STAR WARS is dying.

I also don't think anything could match the impact ANH had, so I'm just happy that we've got new films and new fans.

Same here, my friend.

I mean, has any film ever had the impact on culture, society and the theater that ANH had?

ANH is certinaly the one that started it all, but without the other four (soon to be five) films, it wouldn't have the lasting impact it does. Star Wars is alive and well, and will continue to be for a very long time, at least for me.

 

And do you know why? It's because LFL cares more about the next Indy Jones then doing good on SW.

Thats one very ignorant and uninformed opinion.

I also don't think anything could match the impact ANH had

Speaking as someone who saw the films in 97 when they were classified the "special editions", I watched ANH and to be honest it didn't have that much of an impact (but i guess 97 is a different time from 77 plus when you've seen films like Jurassic Park et al its not the same you know). The film that ironically got me "impacted" was ROTJ which is classed as the start of the downfall! And really you could say my real intro to SW fandom wasn't through the SE's neither but through the PT and TPM.

I'm ashamed to say that I can't even watch ANH without just skipping to ESB (I personally believe that Lucas' films have improved the more he's done them!), which terrible to say i know.

 

SW is not "dying"...just my 2 cents worth. It seems that the new NJO book was #11 on the NY Best Sellers List and #1 on the Waldenbook List.....so someone out there is interested in reading SW books.....and watching SW films. I will acknowledge that the fevor pitch for SW is not what it was in the late 70s and early 80s, but the "love" of things SW is still alive and well. I anticipate that episode 3 will positively affect that fevor pitch that lies just beneath the surface. 2005 can't get here fast enough for me.

 

Heh, it's okay, JKBurtola. ROTJ will always be my sentimental favourite, too.

As time goes on, I predict we'll end up with some fans that love the PT but hate the OT. Really. I can see people arguing that AOTC is a much better film than ESB and so on.

And eventually, everyone will just love all 6 films

 

Ouch JKB, you just burned my hide. I don't think that's an ignorant opinion at all since Lucas himself said that he wants to hurry up with the films so he can focus on other projects. Oh and incidentally, I am not some newbie fan, I have been a fan for 20 plus years thank you very much.

 

Star Wars is dying. More people went to see ANH, ESB, ROTJ, than TPM. Ticket sales of all movies

And more people went to see the above films, PLUS Harry Potter: Sorcerer's Stone, Spider Man, Toy Story 2, The Two Towers, and Fellowship of the Ring than Attack of the Clones. The attendance of AOTC is not even close to the attendance of ESB.

Factor in things like DVD and "other entertainment" all you want. The fact that AOTC is beaten by contemporary films (in the same year) and even by much longer 3-hour films (Lord of the Rings) makes that argument negligible. Remember when we talked about this before? Movies didn't have the same amount of advertisement as we do today in this media age. Should I use that argument too? And people KNOW a MOVIE is OUT in theaters anyways. They don't need to wait or be reminded the latest Star Wars movie is out. If they genuinely wanted to see it, they would see it in the theaters, not wait for DVD 6 months later. The fact that there are other entertainment sources out there doesn't explain why AOTC is beaten by movies that came out in the same year. They liked it more than AOTC.

And if some of you frequented other places on the net, you'd find AOTC hardly discussed. THIS is pretty much the only forum. And when Star Wars is discussed, it's mostly for the OT. And what's with all these polls showing AOTC losing in nearly everything? And there have been more negative reviews for AOTC and TPM than all the OT films combined. AOTC and TPM aren't in the Top 250 favorite films on imdb.com. And the PT has divided the fanbase much more than any OT film has, etc...

Star Wars is dying.

 

It's not as popular as it was. How could it be? Do you really devalue the impact of ANH that much? And why do you insult and slap the faces of Spidey and TTT so much, suggesting that the 'failure' of AOTC was due to the film being bad is your eyes rather
than giving any due credit to just how incredibly popular those two films were? If AOTC was No.1, the competition was weak; if AOTC wasn't No.1, it's a bad film, that's the general way you're seeing it.

You know that the movie-going situation these days is different than in '77-'83. You know that the level of competition not only in the cinema but in other forms of entertainment is greater. You know that the situation in general is different now. Do you seriously believe Gone With The Wind would make as much as it did, if it was released nowadays?

If you base your whole opinion on box-office take, that's utterly sad. You're missing out on so many great films that didn't make much money, either.

Sorry if this seems harsh, but my first and second attempts at formulating a reply were a lot worse.

 

Star Wars is not dying. In your eyes yes. Mine and others I talk with, no. My wife's 4 year old nephew watches the OT and PT almost as much as I do. Knows all the vehilces names and characters names. Always talking about it. And my brother in law, we talk up a storm about SW. The New Jedi Order books, the games, the movies. We especially like the PT. And he is 32 yeas old. So you see two sides of the spectrum. A newer fan and an older fan that continues to love SW. Nope, nothing dead here.

 

And if some of you frequented other places on the net, you'd find AOTC hardly discussed. Really well have you gone to SW.com? They talk about AOTC there. Have you gone to acrossthestars.net? They talk about AOTC there to. Have you gone to SOTJ? They talk about AOTC there to. Know if you go to a place where lets say they talk about P.O.D yeah they are nto going to talk about AOTC. They are going to talk about P.O.D

THIS is pretty much the only forum. Really? ? Wow I did not know this was the only place people talk about AOTC or TPM or SW for that matter.

And when Star Wars is discussed, it's mostly for the OT.
If you say so.

And what's with all these polls showing AOTC losing in nearly everything? What polls? Oh and those polls on the INTERNET well they don't really tell the turth because not ever one has a computer

And there have been more negative reviews for AOTC and TPM than all the OT films combined. The OT also got negative reviews.

AOTC and TPM aren't in the Top 250 favorite films on imdb.com. So again not ever one has the INTERNET and I would believe the World Almanac over the INTERNET any day of the week.

And the PT has divided the fanbase much more than any OT film has, etc... On the INTERNET maybe. But in real life you don't know that. Not ever one who has a comupter goes to a forum.

If they genuinely wanted to see it, they would see it in the theaters, not wait for DVD 6 months later. Ok 1st not ever one has the money to go to the theater. 2nd some people may not be able to get to a theatermaybe they don't a car. They could be very sick etc, etc.

The fact that there are other entertainment sources out there doesn't explain why AOTC is beaten by movies that came out in the same year. And that makes it a bad movie. For you it might. But not for ever one. You me and ever one else here does not know what ever one thought about AOTC or TPM. Why is that? Maybe it's because not ever one uses the INTERNET and those that do don't always go to fan forums.

They liked it more than AOTC. Oh do you know this. Read above.

 

Star wars will always live on.

 

Above anything else,what has actually hurt SW is that the media has completely turned against it. Most people are not intelligent enough to question what they are told, and therefore follow the tv and print media like mindless sheep. If people are told that movie "A" is the hot new thing and movie "B" is a dissapointment, then they will not bother to judge for themselves. Or their judgement will be tainted by what they have read or been told. Plus the political climate of the PT is very disturbing to many people at a number of levels. I hardly feel SW is dying-in many ways I think the current films outshine the earlier ones-but one thing this whole mess proves to me, yet again: most people are idiots.

 

I think if anything has hurt SW is it's own popularity. It's funny really when you have critics and "fans" not only slamming the movies but urging people to go see other movies like Spider-Man and Lord of the Rings like it was a contest and to make sure by whatever means necessary SW doesn't win. That to me is bit sad really but I guess it was bound to happen.

Is SW dying or will it die? Not a chance. I guess it's easy for a disgruntled fan that in his/her mind has been screwed over by Lucas to say SW is dying but the fact is, and I say fact because it pretty much is one, SW will never die. Right now SW is at it's peak with the anticipation of EpIII coming out. After EpIII has come and gone SW will live on in the EU, the toys, and more importantly the movies(in whatever version mind you).

 

Sorry JohnWilliams00, your facts are no match for scattered accounts of anecdotal evidence!

For anidanami124... What makes a print source inherently more reliable and accountable than an Internet source? For example, how much more reliable is Russel Ash than the editorial board of boxofficemojo.com? And how does the fact of OT films having negative reviews discount the fact that AOTC has more negative reviews than all three films of the OT combined?

 

Edit you know I'm not going to even say anything to the last poster. If you think SW is dying then for you it is. But that does not make it true over ever one.

 

Bottom line: If Star Wars is dead to you then it's dead to you and you only. As for me and millions of other fans across the world, Star Wars is alive and well and will be for years to come.

 

the internet is not representative of people's tastes. You find 3 Billion sites devoted to Star Trek but in real life hardly anybody cares about it anymore while shows like ER are far more popular but are not even remotely as much discussed on the web. the web is heavily geek-laden, you find more web pages devoted to Dragonball Z then to discussing the Iraq crisis. Do NOT believe the web!!
We internet geeks have opinions and view points that are not shared by many people in the real world (sorry about that term but you know what I mean..). Here you find people that slam AOTC "because of that bad effect with the shaak" or hat TTT "because hobbits are gay". The regular audience frankly do not judge films that way, they don't slam entire films because of a dodgy effect shot or a dialogue scene that might be 3 seconds too long. Most people here (myself included) post extreme opinions and viewpoints in order to be heard, we blow up insignificant detail into gigantic plot holes.
However, anecdotal evidence means nothing. Those endless stories "Star Wars is dying - I have two friends who said so" or "Star Wars is NOT dying - I have two friends who said so" just bore me to death. When I saw AOTC there were three guys in front of me that were tatally drunk, smelled of alcohol and fell asleep during the film. Should I now post here with my "evidence that AOTC is a film for drunken fools and can only be endured under the influence of alcohol"?

 

Yeah, it's dying. Right. (rolls eyes)

That's why AOTC made 643 million dollars and sold millions of DVD's. That's why HBO just sewed up the cable rights to it. That's why it was an IMAX hit.

I'll bet when Episode III is released in 2005, not a soul shows up to watch Anakin become Vader.

If this is a movie franchise that's dying, I assure you most producers and studios would LOVE to have a piece of it.

Considering this is a Star Wars site, that's a pretty inflammatory title for a thread.

 

For this message board, it's not an inflammatory thread at all. This sort of thing is welcomed, if not encouraged.

anidan, I'd advise you to ignore the people who take such glee in saying a movie series they allegedly love is dying. Consider the source.

Even if SW was dying, it wouldn't bother me. I'd rather see a SW movie in a theater with three other people that love it rather than a theater full of people whining about how much they hate it and how much better (insert media pet du jour) is.

 

It's very simple, if you don't care much for SW anymore or you are an "insecure" fan, then SW might be dying. If you still enjoy SW, both OT & PT, then it is not dying. It's all about perspective and personal taste.
Did LOTR fans think that LOTR was "dying" during those long decades without a decent film to portray their passion? No....I don't think they would say that.
It is the same with SW....SW will be enjoyed by generations to come....it's all there....the films...the books...the games....the toys.....it's all good.
At any rate, I will continue to enjoy the SW universe as long as I can.

 

I'd rather see a SW movie in a theater with three other people that love it rather than a theater full of people whining about how much they hate it and how much better (insert media pet du jour) is.

Bottom line: If Star Wars is dead to you then it's dead to you and you only. As for me and millions of other fans across the world, Star Wars is alive and well and will be for years to come.

Amen.


And aren't the thousands of posts that are made on this Star Wars message board each day proof that SW is very much alive and kicking?

 

And aren't the thousands of posts that are made on this Star Wars message board each day proof that SW is very much alive and kicking?

I've made that point no less than two times in this very thread myself. But really, who has time for logic around here?

 

I've made that point no less than two times in this very thread myself. But really, who has time for logic around here?

royalguard96 you know better then to use logic in threads liek this.

 

I think if anything has hurt SW is it's own popularity ~ JediDa-cam18

Very wise words. I'm not choosing to deny that SW is not as popular as it once was, I am maintaining that ANH was such a seismic shock to society in general that it's impact could never be reached again. JediDa-cam18 is spot-on with this, any 'failure' is entirely relative to SW. Any filmaker would kill to have one huge blockbuster on their resume, Lucas has had 5 with SW.

Hell, you could blame it all on ESB. It made a lot less than ANH, I guess Lucas really alienated a lot of fans with that one, eh?

And I said before that using tickets sold is a bad example for this. AOTC sold about 55m, a lot less than TPM (around 80m-ish, I think, maybe more). But look at Spiderman, Mr. $400m+, how many tickets did that sell? Around 65m. No-where near even TPM, not by a long shot. So why is this?

There's a lot more forms of entertainment around today for the general public. Do not underestimate the sheer demand for DVDs alone, something that has had a big impact on ticket sales in the cinemas. Cinema grosses have risen because they've raised the ticket prices to compensate. Really, this isn't calculus here, it's not hard to see why attacking AOTC on mathmatical merits such doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Still, dismiss me if you like, if it'll make you feel better about your arguments and certain point of view.

 

I know how you feel Ree Yees. It makes me sad just thinking that once E3 is over there may be no more Star Wars. To tell you the truth when I first saw your post I felt sad when I saw the words Star Wars and Dying. I know I can just watch one of the Star Wars movies or read a Star Wars books, but that will never build up the anticipation I have toward E3. I'm sure more Star Wars books will be made, but I think your right that the Star Wars will just dwindle down the the die hard fans. (Good thing I'm one of them! ) I just try not to think of it. I guess thats the best advice I can give you. But I sure wish Star Wars wouldn't die!!

 

Okay, for the moment I'm gonna rescind my comments about admissions, because I've looked all over the place for the official figures and can't find them yet

Spidey had around 63.4m admissions when I last checked, around December. Soon as I can get actual figures, I'll put 'em up. I did find out that TPM had about 84m, though.


And I'm sorry you feel bad, MandalorianJango Grilled_Sarlacc once said to someone:

Grilled-Sarlacc
This is it, mate. The last one. I'd rather you be excited about that and join in the anticipation and fun...before you don't have a choice anymore and it's all over.

So, just try to take in as much as you can in the build-up to Episode III. Even after that, it just represents the end of the films - SW continues in other media. Regardless, try to make the most of the time until Ep3 is released, then watch it a dozen times