News Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind attraction confirmed for Epcot

[Maeryk]

Much crappier Disney IP, honestly. Neither Tron movie did well at the box office. Its a much riskier move to base a ride on it than even Avatar. Whereas both Guardians movies were huge hits and well received. RT ratings - Tron 2 - 51%. GotG1 - 91%, GotG2 - 81%. If you're factoring risk in, its much less risky to put the ride in MK since it can absorb such a thing failing (see: SGE) than Epcot can, especially as they rebuild it.

Whether or you like it or not, Disney owns Marvel. These are both Disney IPs.

The beauty of the Tron coaster concept, is it can be rethemed down the road. Reskin the ride vehicle, and change up the displays (most of it is electronic screens) and you can make it whatever you want.

 

[JEANYLASER]

awesome! I'm glad the Ellen's Energy adventure is leaving and Guardians of the Galaxy will be awesome ride!

 

[The_Jobu]

Please forgive me if this has already been discussed; I'm still working to get caught up:
Was it just me, or did they sound extremely defensive when discussing changing/adding IPs to attractions?
"Mission Breakout has more Fastpasses issued than any other attraction in DCA!"
"Frozen Ever After is the most popular attraction in Epcot!"
It was as though they're actively trying to convince us that they know what they're doing.

They gotta try and convince someone that they know what they're doing... But I think they'd settle for anyone.

 

[Maeryk]

Please forgive me if this has already been discussed; I'm still working to get caught up:
Was it just me, or did they sound extremely defensive when discussing changing/adding IPs to attractions?
"Mission Breakout has more Fastpasses issued than any other attraction in DCA!"
"Frozen Ever After is the most popular attraction in Epcot!"
It was as though they're actively trying to convince us that they know what they're doing.

Say what you will about Frozen Ever Maelstrom.. but there was never a line for maelstrom.. there was barely a queue. Now it's SRO all day long. SO clearly they hit it with a significant segment of the population. And I don't miss Abba working oil rigs, to be completely honest.

Seas was just about dead till they did the Nemo thing.. and it's worth a ride once per visit.

The attendance at the property has exponentially increased since Epcot opened. They need attractions that hold more people, and keep more people busy. We want these changes to the parks that cost mucho dinero, but we don't seem to want the increased traffic to support them. You can't have it both ways. As long as the queue is interesting, I might actually stand in it for a while.

 

[Dapper Dan]

Please forgive me if this has already been discussed; I'm still working to get caught up:
Was it just me, or did they sound extremely defensive when discussing changing/adding IPs to attractions?
"Mission Breakout has more Fastpasses issued than any other attraction in DCA!"
"Frozen Ever After is the most popular attraction in Epcot!"
It was as though they're actively trying to convince us that they know what they're doing.

Like nobody knows brand new attractions tend to have long lines.

 

[The_Jobu]

Say what you will about Frozen Ever Maelstrom.. but there was never a line for maelstrom.. there was barely a queue. Now it's SRO all day long. SO clearly they hit it with a significant segment of the population. And I don't miss Abba working oil rigs, to be completely honest.

Seas was just about dead till they did the Nemo thing.. and it's worth a ride once per visit.

The attendance at the property has exponentially increased since Epcot opened. They need attractions that hold more people, and keep more people busy. We want these changes to the parks that cost mucho dinero, but we don't seem to want the increased traffic to support them. You can't have it both ways. As long as the queue is interesting, I might actually stand in it for a while.

We want good theming, increased population would just be a bonus.

 

[The_Jobu]

Like nobody knows brand new attractions tend to have long lines.

They really could have just said "we just installed the newest rides in the park!"

 

[Maeryk]

We want good theming, increased population would just be a bonus.

Frankly, I'm surprised the Energy building is still going to be there.

 

[The_Jobu]

Frankly, I'm surprised the Energy building is still going to be there.

Probably cheaper to put a queue/gift shop/Groot n greet than tear it down and relocate the solar panels.

 

[LorangeJuice]

Frankly, I'm surprised the Energy building is still going to be there.

I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the fact that it was (actually) built on a sinkhole and has a mitigation system in place. Probably not something anybody wants to mess with right now.

 

[Maeryk]

Probably cheaper to put a queue/gift shop/Groot n greet than tear it down and relocate the solar panels.

Probably. Also.. props for the Miz icon.

 

[GoofGoof]

Was hoping to read some speculation on what the ride may entail than pages and pages of the same arguments over and over.

Maybe a gotg ride specifics thread need to be started...

For me I always thought epcot fw was perfect place for marvel characters especially if it was themed as stark expo, but I guess the universal contract puts a stop on that. I'm excited to see what they do with the ride system and story. Can understand the disappointment some people have of the park losing its original identity, but unfortunately investment has been lacking for the pavilions for years. From a marketing standpoint using current popular IP's make the most business sense

I agree as this project progresses we will need a separate thread to track actual construction updates like Avatar had. Similar to the Avatar debate this one has a lot of passion on both sides and it's valid to want to talk about the further destruction of the spirit of the original EPCOT Center. I don't think we got a whole lot more info on the ride specifics at D23. It's kinda like how they teased Star Wars 2 years ago at D23 with little actual details. I think we'll get a lot more info as the project moves into the construction phase and then we'll need a new thread.

I may be way behind, but I thought the latest rumor is that this will be a coaster based ride system and there will be an additional ride building added behind the original Energy building. The Energy building will be mostly queue and pre-show. Anyone with actual info can feel free to correct me or add to this.

 

[Kylo Ken]

T-minus 28 days....

 

[Rotel1026]

Much crappier Disney IP, honestly. Neither Tron movie did well at the box office. Its a much riskier move to base a ride on it than even Avatar. Whereas both Guardians movies were huge hits and well received. RT ratings - Tron 2 - 51%. GotG1 - 91%, GotG2 - 81%. If you're factoring risk in, its much less risky to put the ride in MK since it can absorb such a thing failing (see: SGE) than Epcot can, especially as they rebuild it.

Whether or you like it or not, Disney owns Marvel. These are both Disney IPs.

I've never understood the argument that Disney can only base attractions on successful movies. How many of the millions of people that ride Splash Mountain every year are actually familiar with the movie? If Splash Mounting didn't exist today and they were building it and themed it to Home on the Range, or Kali River Rapids to Brother Bear, would people stay away in droves just because of the movie not having done well? I believe Tron is a great IP for that ride because it just plain looks cool. I'm sure there will be millions of people eagerly queueing up for that ride and a good deal of them will never have watched the movie or played the arcade game. I argue that what makes a successful ride is an actual good ride.

 

[Maeryk]

I've never understood the argument that Disney can only base attractions on successful movies. How many of the millions of people that ride Splash Mountain every year are actually familiar with the movie? If Splash Mounting didn't exist today and they were building it and themed it to Home on the Range, or Kali River Rapids to Brother Bear, would people stay away in droves just because of the movie not having done well? I believe Tron is a great IP for that ride because it just plain looks cool. I'm sure there will be millions of people eagerly queueing up for that ride and a good deal of them will never have watched the movie or played the arcade game. I argue that what makes a successful ride is an actual good ride.

Disney usually counts on nostalgia factor. Who is spending the bulk of the money right now? People like me.. wife and I, two kids, going to the parks every couple of years, staying deluxe club level, and loving the nostalgia factor. We both marked out when Tron was announced for MK, and have already started saving for the trip.

We are the cash cow. Not the retirees on discount tickets, or the 20 somethings without disposable income.

For that reason, we keep seeing stuff getting built that isn't terribly contemporary, but is a solid thrill concept. Face it, people will ride a coaster, regardless of what it is themed. The TRON thing just means it will catch the attention of us nostalgia driven people.

 

[invader]

Say what you will about Frozen Ever Maelstrom.. but there was never a line for maelstrom.. there was barely a queue. Now it's SRO all day long. SO clearly they hit it with a significant segment of the population. And I don't miss Abba working oil rigs, to be completely honest.

Seas was just about dead till they did the Nemo thing.. and it's worth a ride once per visit.

The attendance at the property has exponentially increased since Epcot opened. They need attractions that hold more people, and keep more people busy. We want these changes to the parks that cost mucho dinero, but we don't seem to want the increased traffic to support them. You can't have it both ways. As long as the queue is interesting, I might actually stand in it for a while.

Pretend Frozen doesn't exist for a second.

They update Maelstrom, that line will increase regardless. The ride hadn't been touched in over 25 years. The same can basically be said for The Living Seas.

 

[George]

Frankly, I'm surprised the Energy building is still going to be there.

Is that you doing half a diamond cutter with DDP? Wearing a kilt...but, I digress.

There's that, although it's also a reflection of the amount of extremely valuable IP that has been amassed by Disney since the 1980s (whether organically generated internally or acquired externally. Whether certain rides fit into the overall theme of a park/area is a valid debate. However, it's just completely unreasonable to think that Disney, at this point in time, isn't going to leverage its IP for new attractions of any consequence. The fact that there were IP-free rides developed in 1970s/80s is irrelevant in today's world (for better or worse) because the IP that Disney has today is so much more valuable than what it had when EPCOT was being originally built. If Disney had owned Star Wars and Marvel back in the 1980s, I have a hard time believing that wouldn't have been using that IP extensively at that time. IP-free rides were created in an era when Disney didn't have the IP that it was today, so we have to recognize that it's a completely different standard now.

I agree with most of what you're saying. It is a very well thought out post. However, I think they're failing to realize that EPCOT (or the Studios for that matter) has been around for quite a while now and people have certain expectations about that particular IP. If FW isn't going to be have pavilions that revolve around certain key issues (energy, history of communication, agriculture, the oceans, the font of human ingenuity (imagination), transportation, possible future lifestyles, etc.) that face mankind and how we'll deal with them in the future, they should rename the section of the park concerned. They also should say they're ditching the old mission of the park. There are a million ways they could leverage some of their more popular new IPs. Disney has always used the theme parks to increase exposure. They've also always used the theme parks to create new experiences and culturally significant things out of whole cloth (i.e. a new IP). Heck, sometimes theme park IPs become movies, comic books, toys. Perhaps, you, like me, were brought to tears by the thrilling climax and heartfelt denoument of The Country Bears. If they abandon IP creation for theme parks that are supposed to have some sort of over arching theme(s), then we are all a bit worse off. I believe (I know I could be wrong) that Disney theme parks will continue to lose some of the cultural ascendancy that they've obtained through years of excellence. We all should have seen this coming when everything was branded "Disney Parks and Resorts". Soon, WDW will be Magic Kingdom, Disney Park 1, Disney Park 2, and Disney Park 3 with More Animals.

 

[George]

The building is 105,000 square feet... that's a *lot* of queue and preshow space.

I know. Its huge. 1/3 the square footage of my rumpus room.

 

[matt9112]

I know. Its huge. 1/3 the square footage of my rumpus room.

why are we not invited to such a magnificent facility?

 

[PREMiERdrum]

I know. Its huge. 1/3 the square footage of my rumpus room.

why are we not invited to such a magnificent facility?

I have to believe there's wallpaper glue all over his rump... rumpus.... rumpus room.