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Which film was more hyped/anticipate prior to release? The Phantom Menace or The Force Awakens?

Which film had the most hype/anticipation prior to release?

  • Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

    Votes: 188 88.3%

  • Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

    Votes: 25 11.7%
  • Total voters
    213
MasterYoshi

MasterYoshi

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,037

It's 1999. A Star Wars film hasn't released since 1983. This films is the first of three telling the tragic story of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. You know these films will contain the backstory of not only that, but the fall of the Jedi Order and the Republic, as well as the rise of the Empire. This film has Yoda and a Young Obi Wan, as well as Liam Neeson and Samuel L. Jackson playing Jedi. Podracing looked awesome, that Jar Jar character looked hil-a-rious, Yoda was back, there's space combat, a mysterious sith who looks like the devil with a DUAL BLADED LIGHTSABER. This movie looked incredible to me at age 9. Finally, a Star Wars film during my lifetime.

Star Wars was everywhere you look, from commercials, to toys, to general merchandise, to fast food. It was on everything. Even your Pepsi Can that you couldn't help but want to collect. The Star Wars thirst was real. To this day, I don't think the marketing has hit that level again.


It's 2015. Announced in 2014, The Force Awakens was actually happening. The Skywalker Saga was continuing! The original cast was returning!! Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, C-3P0 and R2-D2. There's new main characters, Rey, Finn and Poe. The Millennium Falcon was back. The Empire has become The First Order. The trailers had that vintage Star Wars look and feel, yet felt new and fresh.

I was 25 years old, and the trailers for this film had me in tears of pure joy. I still get emotional when I watch this one. Those lines from Luke really hit me right in the feels, every time.



If I had to choose, I'd say The Force Awakens had the most hype, from a certain point of view. Bringing back the original cast was the key to this. Seeing Luke's story continue was the most intriguing aspect at the time, and I desperately wanted to see Rey wield a lightsaber and use the force. I was certain that Rey was the daughter of Luke. Haha. Finn also looked super interesting as a rogue Stormtrooper. Poe Dameron looked like a character who would ooze charisma. Kylo looked quite menacing.

What do you think, Era?
 
mopinks

mopinks

Member
Oct 27, 2017
30,577
Phantom Menace was absolutely out of control

it made the aftermath that much funnier
 
Platy

Platy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,703
Brazil
Phantom Menace divided a world where there could not be any more star wars to a world where there would be more star wars.

No amount of luke and han and leia could hold a candle to this.
 
Grym

Grym

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,974
TPM by a wide margin. It had been soooo long. The hype was massive. And though the Force Awakens was a hype fest, many original fans still tempered their hype since the previous prequel trilogy was so shitty
 
Bengraven

Bengraven

Member
Oct 26, 2017
26,851
Florida
As a kid, there were three movies that dominated hype and they are, in order (Childhood being 1985 - '99):

1) Batman '89
2) Phantom Menace
3) Dick Tracy
 
bionic77

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,894
I am trying and failing to think of a movie that had the hype of TPM (at least in the US) in my lifetime.
 
THErest

THErest

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,104
People were camped out on the sidewalk months in advance to get their tickets to see The Phantom Menace.
Pepsi did an Episode I cans campaign, collect all the characters. It was a big deal.
 
Grym

Grym

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,974
lunarworks said:
Yup. The 16 year drought made the hype insane. Then, after seeing it, we somehow managed to convince ourselves that we liked it, even though we felt something was off.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Haha. My opening night 12:01am showing of TPM erupted in applause when the credit rolled. I remember looking around confused in my Maul costume, and half-heartedly joining in thinking well Maul was cool, I liked some stuff...but it was far from meeting my hyped expectations. But yeah people did seem to convince themselves on 1st seeing it
 
Retsudo

Retsudo

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,077
Man the hype, for the phantom menace, was insane. People camped for like a month for tickets.

The force awakens doesnt even compare in terms of hype.
 
Team_Feisar

Team_Feisar

Member
Jan 16, 2018
5,354
In the year before TPM released, I think I did not buy, see or use a single product that had not some kind of promotion on it.
TFA was hype, but TPM was on a completely different level imo.
 
Jesse_and_the_rippers

Jesse_and_the_rippers

Member
Dec 22, 2017
7,099
TPM was massively, MASSIVELY more hyped from a marketing and product tie-in standpoint. There's been nothing like it in my lifetime. But by opening night word of mouth and critical reception had tamped it down.

TFA had a different hype train. It was more like "is this really happening? Oh wait Star Wars is really back this time!" Like my mother in law went to the theater to see this shit. It was an event.
 
tucah

tucah

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,244
TFA was a huge event but TPM was an absolute inescapable phenomenon and the more hyped movie (and it's not even close). It was everywhere.
 
lunarworks

lunarworks

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,169
Toronto
Grym said:
Haha. My opening night 12:01am showing of TPM erupted in applause when the credit rolled. I remember looking around confused in my Maul costume, and half-heartedly joining in thinking well Maul was cool, I liked some stuff...but it was far from meeting my hyped expectations. But yeah people did seem to convince themselves on 1st seeing it
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The second time I watched it, on a 2-disc cam CD-ROM someone at work gave me, I was definitely much less enthused about it by the time the pod race came around.
 
shem

shem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,955
People were anticipating TFA, I wouldn't say they were overly hyped for it. Curious to see if the next star wars could manage to stick the landing.

TPM was incredibly hyped to the point I remember going to see it as like a 4 year old.
 
Winstano

Winstano

Editor-in-chief at nextgenbase.com
Verified
Oct 28, 2017
1,834
Phantom Menace hype was off the chain. You couldn't move for TPM branded crap, it was absolutely crazy
 

Empress of ice cream

Member
Dec 2, 2017
1,544
Episode I by far. I've never seen anything like it again.

edit: Damn that trailer. Vader breathing before the main theme kicks in is still awesome after all these years.
 
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Lightning Count

Lightning Count

Member
Jan 27, 2019
16,074
Fuck off
Phantom Menace by a long long way, especially considering the 16 year gap between releases at that point the hype was at an all time high. Unfortunately it turned out to be the weakest film in the series by quite a big margin, but I digress.
 
TheXbox

TheXbox

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 29, 2017
6,560
I'm not sure if there's a comparison of opening weekend gross adjusted for inflation, but based on BoxOfficeMojo TFA made more money from more people.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two is that Lucas spent the better part of the 90s building up to The Phantom Menace. There were games, books, comics, and of course the Special Editions. Probably more merchandise too. All this probably accounts for the intangible sense hype people describe when they talk about The Phantom Menace, but I believe The Force Awakens was more widely anticipated.
 
Weltall Zero

Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
The Phantom Menace had much more hype than The Last Jedi, and the fault for that is The Phantom Menace's. It taught people to temper expectations and even brace for the worst.

Phantom Menace screened 19 years after RotJ; it was a long time, but people who had grown up with the original trilogy (like me) were young adults excited about a new generation of SW with amazing effects and epic scope. We all know how that panned out; by the time TLJ screened, Star Wars hadn't rolled out a decent movie in well over three freaking decades (three and a half if RotJ is not your cup of tea). People can't hold out hope forever; they eventually move on to better things, and Marvel had been doing space opera far better than the sequel trilogy (not that that was hard).
 
Moppeh

Moppeh

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,538
I was 5 when TPM came out but everything I've heard makes it sound like TPM wins this for sure.
 
McNum

McNum

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,195
Denmark
Anyone picking TFA for this must not be old enough to remember the sheer hype that was The Phantom Menace.

Star Wars was done. There were three films and that's how it had been since 1983. A generation of kids had grown up, watching the movies on VHS tapes. The Special Editions came and went. Got those on VHS, too. Come to think of it, I have the VHS of Episode 1, too.

And then Episode 1 was announced. "Every saga has a beginning.." The trailer, in what can at best be described as potato quality, was made available for download, and people did. 56k modems and all. People bought tickets for other movies and left after the trailer.

NEW STAR WARS was coming. Actual NEW STAR WARS. Sure, the games and books had been fun and all, but actual new Star Wars from George Lucas himself? So much hype, to such a ridiculous degree.

The force Awakens had its hype, sure, but it was tempered by worry that Disney might not be able to pull it off. It was still New Star Wars, of course. But the ease of access to, well, everything thanks to the Disney Hype Machine firing at all thrusters meant that the eccentric actions like going to other movies just for the trailer, or sitting up all night to download a movie trailer just didn't happen. want the trailer? It's on Youtube, go stream it.

The Force Awakens did a valiant effort in trying to be the hype. But it still fell short of the utter madness that was Episode 1 hype.
 
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