I mean critically more than commercially, but let's consider both.
Let's say when the first installment of the prequel trilogy comes out in the summer of 1999, it matches everyone's expectations. George Lucas produces maybe the best movie possible while still telling the same basic story as IOTL (maybe Frank Darabont and/or Lawrence Kasdan polish the screenplay, Lucas decides not to direct, whatever), and we get a film registers in the low 90s range on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie grosses an extra hundred million or so at the box office due to it actually being damn near as good as everyone thought it would be, and it picks up more Oscar nominations and wins than IOTL. Let's say the subsequent installments in the prequel trilogy replicate this success.
So, assuming all of this happens, are Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies as critically and commercially successful? Without the disappointment that many had with the SW prequel trilogy, will the trilogy be able to exploit the same vacuum? They both were, after all, epic genre film series, just one was better than the other, and the critical and commercial reception showed this. Or would Jackson's trilogy still be as successful as IOTL because of its own merits?
Let's say when the first installment of the prequel trilogy comes out in the summer of 1999, it matches everyone's expectations. George Lucas produces maybe the best movie possible while still telling the same basic story as IOTL (maybe Frank Darabont and/or Lawrence Kasdan polish the screenplay, Lucas decides not to direct, whatever), and we get a film registers in the low 90s range on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie grosses an extra hundred million or so at the box office due to it actually being damn near as good as everyone thought it would be, and it picks up more Oscar nominations and wins than IOTL. Let's say the subsequent installments in the prequel trilogy replicate this success.
So, assuming all of this happens, are Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies as critically and commercially successful? Without the disappointment that many had with the SW prequel trilogy, will the trilogy be able to exploit the same vacuum? They both were, after all, epic genre film series, just one was better than the other, and the critical and commercial reception showed this. Or would Jackson's trilogy still be as successful as IOTL because of its own merits?