A Spirited Perfect Ten

[the.dreamfinder]

While you guys have been having another UNI v Disney fight, Soup and Salad Sandra put something interesting in her article on the Comcast quarterly report.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-comcast-earnings-20150501-story.html
Work is underway on Universal Orlando’s fifth hotel -- the 1,000-room, Caribbean-themed Sapphire Falls, a luxury resort. Universal has 4,200 rooms in four hotels, but executives have said they see potential for up to 15,000 rooms. Documents submitted to the Orange County comptroller's office last year show that Universal is contemplating two other hotels -- one with about 400 rooms and another with about 800. The documents gave no timetable.

So what's so important about that 15,000 hotel rooms number? It's higher than UNI's previously stated goal of 10,000 rooms seen here.
Por ejemplo

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...iversal-orlando-hotel-rooms-walt-disney-world
Universal Orlando is likely to add thousands more hotel rooms in coming years as Central Florida's No. 2 theme-park resort continues an aggressive expansion, a top executive said Wednesday.

"We've done a study that says we could have 10,000 or 15,000 hotel rooms and still have occupancy that makes those rooms profitable," NBCUniversal President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Burke told investment analysts at a conference in Beverly Hills, Calif.

UNI and their cable overlords in Philadelphia have decided to go with the more aggressive long term goal of 15K rooms. If this pans out, it could mean that Disney not only loses 2-3 days, or maybe even 4 days once the water park and third gate open, to the UNI parks, but potentially those very profitable nights at Disney hotels shift to UNI as well. THAT scares Disney above all else.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

I see Twitter is serving as an excellent forum for thoughtful conversation today.
https://twitter.com/RockieWarAntz/status/595358744143208448

 

[BrerJon]

When do you get to the final showdown? 50 movies later? 500 formulaic CGI battles later?

Of course, it's more likely that we'll never get to the final showdown because there's always another episode waiting around the corner (or another movie in preproduction).

I don't think that's fair. It's been pretty clear from the first movie that introduced the Infinity Stones that we'd see one per movie, then an Infinity Gauntlet War movie to wrap things up once all the stones had been discovered.

After Infinity War, I think they'll begin a fresh arc and reboot a lot to make for a good jumping on point for new audiences... I can't see them spreading this one out forever.

 

[WDW1974]

Yes, the UNI earnings results were impressive (as expected) and it certainly is refreshing to hear Steve Burke's candid comments about how important the growth business of theme parks/resorts are to the parent company. I'm not good with numbers (well, except adding two plus two and getting that Disney will not be seeing the Marvel characters in its FL parks for a very, very, very, very, very, very long time) so that's why I just defer to @ParentsOf4's remarkable analysis to take them apart.

I'm sure that when Disney releases its record-breaking profits (yet again, although you'd never know it visiting WDW, which has a 'Going Out of Business' vibe around much of the property) tomorrow that the Disney fanbois will crow like the UNI bois today.

BTW, the earnings release was moved up to 8 a.m. due to this week's death of BoD member Sheryl Sandberg's husband, while on vacation in Mexico. I'm trying to determine when Bob will do his dog and pony show with the media.

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but did any of you see/read the story on CNBC Pro http://www.cnbc.com/id/102644557? I can't help but wonder if this is Disney's official response to the 'Disney CEO Fumbles Entry to China' Op-Ed that disappeared faster than a pizza placed in front of me. It might just be the requisite setup for the glowing Bob Iger lovefest that always follows these earnings calls. Or I suppose it could be a bit of both as they still need to do some cleanup in certain circles.

 

[WDW1974]

If Disney expected an opening over $200M then their internal analysis truly is delusional.

Between over saturation and bunch of other factors (sports!) .... not to mention they killed their own buzz by releasing the SW trailer two weeks ago, they should be happy with the second-largest opening ever. Behind themselves.

There were people both inside the company and out who were predicting as much as $220 million. Considering the price of movie tickets today, one might not find those predictions totally insane. ... But they should be thrilled with it, even if my beloved Angie reported that she (along with three other high level German officials she went to the cinema with) found the film to be the least-favorite of the Marvel films she has seen. And she has seen more than I have.

 

[stevehousse]

What's with the exaggeration?

I get that it's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's fine, but the answers to these questions aren't so convoluted that only really geeky comic book people get them.

May 2019 - Avengers Infinity War Part 2 - that's the big showdown. Will there be more after? Most likely. But again, how is that any different than other movie franchises?

The thing about the Avengers movies specifically, is that there are so many different characters who have been Avengers throughout the years, that they really do have endless possibilities to explore in future films...

 

[ford91exploder]

Very generous.

Solid C ticket

 

[WDW1974]

Oh for crying out loud, Orlando will never be Tokyo.

Get over it.

For numerous reasons, WDW will never be DL, TDL, HKDL, SDL or DLP.

Four parks, one world and some atrocious management.

No, it won't. But as someone who regularly visited in the 70s, 80s and 90s (indeed more than I do by far these days) I can say that WDW used to come very close to Tokyo levels in certain key metrics. Now ... they might as well be two totally different companies. Yeah ...

 

[PhotoDave219]

While you guys have been having another UNI v Disney fight, Soup and Salad Sandra put something interesting in her article on the Comcast quarterly report.

So what's so important about that 15,000 hotel rooms number? It's higher than UNI's previously stated goal of 10,000 rooms seen here.
Por ejemplo

UNI and their cable overlords in Philadelphia have decided to go with the more aggressive long term goal of 15K rooms. If this pans out, it could mean that Disney not only loses 2-3 days, or maybe even 4 days once the water park and third gate open, to the UNI parks, but potentially those very profitable nights at Disney hotels shift to UNI as well. THAT scares Disney above all else.

As long as those Philadelphia Cable overlords continue to believe Hextall's rebuilding plan, I'm all for it.

I mean if we're going to keep talking Comcast, let's discuss my beloved Flyers.

 

[WDW1974]

What's with the exaggeration?

I get that it's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's fine, but the answers to these questions aren't so convoluted that only really geeky comic book people get them.

May 2019 - Avengers Infinity War Part 2 - that's the big showdown. Will there be more after? Most likely. But again, how is that any different than other movie franchises?

I'd argue that Avengers is a franchise and Iron Man and Guardian of the Galaxy and Hulk etc. Perfectly acceptable to have longer story arcs etc. But what Kevin, Ike and Co are doing is making the entire Marvel BRAND into a franchise. Want to enjoy and appreciate one film? Well, you need to see the other 19 in order to fully do so.

It's incredibly ballsy. And all it will take is two or three films that under-perform before Burbank interferes.

I get what they're doing. They're putting out comic book films that basically follow the comic book way of storytelling. DC is no different ... with it's Infinite Crisis' series where you have to buy 211 books in 56 titles in order to read the whole story. It was sorta the thing that first really turned me off comics ... and it really is a ballsy way of film making.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

As long as those Philadelphia Cable overlords continue to believe Hextall's rebuilding plan, I'm all for it.

I mean if we're going to keep talking Comcast, let's discuss my beloved Flyers.

I wish Comcast would sell them to someone who cares and is willing to put money into them.

 

[PhotoDave219]

No, it won't. But as someone who regularly visited in the 70s, 80s and 90s (indeed more than I do by far these days) I can say that WDW used to come very close to Tokyo levels in certain key metrics. Now ... they might as well be two totally different companies. Yeah ...

Yeah and some of our younger readers can't seem to accept .

I like what TDL's management does but there's no way you're going to have that come back to Orlando without wholesale and fundamental cultural shifts within the executive leadership.

And sadly, that's not happening.

 

[PhotoDave219]

I wish Comcast would sell them to someone who cares and is willing to put money into them.

Salary cap league. They're always maxed out.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Yeah and some of our younger readers can't seem to accept .

I like what TDL's management does but there's no way you're going to have that come back to Orlando without wholesale and fundamental cultural shifts within the executive leadership.

And sadly, that's not happening.

Who is saying that such cultural shifts are happening or are likely to happen?

 

[BrerJon]

Fact:
If the Magic Kingdom's installation of Little Mermaid was never built here in the states, and was instead put into Tokyo's Fantasyland or even DisneySea as a unique attraction- most of the people around here would be screaming bloody murder about how unfair it is that Tokyo yet-again got a superior dark ride that the US parks would never dream of.

LOL. You've never been to Tokyo Disneyland, have you?

 

[BrianLo]

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but did any of you see/read the story on CNBC Pro http://www.cnbc.com/id/102644557? I can't help but wonder if this is Disney's official response to the 'Disney CEO Fumbles Entry to China' Op-Ed that disappeared faster than a pizza placed in front of me. It might just be the requisite setup for the glowing Bob Iger lovefest that always follows these earnings calls. Or I suppose it could be a bit of both as they still need to do some cleanup in certain circles.

Can someone post the article? It seems to be behind some paywall.

 

[WDW1974]

For what it's worth, MiceChat has basically been the source of any and all Disneyland rumors for the 60th.

I'd expect that because it's their bread and butter, but some of their info has been off (for instance that all dark rides would be upgraded, although I heard the same thing, so maybe our source was the same). And other things were put up by multiple sources, including myself, around the same time (things like Paint the Night with additional units, new pyro show from Davison, new WoC etc.).

I don't wish to diss a site run by good people who I consider friends beyond the 'net. But the facts are they aren't breaking big stories like they once did. I don't think that Colglazier is leaking anything to them, for instance.

 

[BrerJon]

Agree.. and lets be honest.. the most overhyped was the mine train at fantasy land.

I love how the Disney defenders can sometimes in the same sentence bash Gringotts for being disappointing then cite the Dwarfs Mine Train as being an example of immersive theming.

I love to joke about the "announcement of an announcement of the coming soon opening" because that thing wasn't ready and they were announcing the announcement of the opening.

Just wait for D23, when lots of announcements of announcements will be made - or at least hints dropped that announcements may be coming. 'Wait and see!' the Disney brandies will say with big smiles on their faces as the Emporer unveils his new clothes.

 

[Phil12]

Can someone post the article? It seems to be behind some paywall.

Which answers the question about it being an "answer".

 

[WDW1974]

If I recall, you didn't have much interest in Guardians initially either.

Nope. I had lots of interest. It looked like what it was, good, dumb fun with great 70s music too. It's the only Marvel film I'd ever call great, although I enjoyed the first Captain America and Iron Man films a lot and thought Avengers was decent, but not nearly as good as most Marvel fans thought.