A Spirited Perfect Ten

[truecoat]

Yes. Very fast.

I really want to see this film in 70 mm wide screen film projection… this is one of these films that should be shown on film it begs for high-end projection as opposed to a basic DLP projector at your local multiplex.

The two biggest things that I feel this film is lacking from Annapolis for your perspective is a lack of fanfare during the Lucasfilm logo and the sound of the projector from the back of the theater…

Too bad there are only 13 theaters in the US showing in 70mm.

 

[xdan0920]

The reason they are able to push their app is.. they are pushing their loyalty/rewards system. For the customers, its now one transaction vs two.



Yes, that's the pain of the adoption curve.. and while geeks will tolerate it, the general population is less forgiving. Most solutions lack a compelling reason to use them vs the traditional payment methods.

Both good points.

The only potentially compelling reason is convenience, and it's not convenient to be unsure if your digital wallet is going to work. And if it doesn't you need your physical wallet anyway, and out the door goes the convenience aspect.

 

[ford91exploder]

So is a failure something along the lines of having to scan a second time because it didn't read the first time?

A failure of the MB system at least to me is something which requires a call to Front Desk, Tech Support or Guest Relations to resolve, Media read errors unless persistent don't rise to that level.

 

[ford91exploder]

**golf clap**

Based on 2014 attendance of 19.3 million with 100 MB transactions/person/day, 99% success is embarrassing.

Yup

 

[ParentsOf4]

Yet you take that to mean its obsolete because he didn't say "oh yes, it will have MBs" - so yes, that's where you are taking things were you want them to be, vs seeing it for what it is.. a non-commital answer from Iger. Probably because they don't want to get into the specifics of the offerings. Maybe they won't use MagicBands there... so what. The Magicbands are just one digital token in the much bigger picture. Even if the bands were to go away, that doesn't really say much about the much bigger initiative. The 'digital token' is here to stay - its just a matter of what form it will take and will it be 'bring your own' or a blend of Disney provided and BYOD.

Fixating on the band is missing the forrest for the trees. Her question was really more about the payment transaction options.. and Bob's answer could be taken several ways. But admitting NextGen or their personal token model is already obsolete? No, that wasn't in that answer.

Besides.. having Shanghi mixed into the normal TWDC system is more worrisome to me than any fears of NextGen wastes. I want China on their own platform.. not the one Disney is using for me in Florida.

Stephanie Ruhle's question wasn't specific to MagicBands; it concerned "magic bands technology", a.k.a. "the seamless pay that [Disney] rolled out in Orlando". The "seamless pay" is much more than MagicBands. MagicBands are simply the consumer device used to access WDW's system.

Of course much of MyMagic+ technology is already, at best, dated and, at worst, obsolete in less than 3 years. You don't have to take my word for it. CFO Jay Rasulo acknowledged this was going to happen when he spoke to investors about MyMagic+ depreciation in February 2013:

One thing I just wanted to add for all of you -- Jessica, as well -- is that part of the expenses that Bob talked about of course will be depreciation of the capital investment. And compared to what we usually invest in, the life on these assets, particularly on the system side, is very short.​

And again in November 2013:

But, as you can imagine with a project like MyMagic+, which had a very heavy IT investment, which depreciates on a much more rapid basis than the normal assets we put into place in World​

Rasulo is not talking about MagicBands; he's referencing the entire MyMagic+ IT system.

Disney knew perfectly well that the MyMagic+ technology had a short shelf-life and this is reflected in its depreciation. This is not just MagicBands but the entire "magic bands technology" that Ruhle asked about:

The magic bands technology, the seamless pay that you rolled out in Orlando that was successful but also a big investment. Will we see that in Shanghai? Or has Apple Pay, mobile payments, kind of made that obsolete?​

Iger's non-answer 100% dodged the question. The "real" answer is: "No, you won't see MyMagic+ at Shanghai because advances in technology have made MyMagic+ obsolete."

I'm trying to avoid turning this into yet another MyMagic+ debate so I promise not to post on the topic again within the confines of the current discussion. However, since @WDW1974 brought up the Bloomberg interview, I thought fans of WDW would appreciate what Iger said or, more importantly, what he didn't say about "magic bands technology".

Your turn.

 

[brb1006]

A Very Merry Christmas to all of the people who haunt these discussion boards. I haven't been able to post here over the latter half of 2015, but that doesn't mean I am not always around in Spirit. To my real world friends here, and to everyone reading along, a happy and healthy and chaos-free 2016.

With that in mind, just like the goodies you woke up to in that ratty old Santa's stocking, let's have a few Spirited musings to help aid the digestive system on that big roast that Aunt Carol overcooked, shall we?

Let's get Star Wars out of the way since every fanboi and his uncle Bob want to make it the second coming. Saw it. Liked it. Thought it was fine popcorn entertainment that got the series back on track after the horrific last trilogy. No, it wasn't great. Not by a long shot. And if you're going to see it 5-6 times, well ... I think you have too much time on your hands and lack of respect for $$$. I've never seen a film that was worth more than two showings in a theater during an original release window. But whatever ...

Oh, and not nearly enough Carrie Fisher or backstory about just how she and Han had a brat together who has a fixation with masks and, apparently, is a young Snape on the loose from Hogwarts!

And was it just me or was BB-8 referred to by name an inordinate number of times to make sure all those mommies and daddies, especially those who have arrested development 30-ish fanboi sons who like to play with toys, would know exactly what toys to buy?

Yes, Disney really didn't care about Arlo and Spot ... I mean The Good Dinosaur at all. The only two things that Robert A. Iger, Your Friendly Neighborhood Weatherman, cares about is Star Wars and another galaxy far, far away.

Anyone think Rich Greenfield of BTIG got a Christmas gift from DIS? How about a severed horse's head in his bed from Zenia. Doesn't he know the importance of staying on script? The Burbank-approved script?

The security theater at the theme parks really is too much. Does anyone stop and think that any potential evildoer realized long ago where the vulnerable spots were and are? Think CM jobs, access points, the resorts ... just about anywhere ...'cause that's why it is called terrorism. (And to hear rubes talking about how it makes them feel safer. Do these people even have the capacity to think critically?)

Ah, let's move on to more important things. Like Shanghai Disneyland. You recall that one, right? Bob Iger's vanity project.

I could write a few thousand words here about everything that has transpired since we last spoke, but I am sure that the bloggers will all be writing about this, right? And Tweeting?

Countless delays. Parts that would arrive in 36-72 hours in the USA, take a month and then aren't up to specs. Internal dates ... deadlines pass by and nothing happens. Imagineers getting sick on site and demanding to go home. Last opening I heard ... well, why does it matter? It will change.

Last week, SDL GM Phil Gas held a large meeting for all US-based salaried cast where he pontificated for quite a while on how amazing and MAGICal the project was and how work was moving along splendidly. Now, he said this to the people on the ground who have been living the nightmare for years. Audible groans and laughs were heard. But everyone gathered there figured this had to be it. This had to be the big deal, the real deal, the DATE was coming.

And ...

He thanked everyone for their efforts and handed out tickets to see The Force Awakens. REALLY! No, you can't make this stuff up.

Which leads us to Bob Iger's uncomfortable televised interview with Bloomberg that was quietly released on Monday. An interview in which he puked forth how happy the company has been with Star Wars (gee, with a 'shove it down their throats the world over for the past year' model, who ever saw that coming?) An interview in which he was clearly caught off-guard (maybe Zenia was hanging with gal pals Ursula, Maleficent and Cruella for a Lonely Evil Gals Holiday Party in Van Nuys) by questions on SDL.

Bob admitted that once again he wasn't able to live up to prior word and announce an opening date before the end of the year. He was also not forthcoming on having one soon. Simply saying they'd announce something in early 2016 ... because ... you know ... you can simply say on Feb. 3rd that SDL will debut on June 11th. There's no need to have a buildup and media splash. No need to allow people (or simply myself and @Lee and @WDWFigment and a few others here) to plan ahead. Besides, this park isn't really for people more than a few hundred miles from Shanghai and its amazing (and visible approximately 31 days a year) skyline.

But then ... well, Bob came apart. He basically said the Chinese weren't capable of building complex things like theme parks (I am sure he simply forgot the venues of the Beijing Olympiad, the thousands of miles of new high-speed rail or even all of those skyscrapers hiding in Shanghai's fog). He came off defensive. His quotes and demeanor came off offensive to his Chinese 'partners' so what did he do?

Nothing. Z and her team put the press on Bloomberg and ... voila ... suddenly the video was gone from the 'net (sound familiar at all?) and when it returned it did so with ALL of the China questions and responses scrubbed clean. Like they never happened. Unfortunately, Willow doesn't work for Bloomberg and the print story is (as of now anyway ... and I am not in the States, so things could be different there) still there with all those quotes that Bob wishes he never said.

The rest of the financial media that covers DIS basically ignored that anything had come out at all because that is how a free press operates in a democracy doncha know?

I know this doesn't bother most of you and that's kewl. I'm not overly interested in Star Wars myself, but it's a discussion board. When the head of the world's largest media and entertainment corporation, one with a network news division under its umbrella, actively tries to suppress (and succeeds in censoring viewpoints and) words, even his own, that run contrary to his business interests, I think it's a hell of a lot more important than how much money Mark Hamill was paid for his day (or was it two or three due to weather?) of work on SW TFA.

Disney and Bob are failing miserably in China. Failing in a way that SW can't hide or cover for. Failing in a way that all of the low-lifes playing the social media whoring game can't cover up for (notice how many now actively link to DIS owned sites that sell merchandise?) And the thing is, it's likely to only get worse. ...How many times do you rebuild the same faulty structure using materials that come from the family of an official indicted and jailed on graft charges before you ask yourself, ''What is our exposure when this hits?'' ... You can't bury things like this and think that your takeover of social media means no one will find out. They always do, it's just a question of when and how.

I do love all of those added attractions that the $800 million 2014 cash infusion has provided for though.

So, UNI bought all of that land that probably a dozen people here said they were after going back two years. Doesn't guarantee a third park just yet, but I would be very surprised if a decade from now UNI didn't have three parks (not including the Volcano Bay project) either open or close to it.

Finally, nothing has made me sadder or madder in my fan life as seeing what is about to happen at DL. Star Wars has no place being shoved into Walt's park. Into a tiny little area with no room for real expansion. This is cheap and lazy and will alter the park in a way nothing else has for 60 years. Trees that date to Nature's Wonderland days are slated for slaughter for shops that will sell lightsabers (or maybe not anymore, we just don't know!)

If Bob is so sure about Star Wars, then he should have greenlighted quality temp attractions (Launch Bay isn't it; folks at WDI are embarrassed by it) that could keep the fires burning for 3-5 years while building a third gate with a major SW component if not an entire park. Destroying one of DL's last major areas that Walt oversaw for SW attractions ...well, I don't have anything good to say.

Oh, and someone tell my pal Phil that Toontown at DL simply got a stay of execution as it won't be here all that many more years. It just simply won't be leaving for SW product, but for things that are more fitting of the area that surrounds it.

Again, to all, Happy Holidays!

Why does this sound like the time Disney have alot of trouble building Disneyland Paris or EuroDisney as it was called in the early 90's?

 

[dstrawn9889]

depreciation is how you amortize the investment, not when you throw something away... you amortize a truck for 72 months to pay for it, you don't necessarily toss it in a bin at 72 months, do you?

definition: Depreciation

For accounting purposes, depreciation indicates how much of an asset's value has been used up. For tax purposes, businesses can deduct the cost of the tangible assets they purchase as business expenses; however, businesses must depreciate these assets in accordance with IRS rules about how and when the deduction may be taken based on what the asset is and how long it will last.

Depreciation is used in accounting to try to match the expense of an asset to the income that the asset helps the company earn. For example, if a company buys a piece of equipment for $1 million and expects it to have a useful life of 10 years, it will be depreciated over 10 years. Every accounting year, the company will expense $100,000 (assuming straight-line depreciation), which will be matched with the money that the equipment helps to make each year.



Read more: Depreciation Definition | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/depreciation.asp#ixzz3vdfRxIrW
Follow us: Investopedia on Facebook

 

[flynnibus]

Stephanie Ruhle's question wasn't specific to MagicBands; it concerned "magic bands technology", a.k.a. "the seamless pay that [Disney] rolled out in Orlando". The "seamless pay" is much more than MagicBands. MagicBands are simply the consumer device used to access WDW's system.

The question was about the payment aspects (which is what I pointed out in an earlier post) - you're taking this to mean much more. The question was about payment systems, and Bob answered there will be 'even more' kinds of things. You take this to mean MBs are on the out - and it's a flawed conclusion.

Of course much of MyMagic+ technology is already, at best, dated and, at worst, obsolete in less than 3 years. You don't have to take my word for it. CFO Jay Rasulo acknowledged this was going to happen when he spoke to investors about MyMagic+ depreciation in February 2013:

One thing I just wanted to add for all of you -- Jessica, as well -- is that part of the expenses that Bob talked about of course will be depreciation of the capital investment. And compared to what we usually invest in, the life on these assets, particularly on the system side, is very short.​

Yet another flawed conclusion by taking statements beyond what they are meant to convey. By your logic, Smartphones are already "obsolete" because we tend to upgrade them every 24-36 months instead of the much longer period we used for analog handsets. Your taking statements about a specific piece of hardware and then saying the whole TECHNOLOGY is obsolete.

The Dark Lord's comments were simply that IT *equipment* depreciates faster than other forms of large capital expense... we all know this, and accept it. No one is running around saying the Internet is obsolete because we depreciate our routers and computers faster than in the past.

Depreciation != technology obselency. It means our refresh cycles of the components used need to be shorter.

Again.. no one is calling the Internet 'obsolete' because we upgrade our virtual machines faster than our mainframes.

Using comments warning about depreciation and capital costs to claim the thing 'has a short shelf-life' is comically bad.
​

 

[Magenta Panther]

The Spirit (welcome back, dude!) said: Finally, nothing has made me sadder or madder in my fan life as seeing what is about to happen at DL. Star Wars has no place being shoved into Walt's park. Into a tiny little area with no room for real expansion. This is cheap and lazy and will alter the park in a way nothing else has for 60 years. Trees that date to Nature's Wonderland days are slated for slaughter for shops that will sell lightsabers (or maybe not anymore, we just don't know!)

Any pleasure I could have derived from the new Star Wars film has been tempered considerably by my fear of what its success would do to the parks, especially Disneyland. We all know that basically, Iger doesn't like the real Disney, aside from its merchandising potential. That's why, for instance, we're getting a dippy Avatarland in AK instead of a more logical Pride Lands. To him, sticking a Frozen ride in Epcot and a Star Wars Land (gah, the ultimate dorky title) in Disneyland is no great shakes. Do it cheap, fast, then raise those ticket prices is the way to go. Iger is not only a greedy soulless CEO, he has no taste whatsoever. I'm very happy that his effups with Shanghai is putting him on the spot. He deserves far more than that (dead Yeti). Can't WAIT until he's shown the door.

 

[Frankie The Beer]

DIS rebounding nicely. As for TFA, people are predicting 3 billion, and I just don't see it happening. In fact, I'm not so sure its going to beat Avatar. Jurassic World was flying almost as well as TFA and never came close to 2 billion. Granted TFA hasn't opened in China yet, which Jurassic World did from the start, but unless China pulls in a billion on its own, doubtful, I don't see it beating Avatar. It might top Titanic though.

 

[PhotoDave219]

There are only 15 theaters in the world showing TFA in the "native" format for which it was shot - 70mm 2D.

I was fortunate enough to see a showing of it last Friday. The Indiana State Museum Imax (http://www.imax.com/imax-indiana-state-museum-oo) has it until mid January. Although, there aren't many good seats left for hardly any of the showings if anyone wants to make a road trip.

I'm not a big fan of IMAX's aspect ratio as it's too confining from your peripheral vision. I am a big fan of 70mm (or 65mm) resolution. One thing I really dislike is the ever increasing gimmick of main stream movies having "sequences" filmed in IMAX and then switching in an out of a different aspect ratio. It's way to jarring for me when watching a movie. The Star Wars films are Cinemascope... end of story.

TFA's IMAX sequence is the escape from Jakku and it is visually impressive. While the rest of the film gets IMAX's digital upconversion process to create the 70mm print, the Jakku sequence benefits from the native resolution. JJ's framing of this sequence looks natural enough as it simply expands the top and bottom of the frame. It allows some unique views of gunnery station on the Falcon. The real treat of course of the 2D 70mm print is simply the huge screen with the dedicated lamp for IMAX horsepower to drive it along with the benefits of the IMAX projection system for celluloid to keep gate judder minimized.

Watching TFA the other day on the big screen brought back fond memories from my childhood. My first viewing of The Empire Strikes Back was on 70mm and I also got to see Return of the Jedi in that format as well.

For any diehard Star Wars fan, I would recommend seeking out one of the 15 theaters with a real 70mm 2D print. Unfortunately, since there is only 15 of them, the marketing engine that is the current IMAX regime steers the masses to one of the LieMAX digital screens.

The good news is that one of the most impactful things that Uncle George accomplished before his retirement is that through Lucasfilm, he really did raise the ante for average cinema experience that the majority of us get to see at our local multiplex. The THX program began as providing a standard of quality for cinema sights and sounds. Through it digital cinema sound got accelerated. The argument that is digital cameras will forever be debatable; but, nobody can argue that the introduction of the digital projector has significantly raised the bar for the average consumer watching a movie. Unless you are a big enough nerd to know which movie theaters actually care about the condition of their projection equipment (lamps, registration, cleanliness of the print, etc.), most of us can walk into any multiplex these days with a digital projector and be guaranteed a better experience than the previous generation.

I took my niece to see TFA on Saturday and the digital projector was lacking a bit of shadow detail and resolution from my Thursday 70mm 2D viewing; but, there is no debate that it was close and that the Atmos sound was better.

Although the golden days of cinema are behind us... it's still a great time to be had by going to the big screen.

*I am spoiled by my 120" LCoS home theater though.

Apparently you missed that whole Air and Space museum annex, Airbus theatre Full IMAX 70mm 3D 4k projector conversation.....

 

[PhotoDave219]

I think that is an older list. There are a couple more spots.
I know the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA (the second Smithsonian Air and Space facility) is also showing it in 70mm IMAX.

Udvar-Hazy is showing it in 70mm IMAX 3D on the latest 4K projector.

The Air and Space Museum downtown is in 2D IMAX and is not the latest projector.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I'm not taking Iger's comments anywhere. Iger specifically was asked about the technology associated with MyMagic+, even if Stephanie Ruhle called it by its most recognizable symbol, MagicBands:

The magic bands technology, the seamless pay that you rolled out in Orlando that was successful but also a big investment. Will we see that in Shanghai? Or has Apple Pay, mobile payments, kind of made that obsolete?​

Ruhle pointedly asked if "[t]he magic bands technology" would be used in Shanghai or whether advances elsewhere "kind of made that [technology] obsolete?"

Iger dodged the question and responded with:

What you'll see in Shanghai is a park that from a technological perspective is more advanced than anything we've ever built. That will show up in the attractions themselves but it will also show up in commerce or B to C or C to B transactions. So the consumer will be able to buy their tickets, use their mobile devices in far more advanced, compelling ways than any other place from a theme park perspective that we are today.​

There was no talk of MyMagic+ technology in Iger's response. Instead, Iger indicated that "from a technological perspective [Shanghai Disneyland] is more advanced than anything we've ever built" and that Guests will "use their mobile devices in far more advanced, compelling ways than any other place from a theme park perspective that we are today.”

Disney needed to overhaul its entire system, there's no doubt about that. However, I just spent 3 nights at WDW and, frankly, their wireless network stinks. Meanwhile, it's 2 years after MyMagic+’s rollout and I still hear CMs complain about frequent intermittent problems. And I’ve yet to have a single trip where all 6 of my family’s MagicBands actually work to open the d*** hotel door.

Between Iger’s unwillingness to defend MyMagic+ technology against a specific question by a well-known financial anchor, my repeated poor first-hand experiences, and comments I continue to hear from those using the technology every day, it appears that WDW still requires significant capital investment and software development in order to get its MyMagic+ technology working properly.

One of the points you kept drilling about MyMagic+ is that the cost of the initial investment was only part of it. You, me, and others on here have basically described this as a cash drain. Yes, there are positive components of My Magic+, but the cost of the project both initially and ongoing have to classify it as a mistake. Most of us on here determined that at the outset.

 

[wdwmagic]

One of the points you kept drilling about MyMagic+ is that the cost of the initial investment was only part of it. You, me, and others on here have basically described this as a cash drain. Yes, there are positive components of My Magic+, but the cost of the project both initially and ongoing have to classify it as a mistake. Most of us on here determined that at the outset.

You mean you don't think they will recoup the dev costs by selling bands with Orange Bird stickers on them?!?

 

[RSoxNo1]

You mean you don't think they will recoup the dev costs by selling bands with Orange Bird stickers on them?!?

Well us fanboi rubes are gullible...

The thing that I thought Magic Bands did exceptionally well was integrate with on ride photos and other Photo Pass photos. They just lowered the price for that service and tacked it on to Annual Passes. That tells me that others aren't seeing that value.

I was ready to declare My Magic + as Dead on Arrival, but at this point I think it's safe to call it a total failure.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

You mean you don't think they will recoup the dev costs by selling bands with Orange Bird stickers on them?!?

Of course not. Everyone knows that these were the real money makers (not my photo):

 

[BlueSkyDriveBy]

As for Tokyo Disneyland... I won't pretend to know more than Spirit, but plans are certainly being scaled back. There have been problems with securing cheap construction labor in Tokyo in light of the upcoming Olympics there in 2020. Any remaining construction crews come at a heavy price, so major cuts will be/have been taking place to the work at Tokyo Disneyland (and even WDI staff).

The Tokyo site was chosen over two years ago. TWDC should have seen the labor problem coming back then and planned accordingly, like securing cheap(er) construction contracts before the Olympic committee could.

Once again, I ask the keeper of all things intelligent in the space-time continuum for some guidance:

How do corporations like TWDC continue to justify grotesquely malignant executive salaries and compensation packages with such ignorant, short-sighted, reactionary planning behavior as this?

It's bad enough Burbank has been blindsided by cable cord cutting and ESPN revenue hits.

But not securing labor during the planning stages of TDL's expansion in light of Tokyo winning the 2020 Olympics? Seriously?

That's some major league stupid right there.

 

[JenniferS]

Of course not. Everyone knows that these were the real money makers (not my photo):

My 19-year old, visiting WDW this summer for the first time in 7 years, desperately wanted one of these.
I refused on principal, but mollified him with TT and Star Wars tees.

 

[DDLand]

The Tokyo site was chosen over two years ago. TWDC should have seen the labor problem coming back then and planned accordingly, like securing cheap(er) construction contracts before the Olympic committee could.

Once again, I ask the keeper of all things intelligent in the space-time continuum for some guidance:

How do corporations like TWDC continue to justify grotesquely malignant executive salaries and compensation packages with such ignorant, short-sighted, reactionary planning behavior as this?

It's bad enough Burbank has been blindsided by cable cord cutting and ESPN revenue hits.

But not securing labor during the planning stages of TDL's expansion in light of Tokyo winning the 2020 Olympics? Seriously?

That's some major league stupid right there.

I'd direct your rage towards*:
http://www.olc.co.jp/en/


*Though they're not known for being stupid. I'd give OLC the benefit of the doubt.

 

[david10225]

The list is from IMAX's site: http://www.imax.com/news/star-wars-force-awakens-imax®-tickets-sale-now

The VA and DC screens are showing in 3D. Which the film wasn't shot in. It's been post production converted to 3D (which is awful looking for anything that isn't CGI like a Pixar film where they can simply add in another "camera" during rendering).

I saw it in the local movie theater - the Manassas Cinema 4......digital film and very good sound..but pretty small theaters.....no advanced ticket needed - only about 1/2 full and on Tuesdays and Wednesday....I saw it for 5 bucks! (like supporting the locals)

David