Lord of the Rings is the new Star Wars

[Ranger REG]

I think it's a question of art vs. commerce. Star Wars is commerce. LotR is art. It's a lot easier for commerce to have a large, high-profile cultural impact, because that's one of the things it's designed to do. Art usually has a lower-profile impact on culture.

I dunno. The Star Wars Original Trilogy aren't just commerce, though George Lucas had the foresight to ensure he owned the IP instead of 20th-Century Fox (yeah, I could see them suits still banging their heads to the wall for relinquishing it back in the 70's) so he could sell merchandising in case the first film bombed. But it didn't, and thus adds value to the licensing.

But all he wanted was to make a good sci-FI film, the kind of film he saw when he was a kid watching Buck Rogers.