For a land most originally said they weren't interested in ................

[RSoxNo1]

Pandora is a better fit than BK would have been. Other than that I don't remember having an opinion.

I'd listen to an argument about Pandora being a better fit over Mysterious Island, but I doubt anyone would have actually complained much about Mysterious Island coming here. I know I"m going to regret asking, but why would you think Beastly Kingdom would have been a worse fit than Pandora?

 

[Bill Cipher]

Most dislike or have never seen??? huh..

Avatar is the highest grossing film, of all time. Not even the Force Awakens is close, which is the 3rd closest film of all time. Just to put Avatar's success in perspective...

1. Avatar 2.78 B
2. Titanic 2.2 B
3. Force Awakens 2.06 B
4. Jurassic World 1.67 B
5. Avengers 1.51 B

http://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/worldwide/all-movies/cumulative/all-time


Avatar almost did twice as much as the number 5 grossing film of all time. Somebody saw the movie, lol. Now granted Avatar had incredible numbers, partially because of the 3d boom. If you look at ticket sales Avatar isn't nearly as impressive yet still better than almost every Disney Film that represented in the parks, except a few classics and of course Star Wars.

24. Avatar sold 78.3 Million tickets (2.8 billion in sales)

Let's compare that to other Disney IP lands that got built.. say Cars (has been a huge success)

228. Cars sold 36 million tickets (461 mil)
nr. Cars 2 sold 23.2 million tickets (560 mil)

Avatar 78.3 vs Cars 1&2 59.2 = Avatar sold 19.1 million more tickets sold ( 1 movie vs 2 movies)

Avatar 2.8 Bil vs Cars 1&2 1.02 Bil = Avatar sold 1.78 Billion more in sales ( 1 movie vs 2 movies)

https://mrob.com/pub/film-video/topadj.html

Of course ahead of all those films in ticket sales are many Star Wars Films, Disney classics such as, Lion King, Snow White, 101 Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, Fantasia, Jungle Book, Indiana Jones all of which are grossly under represented for the most part, until SWL comes online. You'd think Disney would give Lion King some more attention.. number 10 in ticket sales and close to 1 billion in sales. Off all Disney IP, it's grossly underused.

At the end of the day, Avatar seems like a finically sound investment no mater how you look at it. If Cars, with almost a 3rd the amount of monetary value was able to be the best themed land with huge guest satisfaction ratings, then I see no reason why an equally design and funded Avatar inspired Pandora land wouldn't be just as big if not bigger. The only thing that Cars has going on for it that Avatar doesn't have is a Merchandise advantage... but that is just an assumption at this point.

No need to get worked up over it. On page 2 of the thread I noted how I was wrong in saying most hadn't seen it. I agree, Avatar will likely prove to be a sound investment for Disney, especially if the Avatar sequels do well.

 

[George]

My opinion has not changed. Here i repost my original post on the topic.

My opinion hasn't changed either. Here is my first post on the topic -

IMO, most of the complaints are weird. Avatar isn't my favorite, but I do have eyeballs. If anyone can't be a little excited that what is arguably the most visually stunning special effects spectacular of all time has been franchised by Disney who is now going to work with Cameron to make an immersive environment based on the movie that already wowed our eyeballs, I find it odd. Really odd. The movies rating? Not the right imaginary animals? Worried about the planet's atmosphere? Really? Disney could blow it, but we've got quite a while to judge that. Right now, I'm just really happy something cool is in the pipeline.

Also, I've always thought it was thematically a great fit.

 

[andysol]

"Desperate to fight Universal and Potter, no chance of competing"

People who think Avatar was a response to Potter are simply mistaken or don't see the bigger picture.

I think it serves a massively different purpose than hogsmeade did at IoA as well as a different purpose than diagon did at USF.

Does Disney need Avatar to essentially pull its entire resort out of terrible attendance and profits?
Does Disney need Avatar to sell park hoppers and merchandise/drinks/wand equivalents?

Should they have picked Avatar? Debatable
Should they have spent $1B? Nope
Is this attempting to be a Potter equivalent? Definitely not.


Tiffins
Harambe Expansion including 3 new dining spots
Rivers of Light and Theater
Tree of Life Refurb/Light Show
Nighttime Safari
Flame Tree Expansion
Various other dining cart/Starbucks expansions
Discovery Island Shopping Expansion
Massively Expanded infructure and walkways
Pandora with two rides, stage, restaurant, bar, shop, etc

All just in the last two years

All of this wasn't done to combat Potter. And it wasn't all done to address Avatar crowds. It was done to make a more complete park. With longer stays for park goers and to take some pressure off MK with DHS' hell. I think they'll be successful here.

The Potter comparisons aren't needed outside of comparing immersiveness and the rides because they serve two entirely different purposes.

 

[George]

I won't believe it until it goes vertical dry wall is installed.

For me, its not until they start adding texture to the ceilings.

 

[Magic Feather]

People who think Avatar was a response to Potter are simply mistaken or don't see the bigger picture.

I think it serves a massively different purpose than hogsmeade did at IoA as well as a different purpose than diagon did at USF.

Does Disney need Avatar to essentially pull its entire resort out of terrible attendance and profits?
Does Disney need Avatar to sell park hoppers and merchandise/drinks/wand equivalents?

Should they have picked Avatar? Debatable
Should they have spent $1B? Nope
Is this attempting to be a Potter equivalent? Definitely not.


Tiffins
Harambe Expansion including 3 new dining spots
Rivers of Light and Theater
Tree of Life Refurb/Light Show
Nighttime Safari
Flame Tree Expansion
Various other dining cart/Starbucks expansions
Discovery Island Shopping Expansion
Massively Expanded infructure and walkways
Pandora with two rides, stage, restaurant, bar, shop, etc

All just in the last two years

All of this wasn't done to combat Potter. And it wasn't all done to address Avatar crowds. It was done to make a more complete park. With longer stays for park goers and to take some pressure off MK with DHS' hell. I think they'll be successful here.

The Potter comparisons aren't needed outside of comparing immersiveness and the rides because they serve two entirely different purposes.

Avatar itself was not a reaction to Potter, but the announcement itself was one. The announcement was not suppossed to happen until 2013, but then Potter. The bright side is that the announcement put a fire under their butts to get moving, and belive it or not, when taking to account the original concept, when combining R&D and Construction, Rivers of Light took longer to open than Avatar (mainly due to a dump ton of Creative changes).

 

[disney4life2008]

Zero!

I will get my fp to check it out but the entire land looks more like a visual than attractions. So im straight.

 

[disney4life2008]

Uh....Avatar made $2,787,965,087 worldwide. I'd say that there are quite a few people who have seen it and I'm sure that there are a good number who at least enjoyed it on some level.

Yes but its so late. The only good thing is that Avatar 2 will come out December 2018

 

[SpectroMan93]

The box office and longevity of the film is a moot point in regards to how successful the land will be. Ultimately, reception and word of mouth will determine Pandora's fate in the long run. The prospect of something new on this scale should be enough to bring increased crowds to the park. The real question is if all these additions will be enough to keep guests at AK for a full day.

 

[I am Timmy]

The environment and story for the movie was created to show off technology. Its a rather generic lush alien world with generic mineral "unobtanium" driving the story. But very beautiful.

The land is much the same, a theming showcase but still generic lush alien world that feels a bit contrived Potter was built to showcase a story first location and ties it in with instantly recognizable locations with total immersion (Diagon). Both are very cool, but one will have more of a familiarity to it than the other.

It is a great addition to DAK, but this still does not make it a full day park. RoL is also good but not great. I kinda fear star wars land may face the "generic star warsy" location feel rather than something truly familiar too. But it probably will have more going for it than Pandora.

"Finally something new since everest " is about the best description for any excitement for Pandora.

I'm also super excited that the walls around AK are coming down at long last! Is that sad?

 

[networkpro]

I'm also super excited that the walls around AK are coming down at long last! Is that sad?

No Camp Minnie Mickey was the epitome of sad... aka Strollerland.

 

[Ripken10]

For me, at first I was excited for something new, and that's why I liked it. Now, not so much. This land looks incredible, and some will believe it is beautiful just cause, but many, myself included, it will be because it puts you into what the movie was - a visual masterpiece. I actually didn't care too much for the movie the first time I watched it. As I have seen photos, I wanted to go back and watch it. I finally did go back and watched it. Funny thing is, I now enjoyed it more. This will happen to people as well. They will be able to relate to the movie more, and will enjoy the movie more watching it again (and from my personal experience, I have heard a number of others in my real life, not from social media, that have said the same thing about enjoying the movie more now after seeing the pictures of the land.

On another side of it, Some of my family wasn't as excited for the land at first. They didn't remember or have seen the movie. Now, seeing pictures of it, they are extremely excited. Some who saw the movie saying things like "oh I remember that now", and others going to watch it for the first time.

And I know others that enjoyed the movie and now have shown their interest in the "franchise" peak again. I think the land could work on it's own, but the existence of the movie will make it even better. The success of the movie will make it even better. And the land will make the movie more memorable now too. It will become the chicken or the egg. There will always be people that are so stubborn they won't give it a chance, and come up with any way to say the movie wasn't that successful (you can make statistics say anything you want, and that's what people are doing here). Those people are the least credible people here. The most credible are the people that either at first didn't like the idea and now are sold on it, or the people that loved the idea but now are turned off by it. Somehow I think more people are buying in that weren't originally fans, then there are people who are turned off by it.

There isn't one reason this land will be successful, and people will argue till the end of time why it is. but just look at the amount of talk people who hate it are doing, and the amount of talk overall. This isn't going to be a temporary thing, this is something that will be around. And the argument of why will continue.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

The highest grossing home video is Frozen and Avatar is only at the top in terms of blue ray movies which again is because visually it is spectacular at showing off the capabilities of the new technology in your home.

The spin continues.

The millions and millions of people who bought the movie on disc, don't actually like it, they just bought it as a demo disc? Who does this? An extremely small percentage of those consumers, that's who.

Just like people went to a movie that didn't interest them because 3D. And kept going. For weeks and weeks. Making it the highest grossing movie of all time by a wide margin. I can picture the conversations: "hey, I saw this movie, and it wasn't very good at all, I really didn't enjoy it, but the 3D was very well done, even though it's not the first 3D movie by any means". "Wow, a mediocre movie with 3D that's a bit better than the numerous other 3D movies released in the last few years? I guess I'll go see it right away!".

 

[twebber55]

The spin continues.

The millions and millions of people who bought the movie on disc, don't actually like it, they just bought it as a demo disc? Who does this? An extremely small percentage of those consumers, that's who.

Just like people went to a movie that didn't interest them because 3D. And kept going. For weeks and weeks. Making it the highest grossing movie of all time by a wide margin. I can picture the conversations: "hey, I saw this movie, and it wasn't very good at all, I really didn't enjoy it, but the 3D was very well done, even though it's not the first 3D movie by any means". "Wow, a mediocre movie with 3D that's a bit better than the numerous other 3D movies released in the last few years? I guess I'll go see it right away!".

even if you buy the 3D argument (which i dont) no one can give a reason why it did so well (top grossing home market movie of all time) on home market sales
me: avatar is the top grossing film of all time many people liked it
person A: people only liked it for the 3D visuals
me: its also the top grossing blue ray of all time
person A: !!@!@? i got nothing

 

[mergatroid]

The spin continues.

The millions and millions of people who bought the movie on disc, don't actually like it, they just bought it as a demo disc? Who does this? An extremely small percentage of those consumers, that's who.

Just like people went to a movie that didn't interest them because 3D. And kept going. For weeks and weeks. Making it the highest grossing movie of all time by a wide margin. I can picture the conversations: "hey, I saw this movie, and it wasn't very good at all, I really didn't enjoy it, but the 3D was very well done, even though it's not the first 3D movie by any means". "Wow, a mediocre movie with 3D that's a bit better than the numerous other 3D movies released in the last few years? I guess I'll go see it right away!".

 

[jt04]

I'd listen to an argument about Pandora being a better fit over Mysterious Island, but I doubt anyone would have actually complained much about Mysterious Island coming here. I know I"m going to regret asking, but why would you think Beastly Kingdom would have been a worse fit than Pandora?

Just think it fits better. BK was based on the mythical. Pandora is supposed to be real. Just as the Yeti may possibly be real. Or the safari is real. BK was basically fantasyland.

Mysterious Island would have been nice in a Yeti sort of reality but Pandora has exceeded that by shear epic-ness as a land.

I know you originally thought DAK should have representations of each continent. And I agreed at the time. But since they have gone for the fantastical instead, I think Pandora is great. And really creates amazing possibilities for the future of DAK.

 

[L.C. Clench]

Just think it fits better. BK was based on the mythical. Pandora is supposed to be real. Just as the Yeti may possibly be real. Or the safari is real. BK was basically fantasyland.

Huh...Did you just say that Avatar is a better fit because it's more based in reality than creatures humanity had stories of actually existing? Blue people in an alternative universe is more reality based than a dragon or unicorn?

 

[captainkidd]

Wasn't in the least bit interested when it was announced. Now...still not in the least bit interested.

I saw the movie. I enjoyed it. Have no desire to watch it again or see a sequel. No doubt, it sold a lot of tickets, but keep a few things in perspective. It was the largest Imax and 3D release ever. That boosted the money it made considerably. In terms of tickets sold, I don't believe it's in the top 10 of all time.

ETA: #15 in terms of tickets sold.

 

[BrianLo]

I'd listen to an argument about Pandora being a better fit over Mysterious Island, but I doubt anyone would have actually complained much about Mysterious Island coming here. I know I"m going to regret asking, but why would you think Beastly Kingdom would have been a worse fit than Pandora?

It's not a realistic discussion as we have Mysterious Island and will have Pandora to compare. I think most will eventually come around to agreement that Pandora actually respects AK's overarching thematic narrative better... but then again it was built for AK. Of course less would have complained up front about Mysterious Island, because we would have known exactly what was coming. Mysterious Island we already knew was some of WDI's best work.

The only thing fans like more than their ideal armchair imagineering is actual amazing work that exists somewhere outside of their home resort.

Beastly Kingdom exists on cocktail napkins and fanboi's heads. So it's just as amazingly stellar or as sub-par as the person wants it to be.

It had the potential to fit better, but it also had the potential to be a great sounding idea on paper, but not actually live up to it in reality. Kind of like how New Fantasyland in theory was a much better idea for Magic Kingdom than Cars Land was for DCA.

Happily the original park imagineer's heart was clearly in this project and all the right decisions have been made.

 

[DDLand]

Wasn't in the least bit interested when it was announced. Now...still not in the least bit interested.

I saw the movie. I enjoyed it. Have no desire to watch it again or see a sequel. No doubt, it sold a lot of tickets, but keep a few things in perspective. It was the largest Imax and 3D release ever. That boosted the money it made considerably. In terms of tickets sold, I don't believe it's in the top 10 of all time.

ETA: #15 in terms of tickets sold.

I was more disinterested (partially driven by frustration) before I went on Battle for the Sunken Treasure at Shanghai. I proceeded to get my mind blown.

I think a lot of Walt Disney World fans have no clue what Imagineering is capable of these days. Nothing Disney in Orlando comes close to the awe inspiring magnitude of that ride. If Avatar meets that standard, I think there's going to be some serious pivoting on the parts of many fans.

I'd keep an open mind! I'm still frustrated, but I think you really are in for a treat. True 21st Century attractions.