Actually there were many posters and ads saying a generation was making its final journey (or something along those lines). I think the studio had already made up its mind. Oh, and I don't think the cast had much of a choice on the matter. :wink:

The argument I keep hearing is that this film will reach 400m simply because it is SW. Basically, it is the view that SW is immune to the same things that affect the BO of other films; that it is untouchable. Then sometimes you hear the ultimate fanboy argument: those who are not fans are unqualified to predict it. I find those arguments very flawed.

SW is affected by the same factors as other films. The history of the BO shows that no franchise is immune. If some people didn't like AOTC, they likely won't be back for the next time. I myself liked it quite a bit, but everything I've seen indicates that WOM was hardly great.

Furthermore, another disadvantage is the marketing, or lack there of. I think this did hurt AOTC. Lucas gives Fox no incentive to advertise it heavily, so of course the ad campaign for AOTC was fairly small in the media. This time around, we should see more of the same, and the fact remains that in this day and age a film will be negatively affected to a great extent if it does not receive strong marketing support. The only way around this is huge attention in the media (due generally to controversy), which is what movies such as The Passion, F 9/11 and TPM had.