ST TFA & fandom. Can we understand each other?

What would you have me concede? That familiarity played a part in the success of TFA? Of course it did. But it did for every SW sequel/prequel out there. Mainstream audiences who are familiar with SW tend to go to a SW movie to see the heroes, villains, tropes and iconography of SW that they know and love in every single case, IMHO. What do you think was driving the hype in 1999?

Domestically, TPM fell pretty much right in line with the performance of ESB and ROTJ in terms of tickets sold, with around 80m being established as an expected result for a SW sequel/prequel by that point. TFA, however, tops-out the best-performing SW sequels/prequels by around 25% more tickets being sold. There has to be something driving that beyond its familiarity. I put it to you that TFA is the first truly four-quadrant SW film since ANH--that's what puts it over the top in terms of attendance, and that has nothing to do with "nostalgia".

 

...and here we are ... deja vu all over again.

I would like to emphasize something Stoneymonster said a ways back up the thread. We ardent fans do not really move the needle that much at the box office, as much as we would like to think we do. There are over a quarter of a million of us registered here (263K or soemthing like that), and if every one of us paid $10-$11 to see the movie an average of five times in theaters, that would be seven-tenths of one percent (.70%) of the TFA world wide revenue.

 

I can't be bothered responding as anything I say will be summarily dismissed, whilst the faithful few like away.

I think I can safely say this thread can be closed.

Q:Can we understand each other?

A: No, because that requires a willingness to.

 

Man, I tried to say this on like page 2, but no one listened

 

I'm honestly responding to you. Seriously, what do you want from me?

 

this is her "new hope". the first blocks that will build her nostalgia. i think its great

 

Well, we've decided that this thread has probably passed its expiration date of usefulness. It was an admirable attempt to get some good discussion going... and while there has been some good discussion in it, it has been mostly going in circles for a while now. So... locking.