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On the other hand, selling the OE and SE has an inherent problem, at least for Lucas. In my opinion his biggest concern with releasing the OE is that it will outsell the the SE, thus sending a strong message that nobody is buying into this SE malarky
Only if they're sold separately. Spielberg had the right idea with the DVD release of E.T., and the Ultimate Edition of Legend follows the same logic. As it stands right now, I've watched both versions of Legend more than once, while I have yet to watch the 1982 version of E.T. on the DVD, but that's more of a time issue. While both the regular and extended versions of LOTR:TFOTR have sold well, I doubt the same would hold true if Lucas released separate versions of the OT. The lapse of time between the two versions has a lot to do with it, because those were 20 years in which people formed a lot of memories about the OT. Jackson didn't have that problem with LOTR.