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Iger Confirms Star Wars Domestic Parks Presence
- Thread starter Festivus
- Start date
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
two words
SHOW ME
SHOW ME
Captain Chaos
Well-Known Member
Actions speak louder than words... Until cranes are on site and actual building begins, I take nothing Iger says with any merit...
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DeanFinder2.0
Member
Saw multiple cranes in the backlot area at Hollywood studios 2 days ago. Not implying it's for this at all, just putting in something that could relate. Ill take pics when I visit tomorrow
Captain Neo
Well-Known Member
I really like the fact that Iger is honest about it.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Maybe they were for installation of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights?
I can't wait to see some actual art work. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they go all out and don't rely on the popularity of the franchise.
Considering the controversy surrounding texts of this nature, I've gotta give you chutzpah points for making this request of the whole message board.
Considering the controversy surrounding texts of this nature, I've gotta give you chutzpah points for making this request of the whole message board.
lebeau
Well-Known Member
The seven-year old in me can't help but be excited by Star Wars. But the 42-year-old me has been disappointed by both Disney and Lucas too many times to get too excited over something so vague. Concept art will help if they actually build something of substance. But I too worry they will just rely on the strength of the franchise. That would be a waste.
NowInc
Well-Known Member
Disney just acquired lucasfilm a little over a year ago. Similar to how people were complaining about how there was nothing shown at D23 regarding this, you are going to get people arguing how "nothing is going on" even now (even tho they obviously teased at working on stuff at D23). That being said..it takes time to design something. PERHAPS they don't want to make the Avatar mistake and announce it WAY too early so that it seems like its taking 6 years to build something. I know people always use the "potter" example..but you have no idea how long they were actually planning anything before they said it publicly. In fact they started BUILDING phase 2 of potter before they made the official announcement.
I agree that I'd rather SEE something, but its hard to deny that they know that this IP would help massively to a park that desperately needs it, and I would hope that they will make it all official once they have a more "final" set of plans.
I agree that I'd rather SEE something, but its hard to deny that they know that this IP would help massively to a park that desperately needs it, and I would hope that they will make it all official once they have a more "final" set of plans.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
Exactly, being privy to a project early in development makes people rather impatient here. This project seems to be on roughly a similar timeline to Avatar, but announcements aren't being made before imagineering has even been informed. I'd expect we'll be seeing artwork in the next year or so shortly followed by construction as the project is approved by the BOD roughly in October 2014.
Likely a 2018 timeline unless they really want to speed up the timeline, but realistically it's not getting out the door in 2016 and while it would be awesome I highly doubt they will launch two major theme park projects in 2017.
For anyone who think it's not going to happen, I give you Avatar. If Iger wants something done he makes it happen come hell or high water. The problem being he tends not to want a lot of things the fanbois do. In this case though he clearly wants more Star Wars as part of his legacy. So it is coming, in time...
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
Certainly true. I am more curious to know what the project will entail. We can all be confident that there will be a project and that it will be more than a gift shop (already have one of those). Maybe a sit-down restaurant accepting 1 DDP credit!
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
I appreciate all the Doubting Thomases. In recent years, fans of WDW have been burned more than a few times by a management bent on squeezing pennies out of guests. Sadly, that's going to continue but, on the bright side, Burbank has a completely different attitude towards theme park expansions than it did 2-3 years ago.
Financially, building an entire theme park was viewed as requiring too long to justify the investment while adding individual attractions was viewed as a money loser. DHS, DAK, and DCA all got off to financially rocky starts while attractions such as EE, Soarin', M:S, and TSM seemed to have little to no effect on the bottom line.
Attitudes in Burbank began to change after the success of WWOHP and definitely changed after the success of Carsland. Both projects were home runs financially. Now, many are convinced that the roadmap to theme park success has been made clear; a well-themed land based on a popular IP. Financially, it's no where near the cost of an entire theme park and has been shown to be capable of creating the kind of buzz associated with any major movie sequel release. In other words, a low-risk investment.
There really are plans for a Star Wars Land at DHS. Not out of the kindness of corporate Disney's heart but because they believe it will be a huge financial winner.
I'm not particularly worried about their motivations for building Star War Land as long as they do it well. I just wish the schedule was more like Universal time, not Disney time.
My 4 children definitely will be finished with high school by the time Star Wars Land opens. I'm hoping they won't also be finished with college as well.
Financially, building an entire theme park was viewed as requiring too long to justify the investment while adding individual attractions was viewed as a money loser. DHS, DAK, and DCA all got off to financially rocky starts while attractions such as EE, Soarin', M:S, and TSM seemed to have little to no effect on the bottom line.
Attitudes in Burbank began to change after the success of WWOHP and definitely changed after the success of Carsland. Both projects were home runs financially. Now, many are convinced that the roadmap to theme park success has been made clear; a well-themed land based on a popular IP. Financially, it's no where near the cost of an entire theme park and has been shown to be capable of creating the kind of buzz associated with any major movie sequel release. In other words, a low-risk investment.
There really are plans for a Star Wars Land at DHS. Not out of the kindness of corporate Disney's heart but because they believe it will be a huge financial winner.
I'm not particularly worried about their motivations for building Star War Land as long as they do it well. I just wish the schedule was more like Universal time, not Disney time.
My 4 children definitely will be finished with high school by the time Star Wars Land opens. I'm hoping they won't also be finished with college as well.
lebeau
Well-Known Member
I don't think anyone doubts that something Star Wars is coming to the parks. That seems all but a certainty. The impatience comes from the timeline. If Disney had a steady stream of new attractions coming over the next several years, folks would be more patient. But they don't. And for the last several years, they haven't. We're impatient for anything - even the kid's coaster set to open next year.
Star Wars is a big juicy steak to most people. And we've been living through a famine that isn't going to end for at least a few more years. Of course people are drooling all over themselves for that steak Disney is teasing them with.
The other part of the reaction is skepticism. At this point, being skeptical of Disney is healthy. Saves you from massive disappointment when all this teasing turns out to be for gift shops, meet and greets and a C-ticket attraction. Hopefully that won't be the case. But if you don't at least prepare yourself for the possibility of Disney cheaping out, you're setting yourself up for a massive disappointment 5 years from now.
Buck
Active Member
Sounds reasonable.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Record attendance at WDW in Q4 and decent increases over last year on a year to date basis. Can any of that be credited to FLE? Who knows. Probably more impact from foreign tourists and a recovering economy, but it didn't hurt. With FLE the MK is more packed than it already was making DHS and AK stand out even more than they already did as sore thumbs.