>>718728570
Anon, it's not even close to the fervor of what OG fans had. Also starwars was kept afloat by merch and its massive control of shelf space, a reputablely good cartoon show and a good rpg video game. Everything and anything that could be starwars was starwars. Entire toy sections were dedicated to starwars stuff.
>b...b...but that shows an interest in it!
Yes and no. A good strategy to get people to buy your crap over other crap is to hog the shelf space, people are more apt to choose the thing with large shelf representation over something that has little. It's a good marketing strategy if you got cash to burn at the start.
I worked retail at the time of Phantom menace and boy howdy, let me tell you how much Starwars merch flooded the shelves. We downsized other popular things like Legos, GI Joe, Nerf and others to make more room.