SW: Ep II & III - 3D in 2013

[Dangelus]

What in saying Bryan is that spending money on original content is more desirable in my opinion than repackaged content. If you have young fanatic kids who want to own and consume everything related to their fandom (physical media, merchandise etc) parents are under pressure to provide. These big businesses should have a moral obligation to provide value for money or at least an adequate balance. SW had been issued and reissued in recent years with only lip service being paid to what important restoration they could have done to it and on occasions some horrendous changes (Noooooooo!!!) in my opinion but that's another story.

[Bryancd]

No, I do understand your point, Dan, I just don't think it was why they altered this release schedule, that's all. And if that's the case, don't give them credit for it. :)

[Rico]

The most obvious and simple answer is converting the past films to 3-D was essentially a potential revenue stream when no other SW films were going to happen.  After "The Phantom Menace" in 3-D came out (which I did go see), Lucasfilm said it made enough money for them to move forward converting the next films.  But they now have new films on the horizon and certainly can expect greater profits from those movies.

One thing I'm still slightly confused about is who actually owns Ep. 1-6 and who gets to "tinker" with them, re-release them, etc.?  I thought 20th Century Fox/Lucasfilm still sort of owned those.  I have no idea how all these deals and contracts are setup at this point.  Anyway, I always have felt converting older films to 3-D is not really worth the effort.

[Bryancd]

It may be Disney giving the finger to Fox. But assuming 3D home veiwing continues to grow, which is likely, a conversion of Ep II and III will likely happen if it hasn't already (Ep II had to be well into the conversion at this point) and I think the OT will be released to coincide with EpVII. That certainly doesn't mean they would have a PT theatrical release, but you have to figure they will be converted at some point.

[Dangelus]

No, I do understand your point, Dan, I just don't think it was why they altered this release schedule, that's all. And if that's the case, don't give them credit for it. :)

I see what you're saying. Perhaps it is just a happy coincidence but I still have hope that Disney's understanding is that the way to make revenues is to give people new material and expand the franchise but perhaps this isn't the major reason in this case.