remind me to quote zwackerman's posts in December

The prequels mean nothing now, all that bad will went out the door with the first teaser. The new Star Wars Cinematic Universe will barely recognize their existence.

There is truth to that, of course. But three shit movies in a franchise of six total movies is still going to mean something. When the hype and excitement fades from these trailers, people will still remember the sour taste of JarJar Binks in their mouth.

Actually it's likely that only die hard fans remember/care for the prequels, and they are pretty much guaranteed to attend any Star Wars film anyway, so perhaps you are right and it won't matter.

This will break the December OW record in one day. Depending on the last trailer but I'm leaning on this taking the OD record from Potter.

Pretty much the opposite, really. The die hard nerds are the ones who hate the prequels; the general public is cool with them.

That's what I just said. The fans are the only ones that have a strong opinion or even remember them, but they will obviously attend a new Star Wars film, so it doesn't matter.

No no no no no no no! You all are setting yourselves up for amazing disappointment. Star Wars has huge fan hype, but its not going to sell more tickets than the meh received previous trilogy.

It doesn't have to, considering matching THE PHANTOM MENACE's ticket sales with inflation and a 3D bump would take it to, oh, $850m or so domestically.

What do you say we agree that it drops 20% in ticket sales from that film and makes $680m domestically?

If Revenge of the Sith would've sucked, I would be more down on this. But it didn't suck. So... ALL THE RECORDS (minus OW for the year, of course)

The Phantom Menace was the first Star Wars film in 16 years, and it came after an absolutely adored trilogy. Star Wars films are not so rare now with seven cinematic releases (plus tons of re-releases) in total, so the pent up demand for another one isn't there for the general movie-going audience. Star Wars fans, obviously, are excited. Excited enough to view the trailer hundreds of times in its first day. But in order to beat opening and domestic records, it will need the general audience, of which I see no sign of yet. But that's normal. It's too early to see that, so it's all speculation. But I would suggest that you not base things off one or two days of inflated Star Wars hype.

THE FORCE AWAKENS is the first STAR WARS film in a decade, and it comes both after a prequel trilogy that created a ton of young new fans and an absolutely adored original trilogy.

How many people who paid to see REVENGE OF THE SITH aren't going to pay to see THE FORCE AWAKENS, exactly?

I disagree with the prequels creating a lot of new fans.

SW isn't cool to normal non geeks any more, thanks largely to the prequels.

Yes it is.

And The Clone Wars came out in 2008. So Star Wars hasn't been completely absent from cinemas.

you really don't know anything. I work with the public and I see a lot of people young and old wearing star wars shirts these days.

Tell that to all those kids who were obsessed with THE CLONE WARS and now REBELS.

Maybe it isn't, but it doesn't need to be, since geek and "normal" culture are more similar than ever. Game Of Thrones is one of the top rated series on TV and nobody feels embarrassed about watching something with dragons and ice zombies. I highly doubt The Force Awakens is going to suffer from nerd stigma.

No matter what you think the prequels made new fans who loved them. On top of the new fans created by Clone Wars & Rebels cartoon TV shows. Add this se fans + the OT fans and the general public who will see it just because everyone else is seeing it will make The Force Awakens break all kinds of amazing records

We will all be WITNESSES!!!!!

The prequels made some new fans, but be serious. Star Wars was like today's Marvel or TDK series in the 80s and 90s. It was cool for everybody. That point blank is not the case any more. Very few teenagers, or college kids, or young adults hang Han Solo posters in their rooms. They still have fans, no doubt, but Star Wars is not the king Daddy it was prior to the prequels, which without question hurt the Star Wars brand more than it helped. If you talk to normal people about the prequels, almost nobody loved them, plenty of people enjoyed them fine, and a decent amount straight up loathed them. That said, the late teens to early 30s demographic, by and large, either 1) doesn't care about Star Wars either way, or 2) Thinks it's for nerds. You'll find very very few true hardcore Star Wars in that group. That's not to say they won't go see the film, but the rush factor for Star Wars - for this demo - won't even resemble the rush factor for Avengers or BVS.

Of course it's going to be enormous, but I don't think Star Wars has the 'cool' factor among today's normal audiences. I think there's almost no way on Earth it has a more impressive opening than Avengers.

Your lack of faith is disturbing

200m+ OW

800m+ DOM

2b+ WW

all will without question happen.

You are the anti-Algren.

You realize that the last STAR WARS film shattered the midnight record and was the first film to make $50 million in a single day, yes? And that happened before the geek explosion that we have now?

Just came back from the Disney presentation at CinemaCon and they said that the new trailer was seen 88m times WW in the first 24h - simply wow...