Even if Disney goes all out on Star Wars land, it's still Star Wars...a movie that's 40 years old and a bunch of sequels. It has a fan base, but so does Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'd rather visit Sunnydale than Star Wars land! But a small group of people isn't worth building a whole land for, IMO.
Most people will not be thrilled with a Star Wars land. The ride and the weekends are enough, IMO.
It lacks the popularity of Harry Potter.
But DHS needs something, so that would be fine. If they build that spaceship, I'll go see it.
I have to go to DHS at least once a year to remind myself why I don't like it, anyway.
And see BatB.
Yes currently Star Wars does lack the popularity of Harry Potter, there is no possible way to deny that.
But SW has an advantage over HP, New Material! By 2020 there will be what 4 or 5 new Star Wars films, which will grow its popularity. If Disney manages to do even 3/4 of the job they've done with Marvel its popularity will grow immensely. If the first film manages to be an Avengers level success it could grow to current Marvel/Potter levels of popularity. Potter is still immensely popular, but it has already lost some of its popularity, any franchise does after its last movie/book comes out there is no way around it. I thought Ive heard some rumblings of JK writing additional Harry Potter books taking place before Harry, So who knows what that will do to its future.
Yes right now a Star Wars land might not be the giant draw we think it would be, but 5-6 years from now and after a string of hopefully successful movies it could very well turn into a huge draw.
Uni and Disney have two very different ways they plan their theme parks, Uni lives much more "in the moment" than Disney does, they tend to build newer and unproven properties and do it in a big way, things that might not hold popularity over time. (Ex. The mummy, jurassic park, Transformers, Men In Black, Jaws, fear factor, Twister, Despicable Me, Shrek, Marvel at the time it was built) This isn't a bad business plan by any means, but it does mean you have to constantly evolve and change things to keep up with the times. Disney likes to build on thing that have proven themselves to the test of time, things that they feel will always be classics. (Ex. Snow white, cinderella, the little mermaid, beauty and the beast, winnie the pooh, dumbo, peter pan, toy story, Star Wars) That doesn't mean they don't like to build on unproven properties, Avatar is a sign that they are moving away from their older business plan but its also showing they haven't figured out how to do it the right way and capitalize on its popularity. They effectively struck out on their first chance to capitalize on it and are waiting until their next at bat to try again. Yes they also built on an unproven property in Monsters Inc but the investment they put into those aren't nearly what it is when Uni builds on unproven properties.
As far is TDO is concerned I believe they don't want a potter swatter, they like that Uni is aggressively developing right now, its going to draw people to Orlando who otherwise wouldn't make a trip there, and while they are in Orlando they'll swing over to WDW for a day or two of fun. Some people might even decide to plan an additional trip to WDW they otherwise weren't going to take so they could go spend a day or two at URO. I don't agree with this plan and hope this isn't what they are doing because in the long run it could hurt them.
