Seems like everything that could go wrong for Disney has done just that. Disney has had a string of box office failures, and is facing a loss by spending too much on Disney plus content. The parks are the only ones bring in the dough and unfortunately, they will probably suffer the most.
How did we get here? Well Iger has a lot to do with that with his $71.3 Billion dollar purchase of Fox a couple of years back which in my opinion, was a bad move. Also Disney is spending Billions to gain full control of Hulu. The Lockdown really put a huge dent in Disney’s future plans and they’re trying to save where they can with cost cutting, employee firings, etc.
Many attractions that were announced at the 2017, 2019 expos have been canceled or shelved including new additions at Epcot. This includes the Cherry Tree Lane area and Mary Poppins attraction, an update to Spaceship Earth, PLAY! Pavilion and a more futuristic ambitious look to World Celebration. Other parks felt this such as Disneyland Paris as their Galaxy’s Edge plans were canceled. Also, some attractions have been in constant limbo such as the new Avengers attractions for DCA and Hong Kong as well as Epcot’s new Japan film.
The parks have gained a significant amount of attractions the past couple of years all the way up until 2025 but these are rides that were announced, started groundbreaking and properly financed before the lockdown. Many of them have taken long amounts of time to be built, longer than usual. TDL is the only one getting things done by adding 3 new lands with 4 new rides along with a new space mountain but that is because they are owned by OLC.
What’s the future looking like? Well we have Tiana’s Bayou Adventure that was announced during the lockdown but this was necessary do the social climate and Disney didn’t want the bad press for keeping Splash Mountain. Attractions that have been announced at the expo and Destination D have been lackluster at best. This includes small updates to attractions like Country Bear Jamboree, Haunted Mansion, and new character meet and greets. They are also adding a new Zootopia 3D film which is significantly cheaper then buying a new attraction. The new Test Track’s bill will mostly be taken care of by GM. The reason why they show these “bluesky” attractions and lands is because they don’t have anything concrete to show us for the future so they’re trying to get us excited by shooting out possible ideas which they see as being better than showing nothing at all.
Do you think Disney will come back from this? Will Disneyworld, Disneyland, etc suffer for long? What do you all think of the current situation the parks are in?