News Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind attraction confirmed for Epcot

[Anteater]

When Circa opened their interior sports book the screen was reported as costing over $20 million. Our sports book is much smaller (about a 20x50’ screen) and we were told it was almost $10 million.

As mentioned above these are all made up of small individual panels so the video screens themselves aren’t insanely expensive but as the size increases so does the number of panels, the computing power needed, and the number of controllers needed to run it and sync it all together.

I can’t get a feel for the real size of Cosmic Rewinds screens from watching videos but they don’t look any bigger than what I’ve seen here in Vegas, but even at $20 million a pop it wouldn’t take many for the screens alone to top the $100 million mark.

For a “cheap” technology to replace AAs it sure is expensive.

So, are the CR effects projections or LED panels? From the videos I've seen, I'd think they're projections. The one video with the lights on seem to indicate that too, unless they turned the effect off when they turned the house lights on.

The major cost of either of these would be the design of the effects. But, maybe you can get artists cheaper than I think

 

[Incomudro]

When we first started getting specs of the attraction i figured that for $200 million you can make a 200' x 133' (height of the building) wall of iPhones. Just because you have large expensive screens doesn't mean that was the best approach to this.

Yeah, but it was the best approach.

 

[No Name]

Yeah, but it was the best approach.

Well now I’m convinced.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Well now I’m convinced.

Trees, screens and metal boxes, the true recipe of successful themed experiences.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

There's perfect logic to the concern about the budget, because ultimately the subject of complaint is the same with overspending and underspending; the misuse of funds.

Notice how nobody complained about how much Rise of the Resistance cost to build? That's because it's staggeringly evident in the ride experience where the money went. Everywhere you look that ride is chock-full of expensive sights and sounds in impressive scale and scope. The result justified the cost. For what they got they spent neither too much nor too little.

Cosmic Rewind is not the same - the ride is a roller coaster through a mostly-empty warehouse with the lights off and projections on the walls. Yet it's the most expensive attraction in the history of the resort by a lot, and despite that doesn't even crack the top 10 most elaborate.

I wouldn't mind Disney having loose purse strings if the result is was an attraction that made good on the record-shattering sums spent on it. But Cosmic Rewind is not that ride. The only thing worse than cheaping out is wasting hundreds of millions on a ride that looks cheap.

I remember 10 years ago how crazy the $300+ million budget for Radiator Springs Racers was, but again, you can at least see where the money went. All that rockwork, the AAs, how long the track is etc.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

The ride experience itself is stellar and honestly doesn’t feature any gaps in money spent/quality. The queue area is dull, sterile, and cheap looking, the pre show room effect was very cool, but as others have said, it would be better if it was hidden from view because you expect to be walking into a room, unlike Rise, where you really never know what’s happening next. The scene at the end of the ride with the guardians on the screen is barren and again, dull, as is the exit corridor, which has already been discussed in great length.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I remember 10 years ago how crazy the $300+ million budget for Radiator Springs Racers was, but again, you can at least see where the money went. All that rockwork, the AAs, how long the track is etc.

I've actually heard Radiator Springs Racers was only slightly north of $200 Million, which on its own was still enough to ellicit long, low whistles at the expense.

Accounting for Inflation, you could build 1.7 copies of Radiator Springs Racers for the price of Cosmic Rewind. Cadillac Mountain Range and all.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I've actually heard Radiator Springs Racers was only slightly north of $200 Million, which on its own was still enough to ellicit long, low whistles at the expense.

Accounting for Inflation, you could build 1.7 copies of Radiator Springs Racers for the price of Cosmic Rewind. Cadillac Mountain Range and all.

I believe the discrepancy comes from how much of the Cadillac Range is attributed to the attraction versus the land. I haven’t done the check, but I’d be curious to how how all of Cars Land overlays with the Cosmic Rewind site.

 

[celluloid]

Cosmic Rewind cost more than all of Hogsmeade as it was in 2009 to open in 2010. That should say it all.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Cosmic Rewind cost more than all of Hogsmeade as it was in 2009 to open in 2010. That should say it all.

More like over twice as much. Hogsmead was done for almost nothing and Universal couldn’t do that again.

 

[celluloid]

More like over twice as much.

Not over, but close. 265 was Forbidden Journey and the entire land's conversion and builds. Either way, disgusting to think about that difference and one ride.

 

[disneygeek90]

For real.

People seem to keep forgetting that Cosmic Rewind is the single most expensive attraction in Walt Disney World History. By about 100 million dollars. Does it look like it? Does it feel like it?

For the price of this one ride you could build half of Animal Kingdom.

Instead we get one ride that looks basically like Space Mountain, an attraction that isn't known for its eye-popping visuals? If you're gonna spend more money than ever before, shouldn't this ride look like nothing we've ever seen before?

If it cost as much as Rise of the Resistance and Expedition: Everest COMBINED, why is it so much less impressive?

Have you been on it? It looks and feels nothing like space mountain. I found the projections to be crisp enough that you legitimately felt you were traveling through the stars and alongside the Guardians.

 

[DCBaker]

Lots of umbrellas have been added -

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Have you been on it? It looks and feels nothing like space mountain. I found the projections to be crisp enough that you legitimately felt you were traveling through the stars and alongside the Guardians.

As I've said, I have not been on it, which is why I've said nothing about how it feels but only how it looks. Here again are two stills from videos of Cosmic Rewind and Space Mountain. Can you tell just by looking which one is which?

There is, of course, more to both experiences, but you've got to be kidding if you don't think much of both these rides look the same.

 

[disneygeek90]

As I've said, I have not been on it, which is why I've said nothing about how it feels but only how it looks. Here again are two stills from videos of Cosmic Rewind and Space Mountain. Can you tell just by looking which one is which?

There is, of course, more to both experiences, but you've got to be kidding if you don't think much of both these rides look the same.

View attachment 638209View attachment 638210

The videos don’t do it justice. At all. I don’t know how else to explain it to you because it is completely different in person.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

The videos don’t do it justice. At all. I don’t know how else to explain it to you because it is completely different in person.

You're telling me disco balls in the dark look super different in Space Mountain from how they look in Cosmic Rewind?

Like I said, I know there's more to both rides. Obviously the giant screen with Eson looks different from Space Mountain, just as the Strobe Tunnel looks different from anything in Cosmic Rewind. But the "negative space" in between . . . come on. Be serious.

 

[DavidDL]

Random, possibly stupid thought but I wonder how much attraction cost was delegated to stuff like securing copyrighted music or appearances by the stars of the films? Just a genuine curiosity from me. I know what the Guardians likely made isn’t anywhere near comparison but people like Robert Downey Jr. got an up front payment of $20 million for Endgame.

So with all these recent IP attractions starring celebs, it’s just sort of an interesting shower thought. How many millions were paid to them, how much was paid to secure copyrighted music and how much was dedicated to the initial R and D of developing this new ride system?

All those things considered, I could see the total price to build inflating. Though, as others have said, something like Rise costs less and has celebs in it, too. It would be fascinating to learn where money is spent and how much where, since I imagine things like demolition costs, etc. are part of the overall budget and could vary widely depending on location, what attraction is being torn down/repurposed, etc.

Fun stuff to think about. From videos, would I have guessed it was the most expensive attraction ever made? Probably not. But I haven’t seen it for myself and heck if I know where and how that kind of money gets spent for stuff like this.

 

[DavidDL]

Double post, sorry.

Something else I think about to is that I remember reading that they went into this one without any sort of storyline, etc. set in stone and they just starting building away once they had the ride system ready to go. Assuming this to be true, maybe a fair amount of funds were spent on retroactively adjusting things to have things make sense within the attraction?

Sort of like DCA 2.0, where since they didn’t quite get it done right the first time, they had to go back and spend more than they would have had to with their initial investment of the park to correct their mistakes. Could be something similar happened here and it ended up costing them more in the long term because they jumped the gun and started building without a solidified direction?

 

[lazyboy97o]

Random, possibly stupid thought but I wonder how much attraction cost was delegated to stuff like securing copyrighted music or appearances by the stars of the films? Just a genuine curiosity from me. I know what the Guardians likely made isn’t anywhere near comparison but people like Robert Downey Jr. got an up front payment of $20 million for Endgame.

So with all these recent IP attractions starring celebs, it’s just sort of an interesting shower thought. How many millions were paid to them, how much was paid to secure copyrighted music and how much was dedicated to the initial R and D of developing this new ride system?

All those things considered, I could see the total price to build inflating. Though, as others have said, something like Rise costs less and has celebs in it, too. It would be fascinating to learn where money is spent and how much where, since I imagine things like demolition costs, etc. are part of the overall budget and could vary widely depending on location, what attraction is being torn down/repurposed, etc.

Fun stuff to think about. From videos, would I have guessed it was the most expensive attraction ever made? Probably not. But I haven’t seen it for myself and heck if I know where and how that kind of money gets spent for stuff like this.

Mission: Breakout! has licensed music and many of the same actors and it cost significantly less. Construction and demolition costs vary between location but not that much within a county to be meaningful. And again, Disney didn’t develop a new ride system, Vekoma put a different seat on one they already developed.

 

[DavidDL]

Mission: Breakout! has licensed music and many of the same actors and it cost significantly less. Construction and demolition costs vary between location but not that much within a county to be meaningful. And again, Disney didn’t develop a new ride system, Vekoma put a different seat on one they already developed.

Hm. It’s definitely an interesting thing to think about! I mean, this is Disney we’re talking about here. Regardless of how one sees them these days, I don’t see them as the type to just go ahead and throw money away on something they don’t have to, especially when they seem to want to cut budgets wherever possible.

So if this really is the most expensive attraction they’ve ever built, then someone higher up had to have been convinced by someone in the chain that it was money that NEEDED to be spent. The only logical conclusion I can draw from that is some kind of miscalculation or paying for errors they didn’t foresee and had to adjust (see my DCA post above) or that there’s truly something, somewhere we just don’t see.

I’d be fascinated to know what’s behind the curtain in this instance.