It seems to be a given that TFA will sell far more tickets than any film since Titanic, and is becoming increasingly likely it will have among the top 5 most attended initial runs in history. So the question is, if Lucas had made a sequel instead of Phantom Menace back in '99, with the original cast, would it have beaten Titanic? I do believe, as great as the hype was for Menace, having the original cast would have raised it even higher and probably brought in other people who were put off by the notion of a prequel. If we assume the 5-day multiplier would have been the same (a BIG assumption, I admit), this theoretical sequel would have needed roughly $147M Wed-Fri to beat Titanic. An amount that seems slightly higher than what many were expecting of TPM. I'm not sure how doable that would have been with the limited theater count Lucas always demanded, but I think it would have been possible.

Thoughts?

Shrek 2 wouldn't even have fallen.

Tough to say - there was much anticipation over the mystery of why the original trilogy was 4,5,6 in a six film series. It wasn't close enough in timeline to A New Hope for the story line to be obvious, so there was still great appeal in what could happen.

The Phantom Menace is one of the few movies I'd say completely maxed out its highest potential. Real disappointment with the film didn't seem to hit until later on.

TFA will probably sell a comparable amount of tix due to 3-D. So I'd say it's unlikely it would have done Significantly differently.

definitely but he would have still been GL after all, something about his ep7-9 would have really stunk.

I dunno... George Lucas is better at having ideas than executing them. A New Hope was good, but Empire Strikes Back is typically fans' answer to "What is your favorite of the OT?", and what Empire had was someone co-writing and someone other than Lucas directing. Similarly, TFA has very little, if any, input from George, and it's doing quite well WOM-wise.

Whereas with the prequels... George had no one telling him "NO." He wrote. He directed. And his weaknesses showed. He needed at LEAST a co-writer, and definitely someone else directing.

So, honestly, if the only difference had been that the prequels were sequels, which means George writing and directing... no, I don't think Titanic would have fallen.

tina what did you think of Force Awakens?

TFA is helped by a lot of pent-up demand for a sequel. TPM also opened considerably higher but it didn't satisfy its audience so there is a possibility that it could have done more but I highly doubt it would have reached the original SW numbers.

Also I don't think SW7 is heading for Top 5 most attended movies even if it shows up in the BOM charts because they do not factor 3D, IMAX or higher priced tickets. Avatar also would be close to JW at best in terms of admissions.

Phantom Menace would've made at least $500 million if it was well liked. That movie absolutely did *not* max out it's potential. It's potential was vast.

While we can't say for sure Titanic would've fallen - that's still a hard target - a sequel starting Luke, Han and Leia would have had a terrific shot for sure.

I think that a disappointing Ep 7 would not have passed Titanic. But a well liked one would have.

I don't think something with exactly the same WOM as TPM would have passed Titanic - but a sequel would have had an easier time pleasing audiences than a prequel did, IMO.

Well ford was the biggest star ever at the time. Carrie was a highly respected script doctor and still kind of cute, could have been a much better storyline with Luke. Also acting chemistry would have been a bigger play as Ford and Fischer even had as much pull as Lucas at the time and would have demanded a better character development, which is part of the reason in the early 90s the sequel trilogy never happened to begin with. And it could have led nicely to the new trilogy of today.

I mean Kylo is an Annakin storyline not told. Then imagine better films leading to this, where disobey would have rightfully made a single prequel of annakins downfall instead of rogue one.

Also kind of funny that a young Natalie Portman as Rey, Ewen Mcgreggor as Poe and will smith as Finn in the lates 90s sounds right. A butterfly effect if you will. I know the original trio wouldn't take the crazy cgi effects. That's a fact and why it was script.

Also I'd like to note the thing I love most about TFA is how meta it is. I don't think that element which is some of the best wouldn't be around back then

TFA is meta? What?

Since rumours about Ford having 30+mln salary for TFA I'm afraid to think how much would he asked in his prime.

This is probably his biggest paycheck. He could've asked $100m and he would've gotten it. You can't put price on Han Solo's return. He's probably gonna get a percentage of the total gross too.

He's getting half of percent. Which is a lot. Ford simply never wanted to be in Star Wars. And at the height of his career even moreso. He probably would have asked ridiculous amount. 100mln against 15% WW gross.

Shoot, his asking price back in the late 90s was something like $20mil, if I remember the news stories correctly. So, honestly, his pay for TFA didn't really surprise me.

Welp, just looked it up; I was remembering right. His salary per movie in the late 90s was around $20mil.

http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth ... net-worth/

His biggest salary was for K19. 25 million for 12 days of work. Still a record.

His biggest paycheck was for the last Indy though. I think he cleared 45 million. It's no Keanu, but certainly crazy for someone in their mid 60s, now 70s and studios had to give in.