looking forward to most.

Two things. Darth Vader and the fact that this is the last Star Wars film ever will be marketed to hell and back. Those two things alone will propel it to 300 million dollars. Then the quality of the film will dictate how far it goes past that.

Regardless of what changes he makes, I'm looking foward to this release. My only gripes are Jar Jar being added and Shaw replaced at the end of ROTJ.

i still think you are being a little optimistic.
the factor that went into TPM grossing more than AOTC was that it was an across the board event film.
it was the 'newest' film in over 15 years in a franchise that had made an enormous cultural impact.
AOTC just didnt have that- it was 'for the fans'.
sure it had great a/v candy, especially compared to Spider-man, and yet S-M (a flawed film in its own right) was more popular.
Darth Vader is not going to bring in that many more people that weren't already a fans of the prequels to begin with.
it may woo back a few that became disenchanted with the Prequels so far, but this is still material that is playing for the 'choir'.
and the fact is, this dvd set is partly designed to kick off the hype for that film, and in that it is disappointing a good percentage of the 'true believers', i don't know that the sour after taste of this release is going to not impact the gross for the film a little adversely. (especially after the hype of it has waned going into Nov and looking ahead to much more 'impressive' dvd releases that aren't as divisive to their fan bases)
some fans may still be chaffing at Lucas (and by extension, SW) that they just want to ignore it as much as possible at that point.
i see it doing a little better than Matrix Reloaded did, but not by much.


but we'll see a year from now.

The way you described TPM, is the way you can describe Spider-Man. Spider-Man is an extremely popular, mainstream character that had never been brought the the big screen. It was a good film. That propelled it the box office it enjoyed, not because of any discontent with Episode II. Spider-Man 2, which is by all accounts a better film, is going to make significantly less than the original.

You don't honestly believe that Star Wars fans alone propelled Episode II to 311 million dollars. Not a chance. Star Wars has a very large fanbase, but it's not that large. In fact, not even close.

I think you underestimate the most iconic villian in film history, and it being the last Star Wars film ever. These two factors are significant.

C'mon ckolchak! These particular people don't need to be impacted at all to see the film. The overwhelming majority of SW fans, just as with the DVD, will show up for the film.

By the way, how can you be disappointed in a DVD that hasn't even been released yet.

Yes, and the Star Wars trilogy will obliterate those DVDs in terms of sales. It was already the highest selling preodered DVD in history, on a number of sites. I don't know of any impressive DVDs other than LOTR:ROTK. As for the fanbases, they pretty much crossover.

As you said, we'll see. Not that it ultimately matters. I don't get any of it. I wouldn't care if the film made 10 bucks as long as it is a good SW film. Besides, this trilogy was paid for and then some before the films even started shooting.

the same way that i find The Gidget Collection one of the most disapponting releases of the year- the disc features a version of the film that has been modified away from its original theatrical version- in the case of Gidget its solely due to the cinescope ratio being hacked and scanned.
a change like that makes it just as difficult for a fan of the film to enjoy it on disc-

of course, for the non 'film buffs'- the people who just view this material as disposable entertainment or who grew up with VHS and tv broadcasts of the movies and are perfectly ok with panning and scanning- the disc will be fine-
much like the people who bonded with the SEs originally or could care less about the films as nostalgia or film history.

Scroll up. Kal-El said half the folks who signed the petition would buy it, you disagreed and said it would be 9 out of 10.

That's crap because I signed that petetion, and I am certainly buying the set. I want the OTV but I can settle for the SE's for now with "back-ups" of the Laserdiscs.

Quote:

I think the massive drop in Ep. 2 gate receipts proves you wrong. And the even bigger drop that Ep. 3 is going to take, not to mention the overall reputation of the entire series that Lucas is flushing down the crapper.

Here we go with the "AOTC was a bomb" theorists. AOTC is number 17 on the all time list, a mere $4 million behind FOTR. A drop off in a sequel is expected. TPM had so much hype and build up, it did unnaturally high box office. AOTC brought in $310,676,740, hardly a bomb.

I do see the value in adjusting the box office leaderboard for inflation. But while movie tickets are more expensive now, the public's movie-going habits are different due to the advent of the home video model. If someone wanted to see the original Star Wars, they would have to go to a theater to see it, and it remained that way for many many years. Now a film is available to watch at home within months of the theatrical release. In fact it is now argued that the theatrical release is butter on top of the home video release.

I also figured something out this past week. I love the LOTR movies, but very few mainstream movie fans I know really love them. They saw them and liked them but can do without all the added footage in the EE's. I have always thought how in the hell could these films rake in so much money when the mainstream fans just aren't as interested.

Last week I saw a "spycam" from the San Diego Comic Con of the trailer for the ROTK EE. Each time that Merry or Orlando Bloom came on screen, the girls in the crowd all screamed like they were seeing Elvis or the Beatles. Then it dawned on me: LOTR had the advantage of what I call the "Teenage Girl Factor." It is what makes a film like the Average Titanic such a huge success, the teenage girls will go and see it again and again just to see the guys they are in love with. Now on top of being a great movie, the LOTR films also have this "Teenage Girl Factor" going for them. Their success now makes a lot more sense to me. The "Geek" factor plus the "Teenage Girl" factor combined with being a great film really pushed ROTK over the top. Same can be said of Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man.

Now if GL had been lucky enough to cast an actor such as Orlando Bloom as Anakin, some actor the teenage girls really key into, then I can only imagine what the box office take would be.

Quote:

Originally posted by Qui Gon Jim
Last week I saw a "spycam" from the San Diego Comic Con of the trailer for the ROTK EE. Each time that Merry or Orlando Bloom came on screen, the girls in the crowd all screamed like they were seeing Elvis or the Beatles. Then it dawned on me: LOTR had the advantage of what I call the "Teenage Girl Factor." It is what makes a film like the Average Titanic such a huge success, the teenage girls will go and see it again and again just to see the guys they are in love with. Now on top of being a great movie, the LOTR films also have this "Teenage Girl Factor" going for them. Their success now makes a lot more sense to me. The "Geek" factor plus the "Teenage Girl" factor combined with being a great film really pushed ROTK over the top. Same can be said of Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man.

Now if GL had been lucky enough to cast an actor such as Orlando Bloom as Anakin, some actor the teenage girls really key into, then I can only imagine what the box office take would be.

Uhh...yeah. I'm sure that wasn't what George was shooting for when he went with pretty-boy Christensen. It was solely for his ability to pout as well as he did.

OK, I just viewed the DivX ROTJ ending. Two things...

If you have a problem with the insertion of the Naboo celebration, then you need to get a life. It's a completely harmless addition in line with the other scenes of celebration.

However, the very beginning of the fade-in of Hayden is a bit corny. What the hell was he "laughing" at? But the rest of the Jedi ghost scene is fine. Just the few second lead in is poorly done.


Now then, I couldn't help but shed a tear just watching that whole clip. Is it nostalgia, or is it the gloriousness of that whole celebrationn scene? I don't know. Possibly both.

I never said he wasn't going for it. Point is the gals didn't take to Hayden.

Didn't GL consider Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of Anakin? And all the fan boys screamed bloody murder?! I personally think Leo is an outstanding actor and would rather had seen him in the role than Hayden. It would have been a good combination good acting/ "teenage girl" hearthrob. But I think the teenage girls have moved on from Leo by now. So, maybe it wouldn't have worked.

I agree with a fellow poster, the NUMBER of tickets sold needs to be counted for box office tallies rather than raw revenue.

I'm going to have to disagree QGJ. Titanic--despite what the internet fanboys say-- and the LOTR movies made bank because they were good movies. Having Leo and Orly in there were just icings on the cake.

Please, Titanic was not a good movie. It was an event movie with cool special effects and a teenage heartthrob.

The script left much to be desired.

Sorry to stray off-topic.

No you aren't going to have to disagree! I agree with you that both were good movies. LOTR is fantastic, and Titanic was pretty good too. I also agree with the fanboy statement.

All I meant was having the heartthrob there just helped the bank, and if SW had a similar "heartthrob" then it may have done ven more signifigant bank. In no way was I saying their success was completely dependent on the teeny-bopper dollar. It is strange that there is not a similar phenomenon with guys and female actresses.

jay77,
I am sure you are not the only one that disliked TITANIC, but who cares. Why do you care making the styatement that a movie is not good. Why waste your time. Everyones tastes are different and I am sure that you like movies that I think are terrible movies, and vice versa. With that said, I too, am sorry to go off topic. I do agreeLOTR and TITANIC are good movies and both well made.

Why do you have to result to insults?? Because somebody insulted your poor Star Wars, waaah...Adjusted for inflation, the prequels sucked compared to the originals in terms of box office. No way to dispute that. Sorry.

Who cares if the movies spanned 25 years? And they really didn't - no major Star Wars movies were put out from ROTJ to TPM

Nice threadcrap..way to insult other people with different opinions. You need to get a life if you think it is OK to insult people because of a different opinion

If you disagree, then make an intelligent comment on why. If you can't add anything to the discussion, then it might be better to just not post.




This is also a completely uncalled for comment. Play nice, or you won't be playing at all.