I think he is referring to all licensing. Star Wars is an evergreen product. Disney is making money hand over fist already. Books, movies, games, et al. And as they get more organized that will increase. The movies will just expand that exponentially.

Again, I am aware of that. I was simply pointing out the 3 PT made $2 billion in straight profit on ticket sales and these next 6 movies will be challenged to do that. I understand and agree that as a long range profit generating IP the purchase was a good move on Disney's part.

If I had 4 billion dollars, I would have wanted to buy Star Wars

@Jamwes: The CW movie was rather bad because the team was rather new and still not that comfortable with the programs and other things. It took them some time to make decent episodes and arcs. Just compare the mimic of say the first season with that of the fourth and fifth (eg that close-up on Maul as he explains his plan to rule Mandalore).

I do wonder what will happen with all the funny/thinkful extras that have spawned over the decades, like the various memes?

http://clayyount.com/raecomics/raecomics/2009/8/3/never-forget.html

I've always wondered about that - if Episodes 1-3 were as terrible as everyone says, then why did they make money? Okay, we'll give Phantom Menace a pass since nobody knew that it would stink*, and that the just slightly south of one billion dollars at the world wide box office was a complete fluke.

* I actually don't think it stinks, but I'm arguing a point here.

But now the cat is out of the bag! Everyone knows that Star Wars is artistically poison! Why then did Attack of the Clones go on to make 648 Million worldwide?

Okay, so two abosultly terrible movies in a row, and no sign that the third one is going to be any different. And yet Revenge of the Sith goes on to make 848 million dollars world wide. That's some pretty spectacular box office for a third sh*tty movie in a row. . . . or that perhaps the prequels were not as badly received by Joe Six-Pack, that it was only the fans that were The Enemy?

the reason those were successful is that a new generation of children were introduced to Star Wars through them. if you ask any young fan what their favorite SW film is, they're more likely to cite a PT film than OT. Older fans, the ones who vehemently hate the PT are the ones who felt betrayed by what they saw as a "dumbing down" of the franchise that they helped build into Lucas' Empire (excusing the pun). As older moviegoers they expected to get films directed to them, but didn't realize that Lucas was still making children's sci-fi flicks. That's what he considered the first films to be. Look at RotJ. It's a fun film that gets the gang back together to finally defeat the Emperor, but it's directed at children as evidenced by how much the Ewoks play into it. It has taken me some years to resolve my dislike of the PT's execution, but there are a ton of interesting new worlds, races, and tech that helped to expand the universe further for me. Yeah, I'd probably have made some different choices as a filmmaker than Lucas, but I've accepted the fact that Star Wars was his to create however he wanted to create it. They don't totally destroy the universe (though midi-chlorians do certainly try to ruin one of its great foundations) but expand it further for us to enjoy the facets that did work and that were later developed upon in TCW.

I for one had written off SW for a few years following the PT and it was through watching TCW that I was able to resolve some of that betrayal to the point where I just accept it for what it is. Star Wars is too universal to focus on less than ten minor aspects of those stories to have them ruin the rest of it for me. I just don't find myself re-watching those as much.

Some of my "hate" towards the PT is that I'm not the target audience. I'll wholeheartedly agree that I wasn't a10 year old boy when the PT came out. So, there will be parts of the PT that my adult self will not like, such as JarJar and the super long pod race.

Yeah, I'm not the target market either...I was 14 for E4. But even though I'm happy to agree the PT had many flaws (I can barely watch E2) there was just so much more to it than the negatives people focus on. Unprecedented world-building...it's a forest/trees thing.

...and the pod race was great I can even watch it eyes closed, because the sound engineering is phenomenal.

Why did the PT make so much money?

Better to ask how much more would they have made if they were any good.

I sometimes ponder what an unstoppable media juggernaut Star Wars might be if the prequels had turned out as watchable as, say, the Lord of the Rings movies.

As watchable as Lord of the Rings? Good lord, please no - those movies are TERRIBLE. Long bloated messes that are more in love with scenery and people walking scenes and effects porn than telling a story. They might have been good if Jackson had a strong editor to slap his hands and go "No!".

(But then his remake of Kong suffered the same problem, too. A nugget of a good movie in a three hour trainwreck. . .)

I saw each of the prequels at least three times in the cinema when they came out, and had a good time, every time. And I was 27 for The Phantom Menace.

It's all about expectation: if I want a film experience like Life is Beautiful or Doubt, I'm not reaching for Star Wars.

Saying the OT was 'for grown-ups' is really an over-simplification. How many grown-ups raved about Star Wars when it came out? Not a lot.

But us old fans absorbed them as children, loved them, and grew up. Then came the PT, and despite all its 'adult' taxation and negotiation and blah-blah, we focussed on the fart jokes because those were the elements that embarrassed us, and reminded us that we were grown-up adults sitting in a theatre watching childrens' films.

I recall at least two burp jokes in RotJ. ESB has Artoo barfing up swamp water. ANH has Artoo dancing a happy little jig at the big ceremony. I'd bet the majority of us 'grown-ups' would be rolling our eyes at that stuff if we saw the films for the first time, today.

I'd bet the majority of us 'grown-ups' would be rolling our eyes at that stuff if we saw the films for the first time, today.

That's the thing that people overlook with the old trilogy - every accusation leveled against the new three (well, middle three I guess) can be turned about on the originals. The acting? Absolutely atrocious, aside from a couple of notable standouts (like Gunness and Cushing). The dialogue? Pretty goddamned awful in places. The story? Very simplistic and linear. Goofy slapstick? That's R2 in spades.

It's just that you have 35 years of indoctrination from youth convincing you that New Hope is without flaw. Looked at objectively without the rose tinted glasses, the movie has issues.

Mind you, I love the hell out of the original three. I'll fully admit that Phantom Menace has 16 years of directorial rust coming off the hull. I prefer practical effects over CGI stuff any day of the week (and twice on Sundays). It's just that I've made my peace with 1-3 and I've learned to take 4-6 off the pedestal.

My issues with the prequel trilogy are my own. It wasn't the story I imagined. That and I never quite bought that Anakin was drawn or turned to the dark side. I always felt like he was pushed because he needed to go dark. Overall I enjoyed them though.

And it was said by FFG back in the beginning somewhere that the reason they focused on the original trilogy is the even today a majority of people are first introduced to Star Wars through the OT rather than other avenues. More people recognize Luke Skywalker before Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader before Darth Maul, or Princess Leia before Amidala.

As watchable as Lord of the Rings? Good lord, please no - those movies are TERRIBLE. Long bloated messes that are more in love with scenery and people walking scenes and effects porn than telling a story. They might have been good if Jackson had a strong editor to slap his hands and go "No!".

The LotR movies built an audience from nothing, while the prequels managed to largely squander the unparalleled cultural cachet of Star Wars.

They didn't have to be brilliant. Only as good as the Harry Potter movies or Pirates of the Caribbean or The Avengers. They just weren't though. But if they had, they would have been huge.

I loved the prequels for showing me more of the Star Wars universe. I loved seeing Coruscant, Geonosis, Mustafar, new ships and species. I pretty much hated everything else out of the first two and thought the third was passable at best.

Using revenue to determine the quality of a movie is never a great idea and in a case like this where there was never any doubt the movies would bring in 10's of millions without any effort it is even worse.

I'd bet the majority of us 'grown-ups' would be rolling our eyes at that stuff if we saw the films for the first time, today.

That's the thing that people overlook with the old trilogy - every accusation leveled against the new three (well, middle three I guess) can be turned about on the originals. The acting? Absolutely atrocious, aside from a couple of notable standouts (like Gunness and Cushing). The dialogue? Pretty goddamned awful in places. The story? Very simplistic and linear. Goofy slapstick? That's R2 in spades.

It's just that you have 35 years of indoctrination from youth convincing you that New Hope is without flaw. Looked at objectively without the rose tinted glasses, the movie has issues.

Mind you, I love the hell out of the original three. I'll fully admit that Phantom Menace has 16 years of directorial rust coming off the hull. I prefer practical effects over CGI stuff any day of the week (and twice on Sundays). It's just that I've made my peace with 1-3 and I've learned to take 4-6 off the pedestal.

AMEN!

I can't stand A New Hope. In my eyes it is just as "bad" as TPM. Do I still watch them both repeatedly? Oh hell yeah! Star Wars and quality never went hand in hand for me because during the 30 years after RotJ the quality was spotty. I just soaked in as much Star Wars as possible.

It'll be the same with the new trilogy. I am expecting action movies that feel like Marvel movies and that pander to the OT crowd. I'll ***** and moan about them but I will still love them and watch them over and over!

Why did the PT make so much money?

Better to ask how much more would they have made if they were any good.

This ^

I've always wondered about that - if Episodes 1-3 were as terrible as everyone says, then why did they make money? Okay, we'll give Phantom Menace a pass since nobody knew that it would stink*, and that the just slightly south of one billion dollars at the world wide box office was a complete fluke.

* I actually don't think it stinks, but I'm arguing a point here.

But now the cat is out of the bag! Everyone knows that Star Wars is artistically poison! Why then did Attack of the Clones go on to make 648 Million worldwide?

Okay, so two abosultly terrible movies in a row, and no sign that the third one is going to be any different. And yet Revenge of the Sith goes on to make 848 million dollars world wide. That's some pretty spectacular box office for a third sh*tty movie in a row. . . . or that perhaps the prequels were not as badly received by Joe Six-Pack, that it was only the fans that were The Enemy?

That's the thing...there are a lot of reasons to see films, many of which have nothing to do with how good the film is, from a critical standpoint.

For my part, here are my feelings on the prequels:

• I saw all 3 in theaters (including E 2 at midnight, and E 3 at 4 AM, because I couldn't get midnight tickets).
• The acting of most of the characters, much of the writing, and the plot were all AWFUL.
• Jar-Jar Binks should have died to at least make an attempt at making up for how obnoxious he was. Compare the amount of screen time spent in the OT on slapstick moments with R2, or 3PO, to time spent on Jar-Jar, and the level of ridiculousness. Also, note that R2 (and to a much lesser degree 3PO) was actually very useful in parts of the film, whereas Jar-Jar's only useful moments were through dumbass luck. Why did the rest of the characters insist on having him accompany them? It's like a D&D group where one player makes a character that doesn't fit at all, but the players bring him along, because, as friends playing a game, they have to.
• The prequels took some of the laughable, silly, slapstick stuff from the original films and magnified it.
• They took the uncertain, sometimes whiny youthfulness of Luke Skywalker and magnified that, too. Luke was angsty, but not anywhere near as obnoxiously so as Anakin was. And the romantic scenes and dialogue from the original films, while weak at times, wasn't the 3rd rate soap opera/romance novel garbage we had in the prequels.
• The story of the original films wasn't great, not even necessarily much better than the prequels, but the prequels were building upon something that had existed and developed for 30 years, and disregarded much of that (I hadn't any experience with the EU at that point, but it made many ridiculous decisions in regards to the original films that don't make sense), and at least the OT, while shallow, makes sense in most ways--on the whole, it's a fairly simple plot--but the PT is overly convoluted, and fails to support itself.

So why did I go see all three in theaters?

1. It's Star Wars, and Star Wars means fun. They could be atrocious films in many ways, but there were still, on the whole, fun movies.
2. JEDI! I like lightsaber fights and Force powers. They're my favorite parts of any of the films, and the ones we had in the PT were incredibly indulgent, which was right up my alley. These days, if I get a hankering of this sort, I usually just go queue up clips of the Jedi fights on Youtube, rather than go sit through all the other crap in the PT films.
3. There was some hope for redemption, that they'd get better. Some elements did. Others didn't.
4. There's a desire to see an expansion of a universe/story that I enjoy (same reason I've read the more recent Dune books, even though they're terrible).
5. And it's hard to drop something partway through--so not finishing out the trilogy would have left me feeling incomplete, which is a little worse than suffering through more Anakin/Padme dialogue.

Still, if the films would have also had better dialogue, acting, and plot writing, I'd be rewatching them instead of pulling up Youtube clips.

Yeah, i remember watching the Plinkett reviews and that one scene from the making-of The Phantom Menace just said it all.

You can see George Lucas and his team after watching Episode I and they look beat/bored. Those 4 different story lines it tried to follow were simply too much. And otherwise every other mistake has already been pointed out.