Random Star Wars thought after seeing Endgame-You know, I actually like the Disney wars more than most on here, but after seeing Endgame, I can't help but feel that anything JJ Abrams is going to throw at us in December is going to be a letdown in comparison. Blockbuster, long-form storytellling that Star Wars in many ways originated has been perfected by another franchise, and anything Star Wars throws out there is bound to seem minor and inconsequential.

I just have this feeling that JJ is going to come up with something solid and entertaining, but it's just not going to live up to the blockbuster climate that surrounds it.

John Matrix said:

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Random Star Wars thought after seeing Endgame-You know, I actually like the Disney wars more than most on here, but after seeing Endgame, I can't help but feel that anything JJ Abrams is going to throw at us in December is going to be a letdown in comparison. Blockbuster, long-form storytellling that Star Wars in many ways originated has been perfected by another franchise, and anything Star Wars throws out there is bound to seem minor and inconsequential.

I just have this feeling that JJ is going to come up with something solid and entertaining, but it's just not going to live up to the blockbuster climate that surrounds it.

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Maybe that could be true for the public at large, but as much as I enjoyed Endgame and the decade of Marvel movies, Star Wars is just on an entirely different level for me personally. There's just way too much nostalgia and my childhood baked into it - Marvel can't compete. They could make the most widely-acclaimed film of all-time (Endgame?) and it will just never be able to move the needle for me like Star Wars does.

So for me (and I don't think I'm alone), no matter how good or bad Episode IX ultimately is, I can't fathom leaving the theater thinking it was "minor" or "inconsequential."

Stewade said:

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John Matrix said:

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Random Star Wars thought after seeing Endgame-You know, I actually like the Disney wars more than most on here, but after seeing Endgame, I can't help but feel that anything JJ Abrams is going to throw at us in December is going to be a letdown in comparison. Blockbuster, long-form storytellling that Star Wars in many ways originated has been perfected by another franchise, and anything Star Wars throws out there is bound to seem minor and inconsequential.

I just have this feeling that JJ is going to come up with something solid and entertaining, but it's just not going to live up to the blockbuster climate that surrounds it.

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Maybe that could be true for the public at large, but as much as I enjoyed Endgame and the decade of Marvel movies, Star Wars is just on an entirely different level for me personally. There's just way too much nostalgia and my childhood baked into it - Marvel can't compete. They could make the most widely-acclaimed film of all-time (Endgame?) and it will just never be able to move the needle for me like Star Wars does.

So for me (and I don't think I'm alone), no matter how good or bad Episode IX ultimately is, I can't fathom leaving the theater thinking it was "minor" or "inconsequential."

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^THIS

I am unabashedly a SW guy - and I think almost anyone my age is. I was 11 when it came out and it changed my world. It was the biggest thing ever back then and I get how younger people might be more MCU because if it is during that age (somewhere from 8 to 20 maybe when it started for you) and was a huge part of your life for 12 years like SW was for me (for 30+ years now) then that's your thing. It's true for my son and daughter too who both also love SW (because I ingrained them - lol) but MCU is in their wheelhouse and their biggest thing. He is now 24 and she is 21 so from ages 10 and 13 or so that's been their big thing. they appreciate SW but this is their series.

And I really appreciated Endgame - it was the first superhero movie to me to have real emotion, real consequences, real depth. It was great I was seriously "moved" for the first time in ANY superhero movie. But no matter how great it was it will never be SW level for me. And IX will be so emotional for me really. I can't even begin to explain.

Also me and my kids are huge GOT fans - cannot believe we get the culmination of all 3 in the same year. Crazy.

Stewade said:

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John Matrix said:

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Random Star Wars thought after seeing Endgame-You know, I actually like the Disney wars more than most on here, but after seeing Endgame, I can't help but feel that anything JJ Abrams is going to throw at us in December is going to be a letdown in comparison. Blockbuster, long-form storytellling that Star Wars in many ways originated has been perfected by another franchise, and anything Star Wars throws out there is bound to seem minor and inconsequential.

I just have this feeling that JJ is going to come up with something solid and entertaining, but it's just not going to live up to the blockbuster climate that surrounds it.

---

Maybe that could be true for the public at large, but as much as I enjoyed Endgame and the decade of Marvel movies, Star Wars is just on an entirely different level for me personally. There's just way too much nostalgia and my childhood baked into it - Marvel can't compete. They could make the most widely-acclaimed film of all-time (Endgame?) and it will just never be able to move the needle for me like Star Wars does.

So for me (and I don't think I'm alone), no matter how good or bad Episode IX ultimately is, I can't fathom leaving the theater thinking it was "minor" or "inconsequential."

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I love the Marvel movies. Star Wars is IMPORTANT to me.

This is me with Star Wars...

Marvel movies are fun rides, but at the end of the day, they are all really forgettable. I don't mean that insultingly, and the heroes and the stories have been wonderful, but ultimately they aren't significant to my memory.

SW, on the other hand... even if it's ****ty, these movies are permanently seared into my brain.

In film pantheon, nothing sniffs Star Wars. Not even close.

Have you seen The Librarian series with Noah Wyle?

If someone is a casual Star Wars fan like you are implying, I doubt they think Last Jedi is awful.

I do wonder if the MCU will have the same kind of impact on kids today as Star Wars did in those 2 generations, respectively.

The biggest difference, in my eyes, was that Star Wars movies really felt like an event. And it's not just because they were blockbuster movies, but because you weren't getting multiple movies every year.

The saga went away for decades at a time, and when it was back, it was only every 3 years that you got a movie. It was special. There was a buildup of excitement.

I know I'm entirely too biased, but I just don't think anything has come close to the hype machine that surrounded Phantom Menace. I know the opening weekend BO indicates otherwise, but it almost seemed to transcend just box office. It was all over the news, older generations knew about it, etc.

I think that having to be at a movie opening day or even opening weekend wasn't as much the cultural norm as it is now. People were ok with waiting a week or two to go see a movie. Hence why opening weekend records weren't being broken year after year.

According to BO Mojo's estimated tickets sold, TPM stands at 84M, and Infinity War is at 72M. (And TFA is at 108M.)

So for all of that hype that the MCU was able to gather in 22 movies, it still couldn't match the tickets that TPM sold in its run.

It's certainly possible that Endgame may beat out TPM, but I just don't know if it has that special, event feel for kids today that Star Wars did for us.

Thoughts?

double aught said:

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If someone is a casual Star Wars fan like you are implying, I doubt they think Last Jedi is awful.

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I tend to agree.

I do think that if the MCU did a hard stop right now, and went dark for 16 years, whatever movie they came back with might be able to match Star Wars level hype.

We're talking 2035.

I think you hit the nail on the head with the reference to the time, ie, years, between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. That is what I believe drove all the insane hype leading up to TPM. Had Lucas continued making SW movies immediately after Jedi and TPM had come out in 1986, I don't doubt there would have been excitement over its release, but it would not have been anything at all like what we saw in 1999.

Speaking only of the OT, and specifically the latter two of those, there is a huge difference in the world now as the world then. Social media, for one. There was a lot of excitement over the release of those movies. But for TESB, a movie many consider to be among the best ever made, it initially opened in the city of Houston on TWO screens. TWO. The old Westchase theater on Gessner @ Westheimer, and the old Alabama theater which is now, I believe, a grocery store. Imagine the lines to see that movie on its first few days of release. ROTJ was a wider initial release; it came out on May 25, which was a school night. My parents told me that for me to be able to see the movie on opening night, I'd have to be fully prepared for my biology final exam the next day (I had to demonstrate my readiness for the exam via some kind of half-assed review my mom put me through, and I made an A on the test the next day). But there was no advance ticket sales in those days. You just showed up to the theater and waited in whatever line there was, hoping the theater would not sell out before you got to the ticket counter. No one was going to be able to go to see Endgame without having bought tickets weeks in advance.

So will the current generation have the same thoughts on the MCU as my generation did on SW? Who knows? I can't imagine a movie like Ant-Man and the Wasp to be anything that will stand the test of time and be revered 30 years from now, but the one-two punch of IW and Endgame probably will. The overall MCU will likely be something that will endure, as it is something that I doubt we ever see again. Look at DC - they panicked, I think, and tried to catch Marvel without doing all the necessary legwork, and we got a bunch of movies that largely are considered failures, and no enduring DCU. SW has never been quite the same kind of thing given all the time lapses between movies.

I'm not saying you have to watch the whole thing...but if you have the time, I'd highly recommend it.

The first 10-15 minutes of STAR WARS: Empire of Dreams does a pretty good job of describing the mood of the country and the movie world before Star Wars was around.

It wasn't just a cultural event, is was a feeling of goodness, hope, and dreams that was sadly lacking at the time. It was also the first movie (or entertainment media for that matter) that captivated the world in two senses (sight and touch). The movies, as well as the toys, opened a door to thoughts and feelings that were in very short supply in the late 70's

Name another movie, or even cultural phenomenon, that has increased in popularity over 40+ years?

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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I do wonder if the MCU will have the same kind of impact on kids today as Star Wars did in those 2 generations, respectively.

The biggest difference, in my eyes, was that Star Wars movies really felt like an event. And it's not just because they were blockbuster movies, but because you weren't getting multiple movies every year.

The saga went away for decades at a time, and when it was back, it was only every 3 years that you got a movie. It was special. There was a buildup of excitement.

I know I'm entirely too biased, but I just don't think anything has come close to the hype machine that surrounded Phantom Menace. I know the opening weekend BO indicates otherwise, but it almost seemed to transcend just box office. It was all over the news, older generations knew about it, etc.

I think that having to be at a movie opening day or even opening weekend wasn't as much the cultural norm as it is now. People were ok with waiting a week or two to go see a movie. Hence why opening weekend records weren't being broken year after year.

According to BO Mojo's estimated tickets sold, TPM stands at 84M, and Infinity War is at 72M. (And TFA is at 108M.)

So for all of that hype that the MCU was able to gather in 22 movies, it still couldn't match the tickets that TPM sold in its run.

It's certainly possible that Endgame may beat out TPM, but I just don't know if it has that special, event feel for kids today that Star Wars did for us.

Thoughts?

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I agree with everything you say about SW - I've seen several posts like this - it is just hard to convey what Sw meant THEN. And because of that run from 77-83 what it has meant ever since for people that came of age with SW. I turned 11 in 1977. It was the perfect age. SW enthralled me, it is not an exaggeration to say it has been an all encompassing thing ever since then.

Another way to look at things is the Adjusted for inflation chart - it takes the domestic BO number, average ticket price then and extrapolates to level the field.

In that with todays box office you would have

1. Gone with the Wind $1.8B
2. Star Wars $1.6B
3. Sound of Music $1.27B
4. ET $1.25B
5. Titanic $1.22B
7. Jaws $1.1B

In that list the only movies in the top 25 since 2000 are

11. The Force Awakens $974M
15. Avatar $876M

That's it.

Marvel's Avengers comes in at #29 with $692m and IW at #35 with $652M

These movies don't even sniff the territory of SW.

If endgame cracks $1B it would only make it 9th on the list and still about $600M behind SW.

I think that gives a better idea of how huge SW was.


The otherway to really see the difference is number that saw the movie:

-Gone with the Wind was a huge event too. It literally ran for years and years and years in single screen theaters at least for a few showings per week. It was virtually the only thing to see. In 1939 the average movie cost $0.23 and that movie grossed $189M then. Meaning more than 760M people saw that movie - the population of the US at the time was 130M. So more than 5x the US population saw it.

-SW in 1977 grossed $307M on initial release at an average of $2.23 per ticket so 137M people saw it then and another 5M and 30M on re-releases so 172M total.

-The Force Awakens by comparison was seen by 115M people - roughly half of the US population.