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Lucas made the prequels to wow starry-eyed kids, and kids grow up to be nostalgic adults. That move, more than any other, is why Disney laid out 4 billion dollars for the franchise. They plan to sell to those kids, and their kids, and so on until there's not a dime left to be made.

I think Lucas got ripped off, frankly. Disney is going to make their money back on the movies alone.

I don't think Star Wars has been not mainstream since the eighties. There's a lot of deep-nerd stuff around the games, the licensed properties, etc., but the movies are pretty foundational to modern culture--in the United States, at least. (A good friend of mine uses them as an analogy to how Americans approach politics. "Everybody loves Star Wars, but Americans are too afraid to be Jedi.")

Massively popular cartoons and games, as well as aggressive cross-promotion and merchandising, have kept the franchise in the public eye since the sequels started.

> What happened??

Marketing.