I was thumbing through a copy of Time magazine (that I don’t subscribe to, yet still shows up at my door weekly), a rare event as most just hit the trash when I found a pull quote from George Lucas (speaking about the Star Wars franchise):

Why would I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are.

Lucas’ position is an interesting place at the intersection of creativity and product delivery. I tend to believe Lucas hasn’t quite found the balance between art and product – something, I would assume, creative types often struggle with.

There’s no doubt that Lucas has been successful (monetarily and popularity-wise) with the Star Wars franchise. Yet, all of the creativity that went into the first three movies (IV, V, and begrudgingly VI) occurred at a juncture where the the films were primarily driven by creativity and art. With Star Wars IV being such a surprise hit, the gravitational mass of the Star Wars enterprise has long eclipsed the creative cycle and become more marketable-product. And when consumers expect a product, they don’t necessarily like divergence from what they originally bought into.