News 'Beyond Big Thunder Mountain' Blue Sky concept revealed for Magic Kingdom

[UNCgolf]

The only animated film that’s made more than Mario is Frozen II.
Mario’s been the most enduring video game franchise for four decades now.
Younger generations game more than consume other forms of media.

Some of you continue to greatly underestimate this market.

It's more that people don't really understand the video game market on both sides.

There are absolutely people who significantly underestimate it, but there are also people who wildly overestimate it because they look at the market as a whole and not individual properties. The overall video game market is gigantic, but it's spread wildly across segments (including mobile games like Candy Crush which account for a significant percentage of the overall market) and thousands of properties.

Individual game properties generally have a much smaller reach than other forms of media for many reasons. Highly successful movies can easily have 100+ million distinct viewers (even into several hundred million); there are only a handful of video games ever that have had 100+ million distinct players.

Mario is really an outlier in the gaming market because he's been around for several decades with dozens of games across multiple genres. There probably haven't been any Mario games that have had 100 million players (maaaybe Mario Kart 8), but there are almost certainly 100+ million people who have played at least one Mario game.

TLDR: Video games as a whole are massively popular; individual gaming IPs, on the other hand, are generally not comparable in popularity to legacy media. That could change going forward, but we aren't there yet.

 

[erasure fan1]

The only animated film that’s made more than Mario is Frozen II.
Mario’s been the most enduring video game franchise for four decades now.
Younger generations game more than consume other forms of media.

Some of you continue to greatly underestimate this market.

Exactly. And it's not even really close, video games are bigger than movies and music and books combined. Unfortunately it's still thought of as this little sub sector of entertainment. Look no further than Iger, he has blown it off his entire career.

 

[Purduevian]

Just catching up on the thread. Is Mario going North/West of Big Thunder or the Adventureland expansion plot?

 

[DisneyRoy]

Just catching up on the thread. Is Mario going North/West of Big Thunder or the Adventureland expansion plot?

No. Universal owns the theme park rights to Nintendo properties.

 

[erasure fan1]

TLDR: Video games as a whole are massively popular; individual gaming IPs, on the other hand, are generally not comparable in popularity to legacy media. That could change going forward, but we aren't there yet.

We are on our way. Fallout just dominated the streaming charts. It was loved by gamers as well as people who had no clue what it was. Mario did awesome, so did last of us. Sonic has done well and so did FnaF. A proper Pokemon film would do great as well. They are figuring it out and Disney doesn't have a horse in the race. That's the issue. A Minecraft ride would be a HUGE draw. More so than encanto, coco, Tiana, tron, or most of the ips being considered for the parks. Sure you could say Minecraft is another outlier. But I can think of a bunch of properties that would beat that list as well. But none of it matters because Disney has no plans to even be a part of that space.

 

[MJL92]

As a lifelong Nintendo Gamer I booked a trip for USH as soon as Super Nintendo World opened. Had the highest of expectations but IP or not, the rides are lackluster. The kinetics of the land are really cool but I think the rides totally miss the mark with the demographic they're targeting with the IP they chose.

Good IP =/= Good Attractions

 

[UNCgolf]

We are on our way. Fallout just dominated the streaming charts. It was loved by gamers as well as people who had no clue what it was. Mario did awesome, so did last of us. Sonic has done well and so did FnaF. A proper Pokemon film would do great as well. They are figuring it out and Disney doesn't have a horse in the race. That's the issue. A Minecraft ride would be a HUGE draw. More so than encanto, coco, Tiana, tron, or most of the ips being considered for the parks. Sure you could say Minecraft is another outlier. But I can think of a bunch of properties that would beat that list as well. But none of it matters because Disney has no plans to even be a part of that space.

Pokemon is only partially a video game IP -- a lot of its popularity comes from other media (movies/TV show and the card game), so I think it's best to leave it out of these conversations. It's been a major cross-media IP from the very start. It's obviously massively popular, though.

Fallout is a good example of how to expand video game IP market appeal with traditional media, because there will likely be more people who see the show than ever played any of the games.

Minecraft is a massive outlier (it's by far the highest selling video game of all time, nothing else is even remotely close to it). I'm not sure there are any other video game properties with the overall reach of stuff like Encanto and Coco, though (there may be a few, but it's a very small number) -- this is the misconception I was talking about in my original comment.

I didn't even realize what thread this was in, though, and we're clearly way off topic so I'll leave it here.

 

[Purduevian]

No. Universal owns the theme park rights to Nintendo properties.

Just a joke as this thread is quite far off from the title. Throwing in a personal opinion on this off topic discussion. IMHO Mario is in the elite group of super recognizable characters regardless of if you consume the media. Mickey, Darth Vader, Buggs Bunny, Picachu, Pooh Bear, Batman, Hello Kitty, Spiderman, and Elmo are others that are probably in the same category.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Just catching up on the thread. Is Mario going North/West of Big Thunder or the Adventureland expansion plot?

He’s going to Harambe south of FotLK while Pokémon goes to Adventureland and Zelda replaces Wonders of Life.

 

[erasure fan1]

Minecraft is a massive outlier (it's by far the highest selling video game of all time, nothing else is even remotely close to it). I'm not sure there are any other video game properties with the overall reach of stuff like Encanto and Coco, though (there may be a few, but it's a very small number) -- this is exactly the misconception I was talking about in my original comment.

Sonic alone beats them. Nintendo obviously has a few as well. The point is that it doesn't have to be a huge number. There's plenty of franchises that can be good adds to theme parks. It's really not a misconception. There's just multiple ways to look at it. You can't tell me there aren't popular franchises like fallout, halo, final fantasy, sonic... That wouldn't be a draw to the parks? Especially as a secondary attraction. Video games are a piece of the puzzle, not the end all be all.

Fallout is a good example of how to expand video game IP market appeal with traditional media, because there will likely be more people who see the show than ever played any of the games.

The first part, totally agree. And that's one of the points. There's lots of untapped potential in expanding video games and Disney doesn't seem interested. Now the second part, doubtful. If it goes for 6 or 7 seasons, and they're all as good as the first, maybe. Mainline fallout has sold at least around 40mil units and fallout shelter has something like 170mil downloads. So that's a lot of eyes on the games. I'm just going to guestimate with some averages, but if a movie ticket averages like 12/15, a 40mil unit sale game, you could say is somewhere around a 500/600mil box office. As far as individual eyes.The question should be, where is Disneys last of us, fallout, sonic, FnaF... There's many franchises ripe for success with the right care taken. It will be very interesting to see how borderlands does or BioShock.

 

[Incomudro]

Maybe your twin sons are just boring.

One wrestles Ju Jitsu, and one is taking the Iron Worker physical in a month. But thanks for the personal attack on them.

 

[SailorMercury]

Just catching up on the thread. Is Mario going North/West of Big Thunder or the Adventureland expansion plot?

Beyond Big Thunder. That area is going to be Mushroom Kingdom. Haunted Mansion will be connected to it and be rethemed to Luigi’s Mansion.

 

[osian]

Ahem, my generation is Space Invaders.

 

[The Mom]

Please get back on topic. Thank you.

 

[Delta-7]

Seriously, I’d rather for us to get back on topic of what could be beyond Big Thunder Mountain (which is why I check on this thread) rather than all this talk about Nintendo and gaming that doesn’t have anything to do with Disney.

 

[eddie104]

My dream vision for this area is …

• That they use the original concept with 3 “mini” lands each containing an attraction.
• I’m looking at Fantasy Springs as the inspiration if Disney is truly willing to spend the money which I think they are.
• You can have four new attractions including the Moana expansion in Adventureland.
• If they stick with having a Villains Land equivalent to Galaxy’s Edge it needs at least a two rides.
• They could also break it up into different areas featuring certain villains and each having their own attraction.
• With Encanto and Coco now most likely out the picture I’m not sure what Ip’s could replace them ???

 

[sWANNISAX]

My dream vision for this area is …

• That they use the original concept with 3 “mini” lands each containing an attraction.
• I’m looking at Fantasy Springs as the inspiration if Disney is truly willing to spend the money which I think they are.
• You can have four new attractions including the Moana expansion in Adventureland.
• If they stick with having a Villains Land equivalent to Galaxy’s Edge it needs at least a two rides.
• They could also break it up into different areas featuring certain villains and each having their own attraction.
• With Encanto and Coco now most likely out the picture I’m not sure what Ip’s could replace them ???

I would probably keep coco even if it's getting a carousel at ak. The Mexican town on the other side of Thunder to build up a new western frontier could be great but a full on villains land like fantasy springs would be amazing because it makes it easier to include a variety of villains

 

[Phicinfan]

My gut says behind big thunder goes to two "mini" lands now. Villians and a reduced Cars area. Just reading the tea leaves I have seen from multiple places. I don't have any other inside information, but that would be my guess.

Quite frankly, I hope this is true, as I would really much rather see them have an expanded villains land and spend the $$$ there.

 

[flyerjab]

My dream vision for this area is …

• That they use the original concept with 3 “mini” lands each containing an attraction.
• I’m looking at Fantasy Springs as the inspiration if Disney is truly willing to spend the money which I think they are.
• You can have four new attractions including the Moana expansion in Adventureland.
• If they stick with having a Villains Land equivalent to Galaxy’s Edge it needs at least a two rides.
• They could also break it up into different areas featuring certain villains and each having their own attraction.
• With Encanto and Coco now most likely out the picture I’m not sure what Ip’s could replace them ???

I was certain that @PREMiERdrum indicated that Coco was still a go for BBTM. Honestly, it is hard to keep track of who has said what regarding which rumor anymore lol. Even with our rumor training thread.

 

[Purduevian]

On one of the Disney Dish podcasts, Len and Jim seemed to indicate that a new hotel "in the park" could be built back here as well.

If I was Disney with the current overcrowding at Mainstreet for fireworks and exiting I would build the following as part of this expansion:

• New "in the park" hotel with a back entrance to MK straight into the expansion ($$$)
• New large projection Icon that can run a different show in conjunction with the same fireworks (hopefully spread some Mainstreet crowds out like DLR does with F!, small world, and GE)
• AP/DVC dedicated parking lot next to hotel with access to same back entrance (APs no longer need to crowd the monorail/boat to get to and from their car, also less people leaving and entering on main street). 100% optional, these guests can still use main entrance if desired.
• A bus route that just runs to the TTC and back