Star Wars fans all around the world have waited quite some time now for a follow up to the films released years ago. It has been over 10 years since Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith hit the theaters, and many fans are already building up the excitement for the release of the next epic film in the Star Wars series: Star Wars: Episode VII, The Force Awakens on December 18th. On October 19th, thousands of fans of the series rushed online to reserve their tickets for opening day. This sudden great increase in website traffic caused major crashes on many movie ticket sites, most notably Fandango and AMC Theaters. This upcoming release has been proven to be a success based on how many people bought tickets before the movie even came out. Experts say that the latest installment of Star Wars is estimated to break worldwide opening records with a projected opening week yielding roughly $615 million. Definitely not bad for having a budget of around $200 million.

However, this projection and early success was not exactly expected from the beginning. Many viewers believe that the later prequels released in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s did not quite live up to the expectations set by the sequels released in the late 70’s and early 80’s. To add to the skepticism of some of these viewers, Disney recently bought Lucasfilm in 2012. George Lucas wanted to retire and pass the great story that he had created down onto a newer generation of filmmakers, in order to keep the creativity fresh and continue the tradition by passing star wars from generation to generation. Although Jedi Knights are now in the same family as Mickey Mouse, that doesn’t mean that the upcoming release of Star Wars will be as childish as some might think. We have to remember that Disney has also done grittier movies in the past such as Pirates of the Caribbean, so there is a good chance that the upcoming episode will be done in similar style to the previous movies that fans know and love.

Another benefit of this new release is that it brings Star Wars to a newer and younger generation. A film like this has the ideal audience: older adults who saw the first movies in the 80’s, younger adults and teens who saw the prequels, and now, the newer generation just getting into Star Wars for the first time. A title this big is sure to be a success among all age groups since they can be reminded of old times and still be entertained by something new.