News Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind attraction confirmed for Epcot

celluloid

Well-Known Member
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.

Great points. With celebrities they are typically locked into a certain rate or appearance under contract. It sure has an attraction costly, but probably not inflated to the point that each actor is getting paid as much as they would for a feature film.
 

DavidDL

Well-Known Member
Great points. With celebrities they are typically locked into a certain rate or appearance under contract. It sure has an attraction costly, but probably not inflated to the point that each actor is getting paid as much as they would for a feature film.

Yeah, as stated by another member, even if they'd of been paid $20 mil each (they obviously weren't), there'd still be a hefty amount of the supposed leak cost left unaccounted for. Provided the leak/estimate is accurate, I'd still be interested to know how the money was delegated.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Imagine a couple hires you to design and build them a house. There is going to be a balance between how often you meet with them to review things. There’s that sort of just right porridge of meeting frequently enough to get useful feedback and infrequent enough for work to get done.

So this new client is willing to pay a lot and that comes with conditions. They want to meet very frequently but since both the husband and wife work a lot it will rarely be together and they’re not communicating well with each other about the new house. You meet with the husband who wants this, then you meet with the wife who wants something else. That’s going to cost money because you’re wasting time and decisions aren’t being made.

On top of that, the wife’s mother, the matriarch of the family, will be living with them and gets a say. The couple are very deferential to her so whatever she says goes, but she lives in Scottsdale and doesn’t use Zoom. You meet with her infrequently but when you do she makes some big changes and they have to happen.

Their kids are all design majors of various types and they’re doing a bunch of design as well. They don’t know things are actually built, so you have to take what they give you and make it workable. They also keep coming up with new stuff and changing their minds.

This is getting expense, right?

Now you’re actually in construction and this is all still happening. You’re being ordered to move walls you just built. The study was going to have Billy bookcases but it was decided that another ½” in depth would be preferable so you’re having custom bookshelves made, and since they’re custom they might as well be solid mahogany but then, that doesn’t quite have the same look so they get covered in plastic laminate anyway.

This house is going to cost a fortune, right? That’s a Disney house.
 

donsullivan

Premium Member
There is one school of thought out there that the extremely high cost of almost everything coming out of Imagineering was one of the drivers for the Lake Nona move. The culture of WDI drives costs to these crazy levels and that has to be brought under control. Culture is one of the hardest things to change in an organization and can often be accelerated by a corporate relocation. Lots of people don’t make the move and you can remake the organization.
 

gorillaball

Well-Known Member
Imagine a couple hires you to design and build them a house. There is going to be a balance between how often you meet with them to review things. There’s that sort of just right porridge of meeting frequently enough to get useful feedback and infrequent enough for work to get done.

So this new client is willing to pay a lot and that comes with conditions. They want to meet very frequently but since both the husband and wife work a lot it will rarely be together and they’re not communicating well with each other about the new house. You meet with the husband who wants this, then you meet with the wife who wants something else. That’s going to cost money because you’re wasting time and decisions aren’t being made.

On top of that, the wife’s mother, the matriarch of the family, will be living with them and gets a say. The couple are very deferential to her so whatever she says goes, but she lives in Scottsdale and doesn’t use Zoom. You meet with her infrequently but when you do she makes some big changes and they have to happen.

Their kids are all design majors of various types and they’re doing a bunch of design as well. They don’t know things are actually built, so you have to take what they give you and make it workable. They also keep coming up with new stuff and changing their minds.

This is getting expense, right?

Now you’re actually in construction and this is all still happening. You’re being ordered to move walls you just built. The study was going to have Billy bookcases but it was decided that another ½” in depth would be preferable so you’re having custom bookshelves made, and since they’re custom they might as well be solid mahogany but then, that doesn’t quite have the same look so they get covered in plastic laminate anyway.

This house is going to cost a fortune, right? That’s a Disney house.
Very good analogy.
 

JohnD

Well-Known Member
The $450m estimate is very accurate from what I know. It may have even gone above that.

It isn't that I don't believe the number, its just it is hard to see where all that went in comparison to something like Rise, where its budget seems very obvious.

It may also have to do with deconstruction of the pavilion from Energy to GOTG - gutting the interior (including but not limited to removing Energy track, AAs, screens, older audio equipment, etc.), removing solar panels, building the show box.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
There is one school of thought out there that the extremely high cost of almost everything coming out of Imagineering was one of the drivers for the Lake Nona move. The culture of WDI drives costs to these crazy levels and that has to be brought under control. Culture is one of the hardest things to change in an organization and can often be accelerated by a corporate relocation. Lots of people don’t make the move and you can remake the organization.
While Walt Disney Imagineering has its own problems many of them are inflicted from those outside their organization. Going back to the analogy of a couple building a house, you might develop bad habits working for them but they’re not getting that house done that much faster and cheaper if they fire you because so much of the problem is on their end and how they interact with the designer/builder.
 

DCBaker

Premium Member
Bus spotted with Cosmic Rewind advertising in Toronto (from Twitter user @hackermanjoe)

FSlGlatWUAY4z06.jpeg
 

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
That makes me crazy...when the properties are overwhelmed with guests, Capacity is low, frustrations for visitors are high, and budgets for attractions are continually slashed... but they have money for ridiculous and unnecessary marketing... Thousands of street pole banners in Kissimmee, the "Art Installation" on International Drive... Millions and millions spent on billboards and advertising that is largely unnecessary. I would rather see them take a three year hiatus on all extraneous advertising and put that money back into the parks to improve capacity and guest satisfaction...I guarantee their attendance numbers would not dip, and the positive changes would attract even more visitors...even without billboards in Miami and Bus graphics in Toronto.
 

EricsBiscuit

Well-Known Member
Oftentimes employees at large corporations (e.g. Disney) put fluff in the budgets. This is not necessarily for embezzlement but more so in case they need it for something else as it can be difficult to get funding for smaller projects greenlit fast enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if they stuffed the CR budget with funds to be used on other projects.
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Bus spotted with Cosmic Rewind advertising in Toronto (from Twitter user @hackermanjoe)

View attachment 638417

I'd be curious to know how many Canadians, besides the ones who post here, make Disney vacation decisions based on wanting to see specific attractions. I think Star Wars and Avatar are the only exceptions, really. Anecdotally, the primary reason to go to WDW is that it's in Florida and they want to take the kids somewhere when they're on holiday.
 

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Original Poster
Hi everyone!
Long time lurker, first time poster 😆
How strict have the CM's been with letting you in past your preview time? Mine's from 12-12:30 on Sunday but I may not make it on time. I will do my best though!
They are more concerned with the start time it seems, and it would probably depend on how late you are. Good luck!
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Is there any type of exclusivity agreement with Vekoma?

Maybe they paid them a couple hundred million to not sell this type of ride system to others and added it to the Cosmic rewind budget?

I can’t see any other way this came in at $450 million. There’s got to be some external factor driving up the cost because 2 buildings, coaster track, and some neat tech does not equal $450 million.
The only logical explanation here is that there's something about the screens that make them substantially more expensive than we anticipate. I mean looking at what's in the show building and given the size, I would 100% believe this was a $300 mil attraction.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
The only logical explanation here is that there's something about the screens that make them substantially more expensive than we anticipate. I mean looking at what's in the show building and given the size, I would 100% believe this was a $300 mil attraction.
This is a company that is publicizing floor finish patterns. Don’t you think they’d be bragging endlessly about using some new or highly advanced projection and/or screen technology?
 

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Original Poster
The only logical explanation here is that there's something about the screens that make them substantially more expensive than we anticipate. I mean looking at what's in the show building and given the size, I would 100% believe this was a $300 mil attraction.
I don’t believe there is anything more advanced than any of the other multi projector setups that we see elsewhere. I would say it’s nowhere near the complexity of any of the huge outdoor projection mapping icon projects.
 

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