DominicCobb said:
The quality of new products was dying, not the popularity of old ones.
I hate to preach about this but "quality" when it comes to film is completely subjective. You and me will say OT has better quality than the prequels, while some prequels fan boys will say the opposite. Who is wrong? No one.
Well you said "Star Wars was either dead" which could not be true exactly because of the popularity of old ones.