[Cimmerian]

Star Wars the story has been around longer(in terms of exposure) and to a wider range of people because it was initialised as a movie, with a basic concept of good triumphant over evil with a lot of attractive special effects. This appeals to a lot more people than say 'the read books form cover to cover again and agian' people that are more likely to read LOTR.

Of the people who like movies, and there are a lot more of them than the ones who just read, many have found LOTR rather hard to follow.
Yes diehard fans of LOTR will enjoy the movie but may not like the more basic and glossed over approach of SW. Lotr has a theological approach that appeals only to the true readers of the story. Star Wars is meant for entertainment.

TPM was far from bad, it has become a fashion for so many to parrot the opinions of some selfcentered critic. SWep1TPM made more money than Titanibleah.
AOTC tops TPM however.