Actually, it’s a marketing gimmick. Cupp makes several points in her column about all the advertisers making mucho dinero over this movie.
Which is what makes the premier of the first movie so much more authentic. Star Wars was expected to be a so-so movie, if not a flop, and very few, if any, promoters foresaw a marketing business flourishing from it.
So the first movie could stand or flop on its own, without the crutch of artificial hype.