News Dismal Q3 Earnings

[The_Jobu]

My kids wanted to do the lightsaber thing. It was a hard no. I’d consider it if the price was cut in half. The droid thing was a much softer no. I think if the $99 was an all-in price I would have been swayed easier.

I know it’s anecdotal, but I did see as many adults without kids holding the droid boxes as I saw kids. It could be they were more SW geek types.

You can pick up great lightsaber replicas (that you can actually fight with) for around $100 if you shop around. Kids might appreciate it.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

I really think the huge price increase is a bigger turn-off for more people than Disney realizes.

 

[The_Jobu]

Star Wars has been around for 40 years--other than the die hard fans do you think Star Wars has run its course in popularity with the general public and if so do you think Disney has put to much stock in Star Wars. I guess time will tell

I feel like it will still be a big franchise, but not a phenomenon like the originals. Toy and merch sales have showed significant decline. That doesn't mean the franchise is a failure of course.

 

[GoofGoof]

You can pick up great lightsaber replicas (that you can actually fight with) for around $100 if you shop around. Kids might appreciate it.

I think they may do the toy ones at Star Traders. They are about 1/4 the price and will fit in my carryon bag

 

[The_Jobu]

I really think the huge price increase is a bigger turn-off for more people than Disney realizes.

I think they just pushed their expectations too far. I doubt we'll get an accurate picture of the land until its open to all, the 2nd ride is in, and people just put up with the price increase (because they always do eventually).

 

[monothingie]

First impressions are everything and instead of nailing the launch they bellyflopped it. They’ll get a do over with DHS, but they can’t undo the negative press and social media. People say it will do ok after ROTR, but it’s a pretty low bar considering the start.

If wanting to attract crowds was the goal with SWGE in DHS, September is a terrible launch month. Even with the discounts and no blackouts, bookings are light. If you see wait times less than other DHS E Tickets expect another month of social media doom and gloomers for SW.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

I think they just pushed their expectations too far. I doubt we'll get an accurate picture of the land until its open to all, the 2nd ride is in, and people just put up with the price increase (because they always do eventually).

Oh, I agree...but the price hikes mean that a large group of people now have to save longer for each of their trips, which in turn equals less trips overall per family, which equals less in-park purchases.

 

[peter11435]

A word of caution to those assuming WDW's opening of Galaxy's Edge will be much more successful.

Our assumptions were wrong once. Maybe be smarter and hedge your bets?

Of course the first 10 days or so have generated positive buzz, but that's because they've been smarter and let in cast members to praise everything unequivocally.

They let cast members in first at Disneyland too. And you clearly don’t understand cast members if you think they are more likely to praise.

 

[The_Jobu]

First impressions are everything and instead of nailing the launch they bellyflopped it. They’ll get a do over with DHS, but they can’t undo the negative press and social media. People say it will do ok after ROTR, but it’s a pretty low bar considering the start.

If wanting to attract crowds was the goal with SWGE in DHS, September is a terrible launch month. Even with the discounts and no blackouts, bookings are light. If you see wait times less than other DHS E Tickets expect another month of social media doom and gloomers for SW.

They wanted to de-incentivize people to come and did too good of a job. I'm huge on Star Trek, but if they jacked prices and opened half of a Star Trek Discovery Land on the other side of the country, you best believe I'd take a hard pass.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

They wanted to de-incentivize people to come and did too good of a job. I'm huge on Star Trek, but if they jacked prices and opened half of a Star Trek Discovery Land on the other side of the country, you best believe I'd take a hard pass.

Seriously...if hubby knew they charge as much as $149 for a single-day ticket...he'd hit the roof.

 

[mikejs78]

I feel like it will still be a big franchise, but not a phenomenon like the originals. Toy and merch sales have showed significant decline. That doesn't mean the franchise is a failure of course.

The merch issue is a bit of a narrative that's out there that doesn't really paint the full picture. Star Wars merchandise is still much bigger than it was 5 years ago - it's down from its high during TFA. So if you put merch on a scale of 1-10, let's say 2014 was a 4. Then it shot up in 2015 to a 10 due to the whole event nature of TFA, went down to a 9 in 2016 (with Rogue One), and then an 8 in 2017 (TLJ merch was just bad), and is maybe down to a 6 or 7 now with no movies since the end of 2017. What will be interesting to see is what happens with The Rise of Skywalker. If merch recovers a bit, say to 2016/2017 levels, and Rise does 1.3+ Billion, will we still say the franchise is not a phenomenon?

 

[jt04]

Merch sales directly correlates to a films popularity. That is why Toy Story sales recently increased significantly despite the age of the franchise.

 

[jt04]

My kids wanted to do the lightsaber thing. It was a hard no.

You probably couldn't get reservations anyway anytime soon.

 

[monothingie]

The merch issue is a bit of a narrative that's out there that doesn't really paint the full picture. Star Wars merchandise is still much bigger than it was 5 years ago - it's down from its high during TFA. So if you put merch on a scale of 1-10, let's say 2014 was a 4. Then it shot up in 2015 to a 10 due to the whole event nature of TFA, went down to a 9 in 2016 (with Rogue One), and then an 8 in 2017 (TLJ merch was just bad), and is maybe down to a 6 or 7 now with no movies since the end of 2017. What will be interesting to see is what happens with The Rise of Skywalker. If merch recovers a bit, say to 2016/2017 levels, and Rise does 1.3+ Billion, will we still say the franchise is not a phenomenon?

I find it hard to believe that these weren’t flying off the shelves...

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Seriously...if hubby knew they charge as much as $149 for a single-day ticket...he'd hit the roof.

Sometimes what they don't know, won't hurt them! LOL. My husband doesn't want to know, so I don't tell him...….

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Sometimes what they don't know, won't hurt them! LOL. My husband doesn't want to know, so I don't tell him...….

Oh, I definitely don't tell him, lol. It helps that we never pay gate price, and I'm more than willing to stay on the phone for a couple of hours to get free dining so we only pay the difference to upgrade. He likes knowing that everything but souvenirs are already paid for.

 

[flynnibus]

LOl pixie snorters thought Star Wars would be huge. Don't want to point this out but families have a hard time going to Disney price wise and kids don't like SW, the parents do. You' all don't get it. The SW fans are old and have families, Disney is very expensine for families. Who is the SW fan base?

My 8-12yr old nephews disagree with you completely.

 

[flynnibus]

Anyone else want to join me in this valley of reason called the middle ground?

The wording you're looking for is "...missed expectations..."

Failure is a prediction of the future... a future of the land we really don't have enough of a sample of yet to predict with good certainty.

But I think we can easily call the 'opening' a failure in the business sense. Instead of boosting the company's numbers - it's been a drag on the numbers. That's a business failure.

 

[The_Jobu]

The merch issue is a bit of a narrative that's out there that doesn't really paint the full picture. Star Wars merchandise is still much bigger than it was 5 years ago - it's down from its high during TFA. So if you put merch on a scale of 1-10, let's say 2014 was a 4. Then it shot up in 2015 to a 10 due to the whole event nature of TFA, went down to a 9 in 2016 (with Rogue One), and then an 8 in 2017 (TLJ merch was just bad), and is maybe down to a 6 or 7 now with no movies since the end of 2017. What will be interesting to see is what happens with The Rise of Skywalker. If merch recovers a bit, say to 2016/2017 levels, and Rise does 1.3+ Billion, will we still say the franchise is not a phenomenon?

I find it hard to believe that these weren’t flying off the shelves...
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There’s a guy on youtube who makes mountains out of them in stores.

 

[LSLS]

The merch issue is a bit of a narrative that's out there that doesn't really paint the full picture. Star Wars merchandise is still much bigger than it was 5 years ago - it's down from its high during TFA. So if you put merch on a scale of 1-10, let's say 2014 was a 4. Then it shot up in 2015 to a 10 due to the whole event nature of TFA, went down to a 9 in 2016 (with Rogue One), and then an 8 in 2017 (TLJ merch was just bad), and is maybe down to a 6 or 7 now with no movies since the end of 2017. What will be interesting to see is what happens with The Rise of Skywalker. If merch recovers a bit, say to 2016/2017 levels, and Rise does 1.3+ Billion, will we still say the franchise is not a phenomenon?

So I guess are we saying phenomenal compared to most franchises, or phenomenal as compared to what it could/should be?