A Spirited Perfect Ten

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
I was at DLP last saturday and I will add on Spirit's observations.

Space Mountain was closed last monday to friday for its annual refurb where they change the launch cable and remove the "Pusher" (pusher car, what launch the train) to get inspected and fixed. That's why Space Mountain was closed when you went BrianLo and it had just reopened when I was there on Saturday.

Speaking of Space Mountain, I am happy to report the exterior is back to near 1995 shape with everything that could be fixed working! Even the lasers and flashing green rings on the ring were back and the interior was also in great shape. All in all, my best ride on Mission 2 ever.

Rock n Roller Coaster is closing soon for 6 months as they are changing the LSM launch system.

Adventure Isle was closed and the Treehouse is getting a full rebuilt. Not a major loss, but it made going from Pirates to Indiana Jones a pain... Indiana Jones was also looking good with 3 torches out of 4 lit up at night.

Ratatouille lines were a mess and that was due to the TERRIBLE ride ops. They just could not dispatch the rats on time and quite often, the other side was "stealing" the dispatch since one side was taking twice to triple as long to check their 3 rats. The last time I saw such poor operation at a Disney park was at the Magic Kingdom on Seven Dwarves Mine Train. Seven Dwarves Mine Train cast members were selected for their smile... and that was it. Not a single cast member from Everest (who are so good they forced management to raise the official ride throughput of the ride!) was selected to work on it and it shows. Ratatouille line was 130 minutes and the stand-by line was nowhere full. Fast Pass return was spilling outside and we waited 30 minutes there.

Last, is there a more hidden gem for dining at a Disney then the Walt's on Main Street? Walt's occupies most of the second floor on the second block of Main Street and is themed to the park itself. Each room is decorated to a land and the Discoveryland room is gorgeous with concept arts of the land and the foyer mantle of the Nautilus. We had lunch in the Phantom Manor room and it was amazing. I had the signature dish of the restaurant: a Foie Gras burger where they start with fresh french Charolais beef and is topped with a large Foie Gras scallop and that is on top of sweet grilled peppers. It is the best burger I ever had and is beyond anything I ever had at WDW. Price wise, I had it as part of a set menu and it came up to 43 euros without a drink. I had "Veal Carpaccio" as a starter and finished with a Poached Pear with White Chocolate Mousse.

Beside DLP, I spent the weekend in Paris and had a great time. I discovered a great new beef restaurant in Paris called BANG! and the premise is interesting: its a carnivore paradise and the owners source beef from all around the world and serve it as traditional french cuts. I had the scottish Black Angus "Onglet" and my friend the Argentine Black Angus "Entrecote". For starter, we shared a "Os a Moelle": picture a large beef bone, cook it and then saw it in half. It is served with toasts and you basically scoop up the bone marrow and spread it like a fat and rich jam. Delicious and typically french!
bone marrow ... :hungry:
We eat it with stew as bone marrow taquitos. :hungry::hungry::hungry::inlove:
 

"El Gran Magnifico"

Bring Me A Shrubbery
Premium Member
I can sum up your argument and play it back to you by simply saying you are dead man... you are irrelevant... because you know what.. someday you are going to die. And you are already dying now. Might as well write you off right now.. because you are going to die. It doesn't matter if you are 18, 25, 35,45.. you're already dying.

That analogy is laughable. You want to say death is an inevitability..sure. I don't think anybody will disagree with you. But to say it makes you irrelevant and that you should just be "written off" shows your lack of comprehension. So, according to you it doesn't matter if someone just begins going on alcoholic binges or becomes a drug addict, let's all just eat fried foods every day and catch a plane to Vegas where we can gamble away the family's mortgage payment... because heck we're all going to die anyway.

Your analogy contradicts your entire position. One one hand you say smart people adapt, and make choices to prolong and evolve their business on the other....it's "none of it matters anyway because we're all going to die"....I would present to you that people adapt and make choices to prolong and enhance their quality of life and time here. Eating healthy, not smoking, tempering vices, moderating etc.

We obviously strongly disagree with each others positions. We can pick this up later on another thread. I think people are probably tired of both of us hijacking this one.
 

Hula Popper

Well-Known Member
That analogy is laughable. You want to say death is an inevitability..sure. I don't think anybody will disagree with you. But to say it makes you irrelevant and that you should just be "written off" shows your lack of comprehension. So, according to you it doesn't matter if someone just begins going on alcoholic binges or becomes a drug addict, let's all just eat fried foods every day and catch a plane to Vegas where we can gamble away the family's mortgage payment... because heck we're all going to die anyway.

Your analogy contradicts your entire position. One one hand you say smart people adapt, and make choices to prolong and evolve their business on the other....it's "none of it matters anyway because we're all going to die"....I would present to you that people adapt and make choices to prolong and enhance their quality of life and time here. Eating healthy, not smoking, tempering vices, moderating etc.

We obviously strongly disagree with each others positions. We can pick this up later on another thread. I think people are probably tired of both of us hijacking this one.

Uh.....you might want to re-read that post. He was describing what your argument essentially is. That's why the "analogy" (which he is using to describe your argument) is contradictory to his position.
 

truecoat

Well-Known Member
You can stream any NFL game. Its part of the NFL Sunday Ticket package with Direct TV. The premium package of course.... so you have to sub to Direct TV first (so $75+ a mo) & buy the top tier ($350+ i think) to get the ability to watch online.

Or have a kid in college and get the Sunday Ticket streaming only, no direct tv needed for $99. Won't let you watch games in your area though. He wasn't far enough away to be able to use it without a proxy. Even then, the streaming was marginal at best.
 

indyumd

Well-Known Member

This is one of those super conveniently timed releases that shows the impact of adding NASCAR in the middle of the Summer.

Look at the end of the year ratings weeks, this is not a disaster, but also not indicative of a surge towards catching ESPN:

Week of Nov 2: Down 10% YOY
Week of Nov 9: Up 28% YOY
Week of Nov 16: Down 2% YOY
Week of Nov 23: Up 21% YOY
Week of Nov 30: Down 24% YOY
Week of Dec 7: Up 29% YOY
Week of Dec 14: Down 26% YOY
Week of Dec 21: Down 1% YOY
Week of Dec 28: Down 15% YOY

Six of the last nine weeks of 2015, FSN ratings were down year over year.

Part of the reason you see so many double digit swings is that the total audience is so low, it only takes a few thousand people to change a couple percentage points.
 

truecoat

Well-Known Member
I can sum up your argument and play it back to you by simply saying you are dead man... you are irrelevant... because you know what.. someday you are going to die. And you are already dying now. Might as well write you off right now.. because you are going to die. It doesn't matter if you are 18, 25, 35,45.. you're already dying.

Maybe one of you will live long enough to say "I told you so...". Maybe not.
 

lobelia

Well-Known Member
How much of ESPN's issues are from a growing disinterest in professional sports and the characters that play those games rather than cutting their cable? I would never watch ESPN if they didn't show OSU football and NCAA wrestling. I think it would be interesting to survey how people are spending their time compared to ten years ago. I know we are making an effort to be outdoors more and spending more time with friends and family.
 

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
A couple of updates on the box office performance of TFA.
While the high prices of modern day movie tickets help films like TFA make lots of money, they can't hide the fact that the studios are selling fewer tickets to moviegoers.
https://twitter.com/giteshpandya/status/689118853742350336
In terms of dom admissions, #StarWars #ForceAwakens has sold roughly 25% fewer tix than Titanic did in its initial 97/98 run.

Much noise was made about how well TFA did in its first week in China, but...
...then it fell 72 percent week over week to a domestic Chinese animated film that makes "Norm of the North" look like "Inside Out".
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-star-wars-857042
China Box Office: 'Star Wars' Loses Weekend to 'Boonie Bears 3'
Star Wars: The Force Awakens plummeted at the Chinese box office during its second weekend in the world's most populous nation.

The J.J. Abrams tentpole grossed $14.82 million from Saturday to Sunday (Jan. 16-17), a 72 percent decline from its sizable $53 million opening-weekend haul (Jan. 9-10), according to data from Beijing-based research firm Ent Group.

As less-than-stellar word of mouth surrounding the latest episode in the Star Wars saga continued to drag on box office during the week, Chinese exhibitors steadily reduced screenings. During its first two days, the movie was given 167,060 showings in China, but last Saturday and Sunday it received just 66,568.

Read More Box Office: 'Star Wars: Force Awakens' Tops 'Avatar' to Become No. 1 Film of All Time in North America
After nine days, the Disney and Luscasfilm blockbuster has grossed $97.46 million. Given the current rate of erosion — early estimates for Monday have the film earning only $2.43 million — Force Awakens now looks unlikely to gross more than $125 million in China.

For most Hollywood imports, a $100 million-plus gross in China — the world's second-largest theatrical market and climbing — is cause for celebration. Chinese box office analysts didn't think The Force Awakens would challenge Furious 7's massive $380 million cume in the country but most were expecting bigger things fromthe film, which has grossed over $850 million in North America, the most by any movie ever.

Few, for example, would have predicted that the J.J. Abrams juggernaut would lose its second weekend in China to Boonie Bears 3, a relatively low-budget local animated feature. Based on a popular CCTV animated series and produced by Fantawild Holdings and LeVision Pictures, Boonie Bears 3 earned $15.08 million on Saturday and Sunday, and had grossed a total of $20.07 as of Monday including preview screenings. It received roughly 10 percent more screenings than Force Awakens over the weekend.

Disney had made a massive marketing effort to bring China's hundreds of millions of moviegoers up-to-speed on America's most cherished film franchise, which is surprisingly unknown in China because of unique historical factors.

Force Awakens is likely to finish in China somewhere between Terminator: Genysis ($111 million) and Mission Impossible — Rouge Nation ($135 million), but those two titles managed $440 million and $682 million worldwide grosses, respectively; whereas Force Awakens has already earned over $1.81 billion globally.

Force Awakens will remain in the market next weekend, but Kung Fu Panda 3, which has been given permission to hold preview screenings on Saturday ahead of its Jan. 29 wide release, may well steal The Force's remaining thunder.
 

Andrew C

You know what's funny?
A couple of updates on the box office performance of TFA.
While the high prices of modern day movie tickets help films like TFA make lots of money, they can't hide the fact that the studios are selling fewer tickets to moviegoers.
https://twitter.com/giteshpandya/status/689118853742350336
In terms of dom admissions, #StarWars #ForceAwakens has sold roughly 25% fewer tix than Titanic did in its initial 97/98 run.

Much noise was made about how well TFA did in its first week in China, but...
...then it fell 72 percent week over week to a domestic Chinese animated film that makes "Norm of the North" look like "Inside Out".

:hilarious::hilarious: You are not giving up on this, are you?
 

indyumd

Well-Known Member
A couple of updates on the box office performance of TFA.
While the high prices of modern day movie tickets help films like TFA make lots of money, they can't hide the fact that the studios are selling fewer tickets to moviegoers.
https://twitter.com/giteshpandya/status/689118853742350336
In terms of dom admissions, #StarWars #ForceAwakens has sold roughly 25% fewer tix than Titanic did in its initial 97/98 run.

Much noise was made about how well TFA did in its first week in China, but...
...then it fell 72 percent week over week to a domestic Chinese animated film that makes "Norm of the North" look like "Inside Out".

Titanic's initial run lasted through August 1998. It premiered in December 19, 1997. Is the fact that TWA has already sold 75% as many tickets in 5 weeks supposed to seem unimpressive?

At the 5-week mark, Titanic had made $249,361,166 domestically, or $363,082,096.28 adjusted for inflation. TFA has made more than $850,000,000.
 

"El Gran Magnifico"

Bring Me A Shrubbery
Premium Member
Uh.....you might want to re-read that post. He was describing what your argument essentially is. That's why the "analogy" (which he is using to describe your argument) is contradictory to his position.

Don't need to re-read it. This entire discussion began as an opinion piece (mine and others) revolving around ESPN (at least it did when it started). Nowhere did anyone say the demise of ESPN was inevitable. Because someone points out challenges and threats to the business, and states there are issues they need to address and overcome in order to evolve their company, does not make it an eventuality. Again, no one (not I nor anyone else) has said it is inevitable that ESPN will collapse. Will their business stagnate and possibly degrade? It has already. Their ratings are down, their subscriptions are down, they are negatively impacting Disney's stock, they've lost "talent" to competitors. Those are all fact. Those are challenges and issues ESPN must address, otherwise other networks like FOX or other types of distribution channels will continue to gain ground.

Because someone states networks (I referenced CBS,ABC,NBC -) are a dying breed --- In their current format, yes they are. - http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/05/network-television-netflix/393005/
The product stagnates. They will adapt and evolve, or, they will continue to stagnate and degrade. Some will evolve. Maybe all will evolve. Maybe some won't. That is not to say ABC or CBS won't exist in 10 years. It is to say that they will not exist as they currently are because they will have evolved into something more. If they don't they will erode. The viewership will erode, the advertising revenue will erode and the quality of the product will erode. If people want to take the position that ABC, NBC, will just continue humming along as is because they are ABC and NBC fine.. Take that position. As misguided as it is. Every company recognizes the need to evolve. But some just don't have the make-up to do so: See: Borders Books, Blockbuster, Oshman's, and a hundred others. I don't think any of the executives of those companies said to themselves "nah, we don't need to change..we'll be just fine". They all tried. Some just couldn't. Other's are just hanging on. How many new K-Marts you seen go up around you? Walmart just shut over 150 stores. Think maybe Amazon and the other online retailers may have played a small part in that? Yet, you can buy online right on the Walmart website. So they are trying to adapt. But it still forced them to shutter over 150 stores.

Now if you want to be in the: "Well ESPN's guys are smart...so are all the TV executives...and the old guard will figure everything out...they'll pivot when the time is right" school of thought..fine. Business doesn't work that way. You don't evolve because you walk into the boardroom and say "Well fellows....time to evolve" There are thousands of high level execs that were put out of jobs, not because they didn't want to evolve, but they couldn't.

That was the argument.

How that was spun into "Death is inevitable" and "that is what your argument was" ..No. It wasn't. I guess if you keep misrepresenting someone's words and repeating the same thing over and over again you will eventually take it as truth.
 

culturenthrills

Well-Known Member
I know we talk a lot about business here. Business, movies, theme parks, and god knows what else Disney is invested in.

Thinking movies for a second.... If youve ever been interested in even 1% of the business conversations we've had, go watch "The Big Short." Its really really good.... tho you may need to chase it with vodka and vicodin.

It explains exactly how messed up our financial system is.... and has Margo Robbie in a bubblebath.


Excellent movie. I laughed, I got angry, I wanted to cry and throw stuff at the screen. But did a great job explaing how messed up our financial system is. And Ms. Robbie in a bubble bath was icing on the cake.
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
I'm loving Netflix original content. :happy: They inherited Dreamworks Dragons from CN, and the series just keeps getting better. The new season came out earlier this month, and they've left us with a major cliffhanger. :arghh: Alfred Molina voices the new evil villain du jour, and I'm hoping he's the one slotting up for HTTYD3. Makes Drago Bloodfist look like a Kindergarten teacher. :jawdrop:
Arnie levels of kindergarten teacher? or normal every day teacher?

Also, I'm more fond of Better Call Saul.
Wow.. that guy really had it rough.. no surprise he had that huge transformation into what we see in breaking bad.
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
I actually just saw multiple people defending WDW toilet paper quality because better TP would clog the pipes. How exactly does one get that brainwashed?
Which is pretty ironic if you take into consideration a simple equation of pros and cons.

The cheaper and lighter paper they give.. the more paper people will have to use..
So essentially they will have to replace the "rolls" more constantly and create a bigger mess for having to cut and dispense and use more.

better quality = less paper used, less paper cut, less rolls used, tiny higher cost.

they are pretty much evens.. except just annoy visitors and the poor custodial CMs having to deal with the mess of paper everywhere (seen it in full force at the bathrooms of MK next to the Pinochios village haus.
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
Titanic's initial run lasted through August 1998. It premiered in December 19, 1997. Is the fact that TWA has already sold 75% as many tickets in 5 weeks supposed to seem unimpressive?

At the 5-week mark, Titanic had made $249,361,166 domestically, or $363,082,096.28 adjusted for inflation. TFA has made more than $850,000,000.
The comparisons needs to be ticket per ticket and adjusted to inflation and adjusted to inflation.

specially if you take a ticket that cost.. let's say.. 5 usd.. vs the 20 usd that costs now.

While we were all talking about Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars (and ESPN) for the past month, Bloomberg Business had a feature on Disney's princess line moving from Mattel to Hasbro. It may interest some of you.
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-disney-princess-hasbro/

I hope this doesn't means we will see Bumblebee in a Elsa costume in the future ;)
 

indyumd

Well-Known Member
The comparisons needs to be ticket per ticket and adjusted to inflation and adjusted to inflation.

specially if you take a ticket that cost.. let's say.. 5 usd.. vs the 20 usd that costs now.

Through 4 weeks, Titanic had sold an estimated 44,079,800 tickets ( http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=titanic.htm&adjust_yr=1&p=.htm )

Through 4 weeks, The Force Awakens has sold an estimated 95,927,200 tickets ( http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&adjust_mo=&adjust_yr=1&id=starwars7.htm )
 

Lord_Vader

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