I think one of the strikes Universal has against it is that so few of their attractions are based on what can arguably be called "classics."
It's kinda sad to admit, and it makes me feel old, but the face of entertainment has changed so drastically, and there are so many entertainment options available, that fewer and fewer movies seem able to stand the test of time. We don't all experience the same pop culture the way people did in the 80s and 70s and certainly earlier than that. I'm 37, and my wife, who is only a few years younger than I, hasn't seen half of the movies that Universal rides are based on. And those that she has seen, well, do they stand the test of time enough to make a ride based on them worthwhile? Does anyone look back fondly at Twister? When you go rent a movie, do you ever go "Man, it's been forever since I saw Men in Black, I gotta pick it up" the way someone my age might have once been sucked into renting Caddyshack or Fletch or Die Hard or Nightmare on Elm Street for the eleventy-seventh time? And 10 years from now, will Shrek still have drawing power? Jimmy Neutron? Will they still be resonant to the next generation of park-goers?
It's why, for my money, the strongest area of any of Uni's parks are both in IOA-Marvel Super Hero Island & Seuss' Landing. More than just the quality of the rides for older and younger kids respectively, they're based on characters everyone grows up knowing. Even people with only a passing knowledge of Spiderman, or who haven't read the Cat in the Hat in decades, are familiar with the source and can appreciate the theming as well as the attraction, whereas generations who haven't grown up on Rocky & Bullwinkle, or who don't love Jurassic Park, might enjoy those sections of the park but not that extra attention to detail. The Lost Continent has an advantage of being unique, but that also comes with the pressure of having to be interesting on its own.
NOW, finally, by comparison, look at Disney. For so many American families, buying Disney movies for the kids is as common as buying clothes, and quite often, the clothes have Disney characters on it. Because we all grow up with these characters, WDW almost becomes a place where we visit these characters. It's where they live and where we wish WE could. The level of hospitality helps visitors to truly feel like guests, whether its illusory or not, whereas the level of hospitality at UO feels perfunctory, a duty instead of a pleasure. And the attractions not based on any one film or property have such attention to its backstory and detail, it almost feels familar. No surprise that, after decades of making rides based on movies, Disney is now making movies based on rides.
Furthermore, Disney has licensed some characters that are also arguably classics-like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, the-now-part-of-Disney muppets, and to a lesser extent, the franchise name "The Twilight Zone" and Aerosmith. These are pieces of popculture prevalent enough that we all know who they are, what they do, how they act.
On the flip side, Disney's has tried to develop attractions based on characters who have yet to establish longevity, or might not resonate across the board the way the established Disney classics have. From shows featuring Tarzan to attractions with Stitch, to High School Musical, this is stuff of the moment, but like Universal's woes, will these be anything anyone will care about 10 years from now? When you're spending millions on an attraction based on something with a short shelf life, it could come acrss as more dated than any classic ride in Fantasyland.
I know I've rambled quite a bit, sorry about that. My point all along is that, for UO to become more competitive again, not only are they going to have to start spending money in the parks again, but they're gonna have to spend smart. They need to identify franchises and properties with a strong chance of being relevant for decades and build attractions around them. OR, focus less on the movies or shows they're basing the attractions on, and more on what the attraction itself has to offer. No small feat, in an age when each year can see over 300 movies, and even the most popular has a shelf life as brief as Wonder Bread in a parked car in the height of the summer.
