RoysCabin
Well-Known Member
There's one part of all of this that does make me stop and consider a couple of factors; I've read a couple accounts here and there of people who are of the mind that the Hollywood "franchise bubble" could potentially burst within the next few years (of course, those analyses also add caveats that things could work out just fine for the current movie business model with the right circumstances), that especially in 2018 we're projected to be in a movie scene that has a tentpole/franchise release coming out for mass release every weekend and that at some point those big ticket movies are going to thoroughly cannibalize each other, leaving only a few standing, likely with the Avengers Infinity War flicks near the top of the survivors list. It was actually Steven Spielberg and George Lucas who posited this, noting how we increasingly live in a world where there are fewer and fewer "mid level" movies like simpler comedies or thrillers, and instead we get bigger and bigger gambles on potential blockbusters.
The question that comes to mind for me is: does this potential for a bubble burst have any possible impact on theme park design, given that theme parks have been moving in the franchise direction to keep pace with what Hollywood is putting out? I'm not trying to play wishful thinking on my part: I'm pretty clearly of the crowd that would prefer to go back to a model where most theme park experiences had less to do with pre-existing properties, even if they were at least partially inspired by them, but I do think there are some serious questions here to consider should the Hollywood trend run into some kind of hiccup within the next few years. It's been mentioned before, for example, that IPs are nothing new in Disney theme parks, but what is new about the modern trend, at least since the late 90s or so, is how "in your face" some of the usage is, particularly with regards to overlaying older attractions and heavily pushing gift shops and merchandising to a degree not seen previous to that time (the irony on the movie side of this being that George Lucas basically has himself to blame, at least in part, for these developments). Do we hit a snag at some point where the call to make more and more large scale attractions of tentpole franchises creates some kind of bubble effect, whether by overshooting consumer demand or by simply running out of space for all of them at current theme parks?
I'm spitballing here, not claiming to have any notion or idea if any of this will happen or what the impact on theme parks might be, but I think it would be wise to at least be considered by those in positions to do so. I know the modern corporate mindset is more "just focus on the next two quarters"...I simplify for effect, I realize...but there are questions to be answered here about what happens if the current Comic Con-ing of the entertainment world doesn't end up having staying power.
The question that comes to mind for me is: does this potential for a bubble burst have any possible impact on theme park design, given that theme parks have been moving in the franchise direction to keep pace with what Hollywood is putting out? I'm not trying to play wishful thinking on my part: I'm pretty clearly of the crowd that would prefer to go back to a model where most theme park experiences had less to do with pre-existing properties, even if they were at least partially inspired by them, but I do think there are some serious questions here to consider should the Hollywood trend run into some kind of hiccup within the next few years. It's been mentioned before, for example, that IPs are nothing new in Disney theme parks, but what is new about the modern trend, at least since the late 90s or so, is how "in your face" some of the usage is, particularly with regards to overlaying older attractions and heavily pushing gift shops and merchandising to a degree not seen previous to that time (the irony on the movie side of this being that George Lucas basically has himself to blame, at least in part, for these developments). Do we hit a snag at some point where the call to make more and more large scale attractions of tentpole franchises creates some kind of bubble effect, whether by overshooting consumer demand or by simply running out of space for all of them at current theme parks?
I'm spitballing here, not claiming to have any notion or idea if any of this will happen or what the impact on theme parks might be, but I think it would be wise to at least be considered by those in positions to do so. I know the modern corporate mindset is more "just focus on the next two quarters"...I simplify for effect, I realize...but there are questions to be answered here about what happens if the current Comic Con-ing of the entertainment world doesn't end up having staying power.
