Galaxy's Edge popularity vs Potter's popularity

[doctornick]

We’d need phase three first.

SWL will be the last "phase" for the foreseeable future.

I'd like to think they at least will remove/replace Launch Bay in the near future once the currently planned stuff opens.

It's tough for me to imagine that the powers that be at Disney think they are doing "enough" at DHS. Don't they realize how under built the park will be despite the new additions? It will be totally unable to handle the crowds which are not going to go away after a month or two. They should have a plan in place for additions to DHS, at least smaller scale ones, in the years after SW:GE opens.

 

[WhatJaneSays]

I feel that at the end of the day Star Wars, flat-out, has exponentially more fans than Harry Potter. And while Harry Potter carries a higher percentage of fans that are highly dedicated, the raw number of fans that fall into that category for Star Wars is still higher. WWOHP is a destination for many, and for the dedicated fan the deciding factor of going to Universal. Galaxy's Edge will be a destination as well, but for that majority it would not be the final deciding factor but an added incentive to going to Disney.

Once the new land is open you could grab 100 random guests from each property and ask them the single main reason they chose to go; at Universal Orlando I'd expect 20-25 to say Harry Potter and at WDW I'd expect 10 or less will say Star Wars. I expect a bigger total number of people will be swayed by Star Wars, it might even be the thing that pushes a Disney vacation out of planning into a sure thing, but I don't expect the 30%-ish spike in attendance that IoA got 2 years running when WWOHP opened.

 

[GoofGoof]

I feel that at the end of the day Star Wars, flat-out, has exponentially more fans than Harry Potter. And while Harry Potter carries a higher percentage of fans that are highly dedicated, the raw number of fans that fall into that category for Star Wars is still higher. WWOHP is a destination for many, and for the dedicated fan the deciding factor of going to Universal. Galaxy's Edge will be a destination as well, but for that majority it would not be the final deciding factor but an added incentive to going to Disney.

Once the new land is open you could grab 100 random guests from each property and ask them the single main reason they chose to go; at Universal Orlando I'd expect 20-25 to say Harry Potter and at WDW I'd expect 10 or less will say Star Wars. I expect a bigger total number of people will be swayed by Star Wars, it might even be the thing that pushes a Disney vacation out of planning into a sure thing, but I don't expect the 30%-ish spike in attendance that IoA got 2 years running when WWOHP opened.

Star Wars weekend drew a pretty good sized crowd of people who were at WDW mostly just for SW. I think that crowd exists for both.

As far as attendance boost it’s hard to judge. First, Universal was in bad shape prior to Potter so they had a lot more room for growth. They actually had a pretty large decrease in attendance leading into WWoHP opening. Percentages are also sometimes deceptive as opposed to total increases. If I make $10 an hour and get a 30% pay raise I’m getting 3 extra dollars an hour but if i make $30 an hour and get a 10% raise I’m still getting 3 extra dollars. The extra $3 probably means significantly more to the guy making $10 an hour but it’s still the same total increase. IOA saw 1.7 million additional visitors the year WWoHP opened. If SW drove the same number of additional visitors in its first year that would only represent about a 15% increase in attendance. In other words since the starting point for DHS is more than double where IOA was it would take more than twice as many new visitors to get to the same percent increase. That’s not likely. 1.7M total increase is proabably doable.

The other issue for WDW is the canabalization of existing parks. If they get 1.7M more people in the door at DHS how many are going at the expense of one of the other 3 parks? We have seen with Avatar that an increase in one park doesn’t always mean an overall increase. SW is way more popular than Avatar so I do think it will move the overall attendance needle but it will also canabalize.

 

[MisterPenguin]

SW is way more popular than Avatar so I do think it will move the overall attendance needle but it will also canabalize.

That's the goal. Move people out of the overcrowded MK. Until the other 3 parks are as big a draw as the MK, they should stop upgrading the MK. And, in fact, they are (TRON & Theater), but, if they really need to bring the other 3 up to MK's popularity to hit that sweet spot.

 

[GoofGoof]

That's the goal. Move people out of the overcrowded MK. Until the other 3 parks are as big a draw as the MK, they should stop upgrading the MK. And, in fact, they are (TRON & Theater), but, if they really need to bring the other 3 up to MK's popularity to hit that sweet spot.

I don’t think MK will suffer a whole lot. I do wonder if by 2019 the newness of Pandora will be worn off and that park will suffer. EPCOT too, but they are adding there as well and it’s close to DHS so easy to hop to, especially for meals.

As a fan I wouldn’t mind seeing AK suffer a little. That might inspire a few more additions to round out the park.

 

[Princess Leia]

I don’t think MK will suffer a whole lot. I do wonder if by 2019 the newness of Pandora will be worn off and that park will suffer. EPCOT too, but they are adding there as well and it’s close to DHS so easy to hop to, especially for meals.

As a fan I wouldn’t mind seeing AK suffer a little. That might inspire a few more additions to round out the park.

Epcot’s new additions should have come out in 2019, just so the park could compete with DHS for guests a bit. As it stands, Ratatouille is coming out a year too late. Definitely will still help in 2020, but it really needed something for 2019.

As for AK... I’m not planning on returning to Disney until 2020 (unless my friend ends up having her wedding there), and I look forward to seeing normal wait times for FoP and RJ. Luckily, I only had to wait an hour for FoP, but that was because EMH was at 7, and my friends and I got off the buses at 6:30. The park is going to need the dinosaur carnival to be wiped out and replaced with another great Dinosaur area.

 

[Princess Leia]

Rowling is still producing Potter material. There’s the Fantastic Beast film series (which should have been its own book series first, not just a field guide) and Cursed Child ( which... was not a good read).

HBO has the movies now, and I really think that in a few years, we’re going to hear an announcement that A) a Marauders era mini-series is in the works or B) Harry Potter: the TV series, will be coming to HBO (or NBC). 5 or 6 hour long episodes per season, 7 seasons. With Amazon is doing LotR, and HBO losing Game of Thrones, I feel pretty confident that we’ll be seeing a Potter reboot.

 

[nickys]

Rowling is still producing Potter material. There’s the Fantastic Beast film series (which should have been its own book series first, not just a field guide) and Cursed Child ( which... was not a good read).

HBO has the movies now, and I really think that in a few years, we’re going to hear an announcement that A) a Marauders era mini-series is in the works or B) Harry Potter: the TV series, will be coming to HBO (or NBC). 5 or 6 hour long episodes per season, 7 seasons. With Amazon is doing LotR, and HBO losing Game of Thrones, I feel pretty confident that we’ll be seeing a Potter reboot.

The Cursed Child was not a book! It was a screenplay, so clearly did not have any of the character development and background that a book would have.

 

[Princess Leia]

The Cursed Child was not a book! It was a screenplay, so clearly did not have any of the character development and background that a book would have.

I know it’s not a book, but in terms of character development... well, that should still show up in a play or musical. The only character that felt natural to the past books was Ginny. Harry, Hermione, and Ron all were majorly off track.

 

[GoofGoof]

Epcot’s new additions should have come out in 2019, just so the park could compete with DHS for guests a bit. As it stands, Ratatouille is coming out a year too late. Definitely will still help in 2020, but it really needed something for 2019.

As for AK... I’m not planning on returning to Disney until 2020 (unless my friend ends up having her wedding there), and I look forward to seeing normal wait times for FoP and RJ. Luckily, I only had to wait an hour for FoP, but that was because EMH was at 7, and my friends and I got off the buses at 6:30. The park is going to need the dinosaur carnival to be wiped out and replaced with another great Dinosaur area.

Having SW open without other new attractions in the other parks is probably deliberate. They want to cram as many people in DHS and get the best attendance numbers they can to call it a huge success. Having additional things in 2020 and the next few years after will eventually even things out but AK still needs another major project IMHO.

 

[Magic Feather]

Epcot’s new additions should have come out in 2019, just so the park could compete with DHS for guests a bit. As it stands, Ratatouille is coming out a year too late. Definitely will still help in 2020, but it really needed something for 2019.

As for AK... I’m not planning on returning to Disney until 2020 (unless my friend ends up having her wedding there), and I look forward to seeing normal wait times for FoP and RJ. Luckily, I only had to wait an hour for FoP, but that was because EMH was at 7, and my friends and I got off the buses at 6:30. The park is going to need the dinosaur carnival to be wiped out and replaced with another great Dinosaur area.

As of now, park focuses will go as follows-
2017/Super Early 2018- AK
2018/19- DHS (Renamed in back half)
2020-EPCOT
2021/Early '22- MK
2022/23-EPCOT
2024/25- AK and/or EPCOT
2026+ TBD

 

[Brainleech419]

I feel like a lot of people who are going to come down for star wars are going to go to Harry Potter especially after Nintendo opens. (did you know Pokemon as a franchise has made more money then star wars). but Star Wars will be more popular because it is on WDW propriety

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Firstly let's not use this to start arguments between Disney and Universal parks. My wife and I love both parks and even though I'm no fan of the Harry Potter books or movies, I really love what Universal has done with both of their lands. I'm fairly confident that Disney will do as detailed a job with Galaxy's Edge but that's not what this thread is really about.

My main question is are there as many Star Wars fans as there are Harry Potter fans and will this reflect on the numbers that visit Uni mainly for Potter compared to the numbers that will visit the Studios mainly for Star Wars?

I enjoyed both series very much. But that’s not what you asked.

I have to presume there are more Star Wars fans because Star Wars fans have been around so much longer.

Another thing you didn’t ask: the Potter stories borrowed a whole lot from Star Wars, which may be why I like Potter.

However: I’ve only been to Universal once and it was before Potter.

I very much would like to go to Universal again but the primary reason is to see the potter attractions, especially because they have re-created places from the movies.

My big disappointment about the plans for Star Wars at Walt Disney World is that apparently they are just going to make general “space” areas and not re-create the specific iconic places from the films that I would love to walk through.

I don’t know how much that will affect non-Disney fans who love Star Wars and would otherwise go out of their way to visit a “Star Wars land.”

 

[AEfx]

My big disappointment about the plans for Star Wars at Walt Disney World is that apparently they are just going to make general “space” areas and not re-create the specific iconic places from the films that I would love to walk through.

I don’t know how much that will affect non-Disney fans who love Star Wars and would otherwise go out of their way to visit a “Star Wars land.”

Very little at all, from what I have seen.

SWL isn't "general space area" - it's a very specific location they are building as a hub to different Star Wars experiences. In this case, the ability to fly the Millennium Falcon, and take an adventure boarding an Imperial Star Destroyer. It also provides a location that virtually any Star Wars character can thematically appear.

In a project of this scope, it just didn't make any sense to go the "Potter" route - the entire Harry Potter franchise is centralized around just a few locations - mainly Hogwarts. There just isn't a Star Wars location they could have chosen like that. There are just too many of them, and in general they are too specific to certain characters and time lines. And in a single land, they really couldn't do multiple and do them justice.

Perhaps if they do an entire Star Wars Park some day, that would make more sense. But here, it just wouldn't, because Star Wars is so many things - any specific location they had chosen to recreate would have been inherently so limited in storytelling that in turn it *would* have impacted its appeal.

 

[mikejs78]

One of the things I'm wondering about regarding the long-term longevity of Potter vs. Star Wars is if Potter can ever exist without Rowling. With Star Wars, most would argue that it's better off now without Lucas, and he was willing to sell it (give it up) to Disney. The question is, will Rowling? She's been very protective of Potter, and I'm wondering if she'll ever sell it, or, what will happen to it when she no longer is willing or able to create new Potter stories? Will others write new Potter material? Star Wars at this point has a much-more certain feature in that new material will be able to be created for decades to come...

 

[nickys]

One of the things I'm wondering about regarding the long-term longevity of Potter vs. Star Wars is if Potter can ever exist without Rowling. With Star Wars, most would argue that it's better off now without Lucas, and he was willing to sell it (give it up) to Disney. The question is, will Rowling? She's been very protective of Potter, and I'm wondering if she'll ever sell it, or, what will happen to it when she no longer is willing or able to create new Potter stories? Will others write new Potter material? Star Wars at this point has a much-more certain feature in that new material will be able to be created for decades to come...

She's already said she won't write more stories about Harry. Now, she has written stories set in the "Potter universe" for want of a better word.

At the moment, the answer is clearly no, given the level of control she retained in the creation of WWOHP, the movies and, more recently, the stage play. She really doesn't strike me as someone who will just sell up to someone else.

 

[mikejs78]

She's already said she won't write more stories about Harry. Now, she has written stories set in the "Potter universe" for want of a better word.

At the moment, the answer is clearly no, given the level of control she retained in the creation of WWOHP, the movies and, more recently, the stage play. She really doesn't strike me as someone who will just sell up to someone else.

And that may mean the difference to the long term popularity of the Potterverse. Star Wars has/will survive George Lucas. Potter is less clear, at least for new stories.

 

[bhg469]

I feel like a lot of people who are going to come down for star wars are going to go to Harry Potter especially after Nintendo opens. (did you know Pokemon as a franchise has made more money then star wars). but Star Wars will be more popular because it is on WDW propriety

This is where I think the huge difference will be. Star wars is on disney property, and that alone with give their addition a huge advantage. Some people still refuse to visit Universal for whatever reason.

 

[nickys]

This is where I think the huge difference will be. Star wars is on disney property, and that alone with give their addition a huge advantage. Some people still refuse to visit Universal for whatever reason.

Interesting about people refusing to visit Universal.

Here in the U.K. I would say that many families, once their (youngest) kids reach about 10 or 11, don't bother with Disney anymore. They see it as being for kids with few thrill rides, so do a couple of days at most. Luckily for me, my boys, and DH, are ride wimps

Star Wars might bring some back. So might GOTG and Tron. The theme of those alone will seem more attractive to people who associate Disney with Mickey and a pre-teen audience.

I definitely feel in a minority being a WDW fan, let alone DVC.

 

[dreamfinder]

And I'm sure some of it is how strict JK is with licensing. Unlike Lucas...

Don't forget however that there is a Harry Potter version of Pokemon Go that is under development. Not sure if that is any better than Angry Birds. On the flip side, both did have Lego games made that were pretty enjoyable.