Gabriel Talavera checked in with this report...

The complete half hour show was dedicated to the Phantom Menace.

First they had about a 12 minute Discussion with Leah Rosem (people magazine critic) and Toby Miller (really don't know who he is), about Lucas' success , Leah said that the reason why there are so many loyal fans around the world is because the way Lucas has acted, as "a loaner who had done it his way". They both attended the private screening and said it was great. The only detail is that it might be a little disappointing to the adult audience. Also they mentioned the Demographic audience the film was oriented to, they said that although it looks like a kids oriented film, the Demographic is primarily male until his 50's. The only backlash the film might have are women over 40 years who might get sick of the film real fast.

Then, they had a report of the Star Wars sites on the Internet, and their influence in the film success/failure. They mentioned TheForce.net. "One of the best sites designed by fans is The Force.net, a highly commendable effort that focuses on the ongoing excitement of hype surrounding the movie...".

Last of all they talked to David Leibowitz a Licensing Analist, believe me, he spoke so well about merchandising and marketing for the film that the reporter had to ask him laughing "You don't have any shares on Lucasfilm or LucasArts do you?". He said it is expected that this year it will gross about 3-4 billion only on merchandising, half of it only on toys. And he congratulated Hasbro and Pepsi for "signing the richest license ever in the industry". One interesting comment was that if you take Disney's most successful license ever, it is less than a fifth of what Star Wars has made. He concluded saying that "this is the mother of all licenses".

One poll was revealing. It said 1 out of 3 Americans plan to see the movie on opening weekend.