negative1 said:
i doubt you could 'guarantee' that re-releasing the movies, they would have the same or more

than the SE versions.... LETS look at HISTORICAL FACT, and not speculate:

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http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=starwars.htm

here are the amounts   (gross)   theaters amount opening dates

for the original releases...

=================================================

11     Star Wars (Re-issue)
(Re-release)     Fox     $15,476,285     1,070     $3,766,803     1,070     8/13/82

12     The Empire Strikes Back (Re-issue)
(Re-release)     Fox     $13,276,241     1,006     $3,949,478     992     11/19/82

13     Return of the Jedi (Re-issue)
(Re-release)     Fox     $11,252,123     894     $3,209,056     849     3/29/85

Star Wars was still HUGE at that point in time, and you're telling me that

they would have made more than the SE versions more than a decade later???????????

re-releasing the originals would have been a drop in the bucket, thats why

Lucas was smart in releasing the SE versions to CREATE interest in seeing them again..

Now we are talking about 2 different things, what they were called, and why people went to see them in 1997.

Alot of Studios put out endless releases on DVD called:
-Directors Cut

-Extended Edition

-Special Edition

That is a marketing ploy to get peoples interest, so i can't blame Lucas for calling them 'Special Editions' in 1997. When someone sells something retail, they sell it for $10.99 instead of $11.00, as it seems cheaper to the customer, although it is only a penny.

Now you showed figures from the re-releases in 1982-1985 of the OOT versions, and the reason they did not do huge business, is simply people saw the movies many times in the theater less then 5 years ago at that time. There was no new audience to bring SW into in 1985, cause essentially my generation who grew up with SW were still kids.

Now fastforward to 1997, it is essentially 14 years after ROTJ, or 12 years after the last re-release, and now you have a whole generation of kids who never saw SW on the big screen. You also have many nostalgic fans like myself who saw them as a kid, and want to experience that greatness one more time, hopefully appreciating it more as an adult now. BINGO!!! You have huge box office numbers.

Now do you really think people were running to the theaters in 1997 to see CGI Jabba in Star Wars? Or the new Luke/Biggs scene before the battle of Yavin?

I have the Trailer for the 1997 SE, and it isn't sold on the changes, although they do mention them at the end. It starts off by saying, as the screen is configured like a TV, "For a whole generation, SW was only seen this way...." and then the screen opens up to a movie theater size widescreen with the Star Destroyer at the opening of SW. It then goes on to say come back to the theater one more time with great characters like Han, Luke, Leia, Darth Vader, Droids, etc. Then at the end it says, 'and there will be a couple of suprises to,' and you see the opening up of Mos Eisely, and CGI Jabba.

The 1997 Marketing Campaign on the SE was sold as a trip down memory lane, and now it is time to let your kids experience what you experienced in 1977. So I do agree that 'Special Edition' was a smart marketing move, but trust me, the SE changes were not the reason people went.