Is LOTR becoming SW as SW became Star Trek?

A good place to mark the level of interest in these franchises is in the eyes of the kids shelling out their bucks to go and see the films. I can honestly tell you that in the world of 12-14 year-olds (at least in my little corner of Queens) The Lord of the Rings is HUGE. Spider-Man was big for a few weeks when it came out, but hardly any of my students even mention it now. AOTC made hardly a ripple of excitement. What they do talk about is LOTR & Harry Potter.

For the younger generations, Star Wars IS becoming passe. These kids look at Star Wars (and my adoration of it) the same exact way as I looked at people who praised Star Trek when ESB & ROTJ came out. I enjoyed Wrath of Khan, thought it was a good movie, but man was I ever into STAR WARS! Replace Wrath of Khan with AOTC, and ROTJ with Return of the King, and history is repeating itself.

What will keep Star Wars from the same fate as Star Trek will be to simply end it. Continually playing out the same idea over and over again (see Nemesis) turns a franchise into a parody of itself. So unless Star Wars makes the same mistakes as Star Trek, I don't see it replacing Trek as LOTR replaces it.

However, unfortunately, many kids today will tell you that LOTR & Potter are more relevant to them than Star Wars. Many students wander the halls of my school with LOTR/Hobbit or Potter books. VERY few are seen with anything Star Wars related.

 

You shouldn't assume that your personal experience represents a consensus of opinion. Realize that there are many who have witnessed exactly the opposite, with children flocking to Star Wars and ignoring LOTR. Of course, it doesn't mean they can claim a consensus either. Anecdotal evidence doesn't really prove anything, whether it's for or against Star Wars. Addendum: It can be used, however, to disprove universal statements (ie: everyone in the world hates/loves Franchise X).

The facts, on the other hand, clearly indicate that, at least in terms of ticket sales and merchandising, Star Wars is still going strong. LOTR may be extremely popular, but there's no law dictating that people can't like more than one movie franchise.

 

One thing that everyone should remember is that Star Wars had its time in the early 1980's. Now its time is over, and LOTR and Harry Potter are in the ascendency. The Prequels are merely a nice bonus, which is why I'm so prepared to let the bad aspects slide and just enjoy them. I neither needed or really wanted to see Star Wars prequels, so I just take them as a bonus. But the trutrh of the matter is that Star Wars is out of touch with this decade, whereas LOTR, as old a stroy as it is, seems to be very much in touch with the times. The same really goes for Star Trek: it had its time in the 1960's, but by the time the movies were made, its time was very much over, but the movies (the early ones before it got tired) were a nice bonus also.

-JDR.

 

Anecdotal evidence doesn't really prove anything

Would you like me to take a more empirical approach and conduct a survey to see which is more popular: Star Wars, Potter, or LOTR?

It can be used, however, to disprove

OK - my "anecdotal" evidence DISproves the argument that Star Wars is as popular as LOTR and Potter.

Star Wars is not front and center on children's minds the way it was in the 80s. Whether you like it or not, this is a fact. OF COURSE Star Wars is still big business - and yes, many, many kids do enjoy it. But they are not into it the way they were in the 80s. Today's "IN" franchises are Potter & LOTR.

Is Star Wars destined for the same fate as Trek? I doubt it - unless Lucas decides to go crazy and license out TV series, video games, comics, novels, etc. based on the Star Wars universe ... oh wait ... he's already done that

 

You can't use your personal experience to claim, as a fact, that children are more interested in LOTR than Star Wars. That may be true where you live, but not necessarily everywhere. It's certainly not true in my experience. You can go ahead and conduct a poll if you like, but it would have to be a scientific, nationwide survey.

 

Nai,

Do you mean to tell me that you honestly believe that Star Wars is as popular today as it was twenty years ago? And that Star Wars is the most popular, robust franchise out there now?

 

I'm not telling you anything other than that your personal experience doesn't represent a consensus of opinion. A scientific survey would, however, so go ahead and conduct one and I won't dispute it. Your assertion may indeed be correct, and honestly that wouldn't really bother me much. But I should probably mention that the Star Wars toy brand outsold the LOTR brand in 2002. Something to consider.

I've never claimed that Star Wars is as popular as it's ever been. I also don't care to debate what the most popular franchise is. What I will say is that Star Wars is still very popular. Unpopular franchises don't pull in $310 million at the box office, they pull in $40 million.

 

Anecdotal evidence can only be used to disprove an absolute assertation. If one were to say, "Everyone likes LOTR more than STAR WARS," you can easily disprove this by asking your family and friends which they prefer, and if they prefer STAR WARS then you have disproven the generalization.

At any rate, as has been used as evidence against STAR WARS on many occasions, box office dollar amounts don't necessarily prove popularity. Therefore, you can state conclussively that LOTR made more than STAR WARS at the box office, but this isn't the same as saying that LOTR is generally more popular than STAR WARS. And last I checked, Cartoon Network hadn't signed with a popular and successful animator to create LOTR shorts to play over the summer.

This isn't to say that this proves STAR WARS is more popular than LOTR, but it certainly does prove that STAR WARS is indeed a popular and relevant franchise.

 

In my world - the only one that matters to me - Star Trek and LOTR are irrelevant. Star Wars has been, and always will be, King of the Hill.

 

They should rename this site from (theforce.net) to (Lord Of The Rings fans who force their opinions on Star Wars fans.net). See you all in the theaters May 2005, George will have the last laugh on the critics.

 

After Revenge of the King D) comes out this Christmas, its over. No more. While Star wars fans still have Ep3 to watit for. And so you see, Star Wars will have the last laugh. (anyone else notice that the title of Return of the King is a rippoff of Return of the Jedi?)

 

Actually, Return of the King was written several decades before ROTJ was even conceived...

 

Who cares about the general public eye anyway? The general public at my school seems to think that a piece of kleenex makes a good shirt, but that doesn't make it true.

 

I actually think its Harry Potter, not LOTR, that's beginning to overtake SW. In my opinion, Harry Potter has the strongest legs as a franchise. Even if the films haven't grossed as much as SW or LOTR, it has the potential to keep going and going. Its popularity is based on the books and there are new ones coming out.

LOTR will be finished after this year and there won't be more books to film. Even if they make The Hobbitt, I can't see it working itself into the public consciousness the way HP seems to be doing.

SW had its day and it lasted over 20 years, so did Star Trek. Remember that although it was surpassed in terms of popularity by SW in the late 70s and early 80s, Star Trek was the biggest thing in sci-fi from about 1985 to 1996.

SW- especially the OT- still has a strong presence in the public consciousness. Star Trek does too; even today much of the general public knows the names Kirk, Spock, the starship Enterprise, Capt. Picard and Data.

As great as LOTR is, I doubt that by 2005 the names Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas or Boromir will be remembered as strongly as Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt, Lando Calrissian or Boba Fett.

 

HP will probably be around for a long time. I think HP3 is supposed to come out in 2004. It will almost certainly do well, which means HP4 will come out in 2005 or 2006. Then there's HP5 and HP6 and... LOTR will be over and done with in 2003. SW will go out in 2005 with Ep3 (probably with a box office gross of well under 300 million). HP will be the only big fantasy franchise still going, and probably still going strong.

 

This Harry Potter thing has me worried. It's a good point. I saw one of those films and found it to be morally objectionable, but it does have the potential to truly have the last laugh. Mostly because young kids today are really into it. When they grow up to be twentysomethings like I am who still hold a fascination with something from my childhood it will be Harry Potter not LOTR or Star Wars.