none said:
We will never see another Star Wars type phenomena. People move on to the next thing too quickly now thanks to our culture being oversaturated with media, and the audience being very tech savvy (there has been no real movie "magic" post-Jurassic Park). Special Effects used to be wizardry, now you just take a course.
and now modify the above to account for Harry Potter.
I've always been slightly envious of Potter fans - an actual planned story (weak as I may consider it to be, I'm obviously in the minority, the presentation of the genre does not appeal to me) and closure and unlikely to get milked and pissed off with endless revisionism. I'm not sure it's a phenomenon any more than Starbuck's coffee is a phenonemon. There's just so many phenomenally marketed franchises to choose from today that something needs to go to the next level to differentiate itself from everything else. I still reckon that elusive catalyst will be found in an unexpected place or craft. I'm still impressed "normal" people still care about Back To The Future, but maybe that's more to do with rolling into 2015 and nostalgia.