zombie84 said:

On the plus side, it won't last, its just the way things are now. In 30 years from now, Lucas will be dead, there will be much less Star Wars stuff, and the original versions will be available in high-def. People will look back on the OT as classics and everything since then as not-classics. It's the same thing with Star Trek: TOS is considered more of a classic now than ever (it was derided as silly in the 70s and 80s and 90s), despite forgettable stuff like Voyager and Enterprise and spoofs like Galaxy Quest. No one remembers the crappy spin-offs, except as a footnote to the classic original. King Kong had a sequel; so did Wizard of Oz; French Connection did too; Breathless was remade with Richard Gere. Etc. At the time, it cheapens the original, but after a while people don't pay attention. Rocky is still a classic even though Rocky V exists.

This is very interesting. But here's something to be considered- none of the sequels to those films were popular- much less top grossing films. With the exception of the Rocky flicks, they were mostly over looked and forgotten within a decade. This isn't the case with the Star Wars prequels which still have a very strong following. I'm really afraid Star Wars will be "kiddie movies" for the rest of time.