Officially Ranking Every Original Star Wars Trilogy Theatrical Cut

Ask the nerdiest person in your circle about the drama surrounding the theatrical versions of the original Star Wars trilogy, and it’s possible you’ll get an earful of about three decades’ worth of history. In the absolutely deafening lead-up to the prequel trilogy (if you lived through that, you remember), George Lucas released much-publicized and enormously successful re-cuts of the films that made him, christened the Star Wars “Special Editions.” Released in succession in 1997, this trio of blockbusters, enhanced with deleted scenes and then-state-of-the-art CGI visual effects, the Special Editions grossed what would be equal to nearly $900 million in 2026. Not bad for movies that had been in theaters and on home video for decades.