CNBC looks at financial impact of Star Wars

Boston Latin School to Babson College...from studying the classical to a business school

All I hear from you is bashing CNBC, and you being a business owner, its surprising you would bash business.

By the way, the reports filed air between 6 and 9 AM.

Well then you could call me a fan of "Star Wars" and no fan of financial news networks view on things.

And honestly... I myself have been running my own business for a couple of years now.. Please don't tell me what business is and what isn't. Using "new and innovative" and "Star Wars" in one sentence is just ridiculous. I know what products sell and which don't. What's your story?

All "Star Wars" products are basically the same. They are all living off the "Lord of the Rings" kind of storyline that "Star Wars" incorporates and deliver it in oh so many forms. The only thing innovative is the way to exploit the product in an uncountable amount of ways. "Star Wars" Merchandising isn't innovative. The only thing about the whole Franchise that WAS innovative is how Lucas financed it and later on therefor could use all the rights to do that merchandising to benefit himself not a large studio owning the rights (-> "Lord of the Rings" movies).

You really make me wonder whether you actually THOUGHT about this whole thing and whether you really know "Star Wars", watched all the features on the DVD sets as well as almost every documentation on it - like I did - and therefor have kind of an inside view on the whole subject. Maybe you do - but it doesn't really show because you seem to concentrate on bashing me.

That is the most ignorant comment I've seen around here. You miss the entire concept of business, and what you described is far from what CNBC intended. Please click on the link in the original post. They are talking about the shift in the movie and entertainment industries. Business is not as one-dimensional that you make it to be. It is about innovation. New products and new ideas. Providing solutions to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers.

Sure I'm wrong if you take the premise that I am criticizing something I haven't seen yet but then I was asked to. So don't blame me for the question I answered - and basically I added my little personal story to at least put some personal perspective I actually CAN talk about into it (additonally I just said that numbers take away from a phenomenon in general and please don't tell me I am wrong there - but then again the Guiness Book of Records is just numbers and still pretty entertaining). But the following poster mentioned the whole "making money off geeks" thing a bit more specific and the toiletpaper-use-o-money which is what I thought when "Money" and "Star Wars" came up in the same sentence. I don't feel bad towards Lucas but you know... there's a reason why so many cartoon-shows have mocked the guy in the past, from "South Park" to "Family Guy". And most of the time they pretty much made fun of the whole fact that the second (first) trilogy was just made to rake in more cast as well as the Special Editions first on VHS then on DVD later and soon-to-be on Blu-Ray ("soon" being in 10 years because, you know, you then really really want them because nothing has changed and because of the technology has been maxed out you can finally adapt the material to it's fullest which means you take something of basic quality and "enhance" it by adding information that wasn't there before which, when it comes to foto scanners, is actually making stuff up that wasn't before just to make more money).

So there you have it - I think I have some insight on wringing money out of Star-Wars-Fans owning both the silver and the golden VHS set as well as the first and second trilogy on DVD and most likely will get a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD-player in about five years to be able to buy the new Star-Wars-Set in 2017.

I'll write you an e-mail once this happens. I'd be willing to bet money on this happening. A LOT of money.

So the only way for me to enjoy star wars is NOT thinking about the money aspect. It really really ruins the whole thing for me IF I think about it. So no I would not tune in.

Star Wars, along with Star Trek, has revolutionized the sci-fi genre in the entertainment industry. This is what CNBC will be analyzing this week: from the knitty-gritty of prices of when it came out, to the technology used then and now, to all the different extensions of the Star Wars brand (memorabilia to LEGO sets, etc), to the business of the movie industry.

To Bash: you are incorrect and off base in criticizing the reports without even knowing what they are reporting.

And Adam: You misreported what CNBC will be reporting. Not everything is on the financial side.

CNBC will be looking into Star Wars (from a business perspective) but this isn't anything from a critical point of view. This should be an interesting series of reports. Some of you might learn something new.

Sometimes I laugh at how closeminded some readers/writers here are.

The way the cable networks have been rolling out their
big robots promoting the 30'th Anniversary of Star Wars,
I wouldn't be surprised if Stephen Spielburg thought of
actually completing the saga with the last 3 chapters on
film, Episodes 7, 8 & 9. I know this man's got Indy 4 to
finish, but the super extra long delay between that and
the last 3 films makes me think Harrison Ford will be at
least 80 years old before Spielburg actually finishes it,
just so he can be so overwhelmed at Star Wars' sudden
interest after 30 years, he'll release the final 3 chapters
in the film trilogy. I was into Star Wars as a kid, myself,
but later on in the 80's, I chose to watch Smurfs on NBC
and The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show on CBS over the
Star Wars/Droids Hour on ABC. The Hanna Barbera &
Looney Tunes were my favorite characters back then, so
I didn't have the time or space to watch the animated
series of Star Wars back then, as big a fan as I was of
the first 3 films. Anyway, all this excitement over SW,
and I still have yet to meet Frank Oz, the voice behind
Yoda, and Bert, Grover & Cookie Monster on my all-time
favorite children's show, Sesame Street.

I'm not interested. Then again, I've also never in my life tuned in to CNBC. I'm sure some regular CNBC viewers, who are more interested in investments and finance and all that good stuff, would be interested in the show. Why wouldn't they?

Lucas uses fanboys' money for toilet paper. I'll bet the special will be interesting just to hear some of the numbers. Lucas has made more from merchandising than the movie cost to make.

I don't care at all. This is about money which is the diametral opposite of "cool". The only way money should be mentioned when talking about Star Wars might be the overall number the movie made in the US and overseas - per film, per trilogy and overall. But even before that comes the amount of people who saw it, the number of times the person who saw it the most saw it and figures like that. Stuff that amazes us - not Excel Speadsheets. Narrowing it down to the lowest common denominator every film has - the financial impact - is just low and might even take away some of the spirit this movie has.

I say leave that matter alone. You can tell me that I have to go to the movies for great films like Star Wars to be made in the future but please oh please don't tell me how rich it made the studio.

Hmm this made me think about the LEGO Star Wars sets I bougth five years ago when the second trilogy was in cinemas - those are now worth twice as much *big grin*

On second thought there might be something to this. Consider me covered in a shroud of shame for having cashed in on the movie's financial aspect. *sigh*