One of the worst movies ever made? A bit of hyperbole. One of the worst successful blockbusters ever? sure.
True. But when you look at the viewing over time for the original release, TPM had sustained business. Fans kept going to see it. By the time you get to ROTS, the fans went, but didn’t keep going and the business quickly fell of. ROTS set records for initial viewing (opening night, opening weekend, world wide box office), but it could have been bigger if the fans had kept going. That is probably the biggest indicator that most people around the world consider the PT inferior to the OT. That’s why I’m never surprised when someone puts TPM over ROTS.
And as someone recently reminded us, when you compare any of the PT to the Ewok movies and the Holiday Special, they don’t stink very much at all. Only nostalgia keeps me watching the Holiday Special, but I’ve owned the Ewok movies on DVD for years and I have only watched half of the first one. If we are going to talk about crap Star Wars installments, that is really what we should be talking about. ATOC is so much better.