If The Phantom Menace had flopped at the box office.

D_Lowe. Did you read the thread? Did you read the thread title? No one said it flopped.

 

I'm beginning to wonder about this forum, Strilo...

 

D_Lowe. Did you read the thread? Did you read the thread title? No one said it flopped.

Your can be a little nicer, Strilo. Yes I read it. This is a what if thread and what I'm saying in short terms is it shouldn't have been even speculated since it was even close. That's the way I feel about it so don't criticize my feelings on the subject.

 

No one is criticizing your feelings, but if you truly feel that way, then you should have said so in your previous post. We can't read your mind, so we couldn't read between the lines. If you want us to know what you really mean, then you need to come out and say it in the first place! Don't leave us in suspense.


However, if you do not like "what if" threads, then I question your decision to even read one. If we are to value your opinions, then why can't you value the fact that the creator of this thread wants to hear speculation regarding his topic?



Mace Windy,
too windy for spoilers!

 

Come on Windy, you know Strilo had a rude tone to his post and totally uncalled for. I know he's your fellow mod, but can you honestly say you would have said what he said if he didn't say it first? I don't think so.

EDIT: I have every right to say what I feel as long as it doesn't violate TOS. I said what I was going to say and leave it at that and then...

 

lets stop the hatin

 

dude- it wouldnt. ever. so vaminos. outta the question.

 

If Episode 1 had been a complete failure, Lucas would not have made Episodes 2 and 3. Vision, schmision, he is a brilliant businessman and marketer, and he would not throw hundreds of millions of dollars away if all indications were that he would get nothing back from it. Some crappy movies don't make much, and do manage to get sequels. However, Episode 1 had higher expectations, word-of-mouth, hype, merchandising, and magazine plugs that any movie I can remember. It was a best case scenario, everyone was going to see it regardless of whether it was good or not, because it was the first Star Wars movie in 15 years. If Episode 1 couldn't succeed in that kind of situation, there's no way that Episodes 2 and 3 would have been made. Lucas has no obligation to give us movies, he only has to 1) make a profit 2) finish his masterpiece 3) make fans happy - in that order.

 

It's a speculation thread, a what if scenario. Why post "It'd never happen"? It adds nothing to the conversation.

I'd like to think that if the film made just over break even, then we'd get the next two because as someone said before, it's Lucas' opus. It's the story he really wants to tell.

I doubt he'd do it though.

He waited 16 years to do TPM, waited for the special effects to catch up with his ideas, there's no way he'd make the films with a smaller budget with reduced effects. Sequels don't usually do as well as their predecessors, so he'd be banking on the sequel to TPM to make even less money, therefore he'd not be able to have the budget he wanted without actually losing his own money. I believe he'd rather have left it unmade than make a movie he thought wasn't up to scratch. Look at what he's done to the OT, he's been fiddling with them for 10 years to get them to a point where he's happy with them. The perfectionist in him wouldn't allow him to make poor versions of his dream.

 

Dude- I'm not trying to sound like a wiseass, but this is a bad what if thread. What If threads are possible scenarios; they could have half happened. TPM flopping at the box office is no where near possible unless ANH had flopped too.

 

If TPM had made only two hundred million, that would have been a flop. It cost close to a hundred million to make, and I believe had something like thirty to fourty million in advertisement; any film that doesn't make back what it cost to produce is a flop.

I'm actually fairly staggered by the decrease in profits from TPM to AotC. TPM made close to nine times what it cost to produce it; AotC, less than five. Clones still was a large success, but nothing on the level of The Phantom Menace.