Festival of the Lion King moving to Africa

JungleTrekFan

JungleTrekFan

Active Member
Skyway said:
Especially when the rumored reason behind Space Mountain's scaled back refurb, the Yeti's 5-year paralysis, and other delayed maintenance is Disney's reluctance to take an attraction out of commission for so long.

Why is this show OK to mothball, but others are not?
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Because attractions like space mountain, Everest, etc take less people to run then a show does. Plus attraction hosts are not performers so their paid half as much. Attractions have a better hourly capacity. And attractions are more popular than shows, i.e. they' are the reason most people come to the park.
Not to mention shows are very versatile. Attraction refurbishments take 8 months to a year typically for a clean up and minimal changes. If they wanted to they could put FotLK in the Nemo theater and run the two shows back to back all day, but that would be ridiculously expensive.

Disney is a business they are going to do what makes best monetary sense first. We all know this.
 
CJR

CJR

Well-Known Member
JungleTrekFan said:
Disney is a business they are going to do what makes best monetary sense first. We all know this.
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I used to believe this, until the Tiki Room caught on fire. Now, I think Disney just pushes things as long as possible, until something breaks. That's world class quality right there.
 
D

doctornick

Well-Known Member
While I'm pretty secure that is is just a cost saving measure to lower the operating cost, is it possible that the relatively early closure of FOTLK (well before a new stage would be ready in Africa) happening perhaps because they want to use that space ASAP to start Pandora development? If, hypothetically, they plan to start construction in Feb or March for Pandora, then they might need the FOTLK space available soon.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
CJR said:
I used to believe this, until the Tiki Room caught on fire. Now, I think Disney just pushes things as long as possible, until something breaks. That's world class quality right there.
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That was indeed the Disneyland model a decade or so ago. I really hope WDW doesn't get so low.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
doctornick said:
While I'm pretty secure that is is just a cost saving measure to lower the operating cost, is it possible that the relatively early closure of FOTLK (well before a new stage would be ready in Africa) happening perhaps because they want to use that space ASAP to start Pandora development? If, hypothetically, they plan to start construction in Feb or March for Pandora, then they might need the FOTLK space available soon.
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A new stage could be ready in a month if they wanted it.

For a place charging $80 to get in you'd think they might just be able to do so.
 
mm52200

mm52200

Well-Known Member
JungleTrekFan said:
Because attractions like space mountain, Everest, etc take less people to run then a show does. Plus attraction hosts are not performers so their paid half as much. Attractions have a better hourly capacity. And attractions are more popular than shows, i.e. they' are the reason most people come to the park.
Not to mention shows are very versatile. Attraction refurbishments take 8 months to a year typically for a clean up and minimal changes. If they wanted to they could put FotLK in the Nemo theater and run the two shows back to back all day, but that would be ridiculously expensive.

Disney is a business they are going to do what makes best monetary sense first. We all know this.
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They couldn't put FotLK in the Nemo theater, since FotLK is presented in the round and I have no idea how they would modify it to put it in Nemo's theater. Also, while it's true that attractions are more popular than shows I believe that FotLK is kind of an exception especially with it being in DAK.
 
themonkeyisthesultan

themonkeyisthesultan

Well-Known Member
I think the most likely explanation for the lengthy downtime is that they want to reuse as much of the existing theater as possible. DAK is all about conservation and recycling is an important part of that. (Also, it saves money.)
 
B

Bolna

Well-Known Member
GiveMeTheMusic said:
Equity performers are not highly paid, at least on a real world scale. They're currently paid $15.55/hr (principal roles; chorus dancers like in BatB and DWAM get $13.83). AGVA (another performer union) performers at DLR get paid closer to $25/hr - that's why you never see singing characters in shows there. They try to keep the AGVA contracts to an absolute minimum.

Most of the non-singing roles in FotLK are staffed by parades department dancers, which are paid even less than Equity performers. From a performer perspective, the shows at WDW are very inexpensive to run thanks to their special Equity contract. (In contrast, a Disney Broadway show is required to pay performers, also Equity, a minimum of $1,653 per week). For any contract nerds out there, you can read the WDW agreement online at Equity's site.

Auditions are now up for Belle/Gaston and Ariel at DHS as well - it all seems odd if these shows and FotLK are all going down in early 2013.
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Thanks for the information!

And the link to the WDW agreement you provided also tells us what happens in the event of show closure (see Rule 13): They can close any show with two weeks notice - and the actors will be treated as if this is the end of their contract. If they re-open within 8 weeks, they have to offer to re-hire everyone under their previous terms. That explains the auditions - they don't have to wait to close FotLK until the end of the actors' contract, they can do it any time.
 
D

doctornick

Well-Known Member
drew81 said:
Update-

Festival will at least be staying until September 2013.
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Could be a good thing with TDO avoiding being cheap and keeping it open longer. As many have pointed out, you could mostly build the new theater and then close the current one for a short period to bring over some reused props and stuff. A 6+ month closure would be be all about saving money in not paying entertainers. That said...

Alternatively, it could be a bad thing in regards to Pandora being built. Could this be the reason for the change in the "What's Next" presentation? Is there a return of trouble between Cameron and WDW?

Of course, there is plenty of land south of the current CMM that could be used for construction (including the old Pocahontas theater) of Pandora while allowing FOTLK and the M&G's to continue to operate. There's the big old parking lot there for starters.
 
D

djlaosc

Well-Known Member
drew81 said:
Update-

Festival will at least be staying until September 2013.
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So, the question is, will they start building a new theatre early next year and then FOTLK would close in September and reopen in the new place in October/November? Or will they close it in September, and then it is closed till June/July 2014?

And what does this mean for Avatar? (although I would prefer them to build Avatar on currently unused land, and then reuse CMM for Australasia or something like that!
 
Taylor

Taylor

Well-Known Member
djlaosc said:
So, the question is, will they start building a new theatre early next year and then FOTLK would close in September and reopen in the new place in October/November? Or will they close it in September, and then it is closed till June/July 2014?

And what does this mean for Avatar? (although I would prefer them to build Avatar on currently unused land, and then reuse CMM for Australasia or something like that!
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Australasia? What is that a crossed mix of Australia and Malaysia ;)
 

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