Cost of new attractions these days

[PeterAlt]

Is it me, or has the cost of constructing new attractions drastically gone up these days? For example Avatar Land is $500 million, Fantasyland expansion $425 million, and Cars Land at Disneyland $450 million. I remember when $100 million was premium for an E-Ticket. Has there really been that much inflation, or is Disney just spending more?

 

[thebriankelley]

I was thinking the same thing. Where is that $425 million going to the Fantasyland expansion? Just to put some things in perspective. Hollywood studios cost $500 million ($867 million adjusted for inflation). Epcot cost $1 billion ($2.2 billion adjusted for inflation). AK was around $1 billion, adjusted, I believe. So this expansion, which has an E-ticket clone and a D-Ticket, costs more than half as much as hollywood studios? I don't get it...Also, NextGen costing $1 billion?? The same cost as Animal Kingdom? Doesn't seem like money well spent.

And Iger says spending will be more prudent in the future:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...ghai-disneyland-shanghai-project-disney-dream

 

[PeterAlt]

I was thinking the same thing. Where is that $425 million going to the Fantasyland expansion? Just to put some things in perspective. Hollywood studios cost $500 million ($867 million adjusted for inflation). Epcot cost $1 billion ($2.2 billion adjusted for inflation). AK was around $1 billion, adjusted, I believe. So this expansion, which has an E-ticket clone and a D-Ticket, costs more than half as much as hollywood studios? I don't get it...Also, NextGen costing $1 billion?? The same cost as Animal Kingdom? Doesn't seem like money well spent.

And Iger says spending will be more prudent in the future:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...ghai-disneyland-shanghai-project-disney-dream

This would not happen under Eisner's watch! Neither would have John Carter!

 

[bubbles1812]

It is expensive, no doubt. But Disney makes it even more expensive unnecessarily because of their extremely bloated management structure across the board (Imagineering, executive management, ect). What the cost of a new ride would be at Universal or any other theme park to build, just basically add many a million more for Disney. I think the Imagineering department is great but they sure could streamline the process, and yes, probably let some of their staff go...though tons of them already jump ship to fairer waters anyways after too many projects get shot down.

 

[unkadug]

I was thinking the same thing. Where is that $425 million going to the Fantasyland expansion? Just to put some things in perspective. Hollywood studios cost $500 million ($867 million adjusted for inflation). Epcot cost $1 billion ($2.2 billion adjusted for inflation). AK was around $1 billion, adjusted, I believe. So this expansion, which has an E-ticket clone and a D-Ticket, costs more than half as much as hollywood studios? I don't get it...Also, NextGen costing $1 billion?? The same cost as Animal Kingdom? Doesn't seem like money well spent.

And Iger says spending will be more prudent in the future:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...ghai-disneyland-shanghai-project-disney-dream

There is no "E" ticket attraction being built....We have a "C+" ticket and a "B+" ticket being built.

 

[unkadug]

This would not happen under Eisner's watch! Neither would have John Carter!

Which would not have happened?

And are you talking about the early Eisner or the later Eisner?

 

[jlsHouston]

I know I am going to sound totally ignorant but what is an E-ticket?

 

[unkadug]

I know I am going to sound totally ignorant but what is an E-ticket?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_ticket

 

[PeterAlt]

Which would not have happened?

And are you talking about the early Eisner or the later Eisner?

Both. The "early" Eisner made just one big expensive "mistake" (DLP), which he later "fixed", but made more conservative spending decisions afterwards, which some can argue sacrificed quality (DCA, for example). But, DHS, for example, squeezed a lot for each dollar spent on it and got better than expected results, which lead to its expansion (which also squeezed a lot out of each dollar spent). Even the later Eisner, while exiting, authorized projects such as Expedition Everest, a grandiose E-ticket at a fraction of the current projects. Animal Kingdom, authorized by the "later" Eisner, with it's grandiose elements, stretched the dollar far more than the current projects and continues to make greater than expected revenue for the company.

On the downside, the later Eisner went too conservative with DCA and pushed too far that quality was sacrificed. Disney's current management team is spending $1.2 billion to "fix" this. Unfortunately, this spending will only hurt the company's bottom-line in the near-term and only does "damage control" by retaining and gradually increasing guest attendees over the long term. The Fantasyland expansion is a similar "fix" by correcting capacity problems introduced when the park first opened in 1971... An expensive fix to something that should have been fixed a long time ago.

DAK needs another E-ticket, but $500 million could have bought five of them. We still don't know how many (or IF there will even be any) E-ticket attractions in Avatarland. On top of that, Avatarland will be promoting ANOTHER STUDIO's movie franchise, so the whole formular of cross-promotion synergy between company divisions falls apart on its face! Avatarland will not generate revenue for Disney's film division, but will generate revenue for one of the film division's competitor's (Fox). So, not only are they spending multiples more, but they also will make much less on it.

 

[thebriankelley]

There is no "E" ticket attraction being built....We have a "C+" ticket and a "B+" ticket being built.

E-ticket -> Ariel (in management's eyes). It did cost $100 million, apparently. I agree and would certainly not classify it as one, I'd say D-.
D-Ticket -> Seven Dwarf's Mine train.

 

[unkadug]

E-ticket -> Ariel (in management's eyes). It did cost $100 million, apparently. I agree and would certainly not classify it as one, I'd say D-.
D-Ticket -> Seven Dwarf's Mine train.

You are certainly setting yourself up for a disappointment.

 

[thebriankelley]

You are certainly setting yourself up for a disappointment.

Hahaha, I know! One can hope....It's taken 3+ years to design/build for goodness sake.

 

[lightguy]

How much was Expedition Everest? That was a stand alone E-Ticket. All the projects that were listed (Cars Land, Avatar, FLE) are larger projects that involve multiple attractions, restaurants and large themed areas. I'm not sure that's a fair comparison of cost.

 

[copcarguyp71]

I will once again take the risk of making myself unpopular by saying take a look at union wages now versus when the last large out-build was done. That coupled with the aforementioned top heavy management and high costs of materials (both due to union wages and having to buy from industries overseas) has drastically changed the climate that these renovations take place in. Also the costs of the technologies integrated into attractions and the like in terms of computer processing, audio, automation are not cheap either but they may save labor costs long term by automating processes that may have been done manually or less efficiently previously. High initial costs MAY mean lower long term operating costs.

 

[cheezbat]

E-ticket -> Ariel (in management's eyes). It did cost $100 million, apparently. I agree and would certainly not classify it as one, I'd say D-.
D-Ticket -> Seven Dwarf's Mine train.

$100 million...which ride would you prefer?

For $100 million you could get Expedition Everest, Transformers the ride, or The Little Mermaid.
Heck, for about $80 million you could have Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey!

Mermaid's price tag is ridiculous. Having ridden the Cali version, it clearly shouldn't have costed more than half that. In my opinion that's not $100 mil well spent.

 

[PeterAlt]

How much was Expedition Everest? That was a stand alone E-Ticket. All the projects that were listed (Cars Land, Avatar, FLE) are larger projects that involve multiple attractions, restaurants and large themed areas. I'm not sure that's a fair comparison of cost.

Point is well taken, but management makes decisions such as building a "land" or new attraction. Eisner's management team would only choose to build new "lands" if it can create new revenue streams (i.e. additional gate), or if a previously additional gate is extremely popular and over capacity. In the case of the later, an expansion of a popular over capacity new gate would include multiple E-ticket attractions, shows, and additional areas where guests could spend money (such as shops and restaurants). An example of this was multi-phase expansion of DHS that included E-tickets Rock N Rollercoaster and Twighlight Tower of Tower, Fantasmic! and Beauty and the Beast (shows), and Sunset Boulevard (shopping). Because that expansion was spread over multiple projects, each project's smaller price tag was shown in the company's balance sheet individually over multiple fiscal years (instead of as a big lump sum, like the current projects). Each project of the DHS expansion added up together may total more than $500 million (anyone want to find these numbers and add them up?). All told, we got a lot more out of the DHS expansion than we will get with the FLE. Additionally, DHS expansion turned out to be very profitable, more profitable than I think FLE will be. With DHS expansion, people want to spend extra money to ride TZToT or RRRC. I don't think that many people will be willing to return to MK and plan a trip around it because they're just dying to ride the new Little Mermaid ride.

Also, I want to mention Splash Mountain. This was a single E-ticket project, but it also rehabbed and upgraded Frontierland at the same time. That project got a lot out of every dollar spent on it.

 

[PeterAlt]

How much was Expedition Everest? That was a stand alone E-Ticket. All the projects that were listed (Cars Land, Avatar, FLE) are larger projects that involve multiple attractions, restaurants and large themed areas. I'm not sure that's a fair comparison of cost.

I don't know what EE cost, but I would imagine that it was in the $100 million range. That is actually a very lower estimate because DAK's design already included the themed area for it. If the EE project had to include the themed area for it I addition to the ride itself, the cost of constructing it would have been much more.

 

[marni1971]

It depends on what bureaucratic system pays for it. WDI, and Disneys way of doing things in general, is so expensive now it's beyond a joke. Accountability has gone out the window.

You can liken it to rumoured black ops for building Stealth Fighters with UFO technology - bill $50 for a screwdriver and $10 for a notepad and things mount up.

 

[bethymouse]

Cost of new attractions these days- outrageous! But, back in the day it was too! The imagineers say they want to have a "permanent place" for Belle, Ariel, etc. and "completely immerse" you into their worlds. I can't wait to become part of that world! "Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat?"