Wow the amount of drama in this thread is ridiculous. I think my IQ just dropped a few points reading some of the fanboi drivel that has been posted (on both sides). Many of you are so wound up in your own dream world, you are absolutely unwilling to look at the big picture or see things from another perspective.
The Bottom Line:
WWoHP is a wonderful new attraction at Uni, it will bring a large number of HP fans to Orlando as well as curious travelers who might make a special trip to check it out.
Is it a great thing for Universal? Yes!
Will it increase their turnstile numbers for the next few years? Yes!
Will it allow Universal to beat out Disney theme parks on annual attendance? Doubtful since even AK has a good 3 Million+ more visitors per year than Uni. WWoHP may bring that many more visitors during its initial opening year, but I don't see it generating that much in coming years.
Will the HP franchise be popular in the next 10 years? Hard to say, the books are aimed towards kids and teens and often times movies and books aimed at that demographic don't tend to last. While I will admit there are a number of adults who have read the books/seen the movies and fell in love with them, it doesn't mean that HP will have the same long lasting success as the SW series. However speculating on that at this point is rather futile since none of us can truly predict the future.
Will WWoHP have massive lines 10+ years from now? No! I'm sure many of you are calling me a HP hater, or some other stupid narrow minded insult, but look at the history of new attractions. They are blockbusters for the first couple of years and then once the newness has died down the whole "Been there, done that" concept comes into play. Since many of you have been comparing HP to SW, look at the SW ride in DHS, does it have massive wait times year round? No!
Disney was given the opportunity to obtain the license to the HP franchise but turned it down. There are many reasons this was done, first and foremost I would venture to guess was the money asked was way too much. Also its possible that the Disney execs didn't see the HP franchise having a long life span beyond its honeymoon stage (which we are currently still in). Disney usually invests in a franchise for its long term success, not short term gains. Case in point is the purchase of Marvel, Disney recognized the long term popularity of the Marvel franchise and its characters. With the seemingly infinite list of characters to choose from, Disney can profit from movies, attractions, merchandise, etc... for years to come. Since the future of the HP franchise is unclear, I would think Disney didn't feel comfortable paying exorbant amounts of money upfront for a franchise that may die out in the next 10 years.
A lot of you guys are saying that you think Disney is regretting not picking up the HP franchise, but for all we know it may be the other way around. Uni put themselves in further debt by putting all their eggs in one basket and dumping hundreds of millions into the WWoHP project. What if the popularity of WWoHP dies down before Uni breaks even or generates any sort of profit from this investment? Suddenly Uni is regretting taking on the project and investing so much money into it, since now they are further in debt and have no way out.
Will the opening of WWoHP have any direct visible effect on WDW? No!
Will people visiting WDW go to Uni to see WWoHP? Possibly, but given the masive wait times posted here, I don't think anyone in their right mind would drive to downtown Orlando to visit a park to stand in line all day, when they could just jump on a bus and visit 4 that have more reasonable wait times.
Will people visiting Uni go to WDW? Possibly, since Uni is only a one to two day park, if people took an entire weekend or even a full week vacation, they'd have a few days to kill aver visiting Uni, so they may go check out WDW or Sea World or Busch Gardens. No telling.
