GnomeansGno said:

I also think the rankings of Empire and SW is a generational thing. I think older people who saw Star Wars when it came out in 1977 have an attachment to it that they don't to the other films, which is understandable. That said, a younger man who watches them on DVD doesn't have any attachment to one over the other, so he judges them on strictly the film's merits, and doesn't let nostaglia cloud his judgement.

I think this is true to a point, as Empire was certainly my least favourite of the bunch when I was a kid, but since then my opinion has changed a lot. As I started to understand more about cinema (and to care about the more mature themes in Empire) it became my favourite.