Originally posted by: boris
Every one of them made more then the OT movies, though.

Actually that isn't true, The Original SW still beats them all even without adjusting for inflation:

Unadjusted:

SW - 461 million
TPM - 431
ROTS - 380
AOTC - 310
ROTJ - 309
ESB - 290

Adjusted for Inflation:

SW - 1.1 Billion
ESB - 628 million
ROTJ - 601
TPM - 542
ROTS - 380
AOTC - 342

My theory is the Original SW had a mass audience of fans that loved the good vs evil story, and that is why no SW movie has even come close to it. ESB/ROTJ/TPM have roughly the same audience of SW diehards that love the OT and were dying 16 years for a SW film. After TPM, alot of OT fans bailed on the series, and the only ones left to see AOTC/ROTS are the OT fans like me who were going to see all 3 PT movies regardless of the quality, and the PT gushers who loved the movies, hence why the audience slowly shrank. My theory is the PT gushers are not nearly as big as the OT fans in the early 80's.