I've said this before, because I know this topic has been discussed before, but if Star Wars had been a flop, it would be a very well-thought-of cult classic today, probably with midnight showings in every city. It would never have had a "special edition", and it would have had an anamorphic DVD release 5 years ago.

Star Wars wouldn't have had to have been bad to have been a flop, plenty of good movies have flopped. It didn't flop because the planets were in proper alignment that week, and George Lucas was fortunte enough to have tons of comic book, sci-fi and fantasy fans (the same one's he's giving the finger to now) spread news about the film via word-of-mouth.