WDW Pro
Well-Known Member
That's insanity. They're a business. They want attendance, spending, satisfaction, hotel occupancy, everything... up.
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News Dismal Q3 Earnings
- Thread starter monothingie
- Start date
That's insanity. They're a business. They want attendance, spending, satisfaction, hotel occupancy, everything... up.
ThemeParkTraveller
Well-Known Member
Source for that budget? Every article I've seen says Galaxy's Edge cost $1 billion each at DL and DHS.
New Star Wars Rides May Help Boost Lighter-Than-Expected Crowds
Walt Disney Co. set the opening dates for attractions at new Star Wars lands in Florida and California, completing major expansions at a time when light crowds at Disneyland have surprised fans and observers.
www.bloomberg.com
SteamboatJoe
Well-Known Member
The only thing that needs to be up is profit. Cutting operating costs while increasing revenue is savvy way to do that....in the short term. I would argue it's not a sustainable practice but Iger only needs to keep it up for a couple more years. The long-term is his successors problem to deal with. I'm sure they don't love the narrative that the parks are empty and I do think, behind closed doors there is probably some concern. But so long as the quarterly reports pleases the stockholders, they are probably willing to live with, what they probably believe are, short-term blips on the radar.
The real question is what happens if SW:GE doesn't have the long-term impact they thought it would. Hard to believe but TLJ and Solo did damage the brand a bit and GE is largely tied into the Disney-era trilogy. I personally don't think GE will be a problem for them once the AP blackout in DL is lifted and both lands are operating at full capacity but it is something to monitor. Regardless, I do think they would've been better off re-creating Mos Eisley instead of a completely fictional spaceport. One of the reasons Harry Potter was so successful is that fans get to actually walk the streets of well-known places from the books.
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ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
Yes! Even DHS increased 5% last year with 6 months of (if you listen to folks here) terrible Toy Story Land (for comparison, Epcot went up 2%, MK went up 2%; I’m not including DAK as 2018 was the first full year with Pandora and saw a 10% increase over 2017).
A new land for a property as big as Star Wars should be SLAMMED. Anyone who believes otherwise lives in Fantasyland.
And everyone needs to stop lapping up this lie that they want attendance down. That’s false. They want it up annually, but better dispersed. They don’t want more people at Christmas when the parks are full to the seams, but there’s still room in September. MDE, ticket pricing and after hours events are meant to attract guests during slightly-less-busy times and drain them of money.
WDW Pro
Well-Known Member
Source for that budget? Every article I've seen says Galaxy's Edge cost $1 billion each at DL and DHS.
New Star Wars Rides May Help Boost Lighter-Than-Expected Crowds
Walt Disney Co. set the opening dates for attractions at new Star Wars lands in Florida and California, completing major expansions at a time when light crowds at Disneyland have surprised fans and observers.
DHS is expected to come in at 1.1 billion. DLR is significantly over budget and incurred an insane $100,000,000 additional costs (approx) in demo of major portions of RotR and reinstallation of said portions (the inside of RotR currently is in full disarray). I don't have those numbers from any outside source that I can link you to, but other insiders can likely verify them.
Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
Attendance at Disneyland and MK was up 2% for 2018. They are rising, at the same rate. One weaker quarter means nothing when we are talking about the two highest attended theme parks in the world, they only have so much room to grow as individual parks.
The question is, will Disneyland see a decrease for 2019, will it go up a tiny bit, or stay mostly the same? Will a full year of GE numbers result in an increase by the 2020 numbers? I certainly don’t think Disneyland’s attendance will stagnate for long. And in the end, Disneyland needed expansion. It needed more space to absorb crowds, so the park wins out in the long run here.
WDW Pro
Well-Known Member
Well, you and I both know the exact individuals who will tell you the sky is mauve if it means they can continue to feel right.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
Which execs will be fired by the time we see the 2020 numbers in summer 2021, do you think?
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
It is not at all what they want. It is what fans tell themselves to rationalize paying more for the same or less. You don’t spend millions of dollars creating additional physical space inside a park if you are trying to drive down attendance.
ParkPeeker
Well-Known Member
This is a disney forum, there are bound to be fanboys
SteamboatJoe
Well-Known Member
That's fair. They do need to keep people coming back and they definitely weren't going to just let their marquee franchises go without any kind of presence in the parks. I just could've sword we've heard from them before that increasing guest spending was a goal. I suppose that could be mutually exclusive of any issues regarding overcrowding at MK.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Increasing guest spending is a goal, but it’s not inversely related to visitation.
SteamboatJoe
Well-Known Member
I edited my post but you beat me to the punch.
WDW Pro
Well-Known Member
They artificially increased spending per guest this quarter by selling $200 lightsabers and $50 alcoholic beverages to the superfans that showed up. But they didn't spend millions to set up a virtual queue that they expected to only use for about eight hours total... they expected to need it for those revenue-driving crowds for the entire summer.
Janir
Well-Known Member
1. Was self inflicted but correctable at nearly any point they decide to change the AP windows.
2. Was known and expected. Now that SWGE:East is opening we'll see if that prediction holds true. ( I expect it will)
Janir
Well-Known Member
That's right about what they said they were targeting during Star Wars Celebration.In Disney+ news:
Disney announces $12.99 bundle for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ - The Verge
Disney announces $12.99 bundle for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ — The Verge
On par with or cheaper than competitorsapple.news
Now can I get a Hulu/D+ package WITHOUT the ESPN please?
WDW Pro
Well-Known Member
WDW hotel bookings are still light for the fall and winter. They know that but they're not going to provide that information in this setting.
Disney wants two things every quarter from the theme parks - More guests, and higher per-guest spending. Period.
So... No RotR in DL until December(?). Reviews aren’t exactly glowing. What happens if the DL AP holders don’t start showing up in the hordes they think will show up later this month and next? Will we need to set up watches outside TDA and the Burbank Ivory Tower?
So... No RotR in DL until December(?). Reviews aren’t exactly glowing. What happens if the DL AP holders don’t start showing up in the hordes they think will show up later this month and next? Will we need to set up watches outside TDA and the Burbank Ivory Tower?
mikejs78
Well-Known Member
Honestly, everyone who is pushing the idea that this is a bad earnings report but complains that Iger and company are too beholden to Wall Street:
You are part of the problem.
By any sane measure of business, Disney had a great quarter. They saw increases in every single business segment over last year. The problem is Wall Street analysts and their insane predictions. And feeding into that narrative exacerbates the problem.
You are part of the problem.
By any sane measure of business, Disney had a great quarter. They saw increases in every single business segment over last year. The problem is Wall Street analysts and their insane predictions. And feeding into that narrative exacerbates the problem.
Wake me up when it hits $30...