I think so. They had a sorta dinosaur land but there weren’t actually any dinosaurs in it (other than a ride that was probably too scary for small kids) so I don’t necessarily count that as evidence of how merchandise would move in a dinosaur themed land or ride.Or dinosaurs?
Yes, that could be it, although some themes are so universal that they seem equally familiar in a pop culture sense. In fact maybe more so - Pirates and Haunted Mansion are probably legendary as they are because the tap into those kinds of cultural archetypes.
The problem is now with a growing market and a much higher ceiling for the newer guys in town, any big company who puts in the effort CAN make a pirate ride, a cowboy ride, or something.
And which regional parks have anything close to a comparable budget and scale?
Which elements being criticized are different in person?
Compared to rides like Pirates? Dollywood easily and their associated parks. Alton Towers, Seaworld has certainly been pushing into bigger budget experiences. Even legoland has been trying to get more and more in the dark ride business. Not to mention the mergers are getting kinda crazy right now.
Blazing Fury is fun…. But it’s not pirates. By any stretch of the imagination.
Not even close. Disney’s attractions have consistently been over $100 million for years. Dollywood just announced their most expensive attraction ever at $50 million.
I’m not trying to be mean because I say very stupid things every day, but this has to be one of your worst takes.
I would like to reclarify and recontextualize my comment a little bit. I do not genuinely think that there is currently a regional or even another chain that can do what Disney does in dark rides as of now with the only company that can come close being Universal. My point was more based on those original rides, I definitely think some of these chains are getting close to atleast pirates/haunted mansion levels of attractions.
I think I chose the wrong wording, I didn't mean like a Six Flags. I meant more like Dollywood, Alton Towers, Europa Park, and the main competitors in Florida like Universal/Sea World/etc
Out of all the parks you just named I would say only Universal tries to build rides at the same scale as Disney.
I feel like your FOP point just contradicted the overall point you’re making. Something being IP or not doesn’t fundamentally change the value of the attraction or the experience it gives you. It simply convinces more people to try it out. That’s the reality of the situation. Disney is I believe still the largest media brand by sheer IPs. They’re in a way playing to their strengths, their movies currently are FAR more popular/relevant today than Universal; their next major competitors. That’s why half of the properties of Universals new parks are ones they don’t even own. It’s why their parks are filled to the brim with stuff they don’t own and contracts that might be expiring/have to be followed. Disney knows they don’t have to deal with any of that
I think FoP is one of the best if not the best attraction at WDW and I am not a super fan of the movies.
So can we say that Soarin is a precursor to FoP?
The Little Mermaid is a successful attraction
No clearer example than Frozen from Malesteom. No one here is gonna pretend that Maelstrom even gets close to as popular of a line as Frozen did