CO said:

imperialscum said:

Let me put it like this. How many people watches Star Wars, let's say annually, and how many does that with Matrix?

I think its tough to compare The Matrix to Star Wars simply because one movie is Rated R and the other movie is Rated PG, and just by that The Matrix will never have as big an audience.

If Star Wars was rated R in 1977, then it wouldn't have reached all young kids like myself, and would have been just as popular as a huge blockbuster like Jaws, you are losing a whole demographic.

Heck, I remember when I went to see Matrix Reloaded in 2003, the Theaters were really cracking down on kids under 17. I had a bunch of highschool kids come up to me and asked me if I could buy them tickets for the movie the same way I used to stand outside liquor stores before I was 21 years old.

I will say that The Matrix totally owned The Phantom Menace in 1999 as the 'must see' movie, and that is when I started to notice a chink in the armor of the Star Wars brand. (Then Spiderman beat Attack of the Clones at the 2002 Boxoffice was the final blow to Star Wars being the #1 Franchise it was before.) The Matrix dazzled people with its special effects that year, along with a really intersting story (it wasn't some dumb Michael Bay summer movie).

Well I can certainly agree with Matrix having a good story. But the "whole demographic" you speak about (i.e. the teenagers) were (speaking from experience) almost exclusively attracted by its fancy action, violence, slow-motion fighting and shooting scenes. You take that away and you get PG rating but then you lose the interest of most of the kids as well. In Star Wars that wasn't the case.