Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts Tres

[Darth Sidious]

In all the excitment earlier I forgot to ask, Do any of the proposals that Bob Iger showed the BOD feature plans for a My Little Pony acquisition? I know there are still (closed minded) people who roll their eyes whenever My little pony fans talk but it's a very serious counter culture movement on the internet and could be a big revenue stream for Disney. Instead of wasting money on Star Wars and Monsters Inc. it would be more financially prudent to invest in a My Little Pony land where bronies can interact with their favorite ponies and ride all kinds of amazing rides in magic land.

It could singlehandedly brin the Interactive segment out of the red. There are so many synergies and leveraging opportunities.

 

[Darth Sidious]

Is that a joke? Satire of some sort?
If not, it certainly offers a great look at an apparently mentally challenged young fellow, in the throes of his affliction.
Poor kid....

I don't need to watch to know they must be a jaBRONY.

 

[Darth Sidious]

I'm glad they are finally addressing the problems with the GAC, since it was broadcast on the TV special. I think it would be great for 20/20 to do a special on the declining state of WDW. Then maybe they would start paying attention to that also.

It would be great but 20/20 wouldn't mudsling their parent company.

 

[Darth Sidious]

@WDW1974, and you thought MY thread had been carjacked by insanity? Welcome to your crash course in My Little Pony brony.

Fixed that for you.

 

[flynnibus]

Returning back to Earth, My major question is if they are indeed not announcing anything which Miceage seems to now accept as fact, When will we actually have concrete info or is it going to be further back and forth for the next year or so.

It sounds like to me... that in the last two years... the definition of 'agreed upon' has shifted. Instead of hearing 'there are plans proposed..' or 'this is the favored plan...' - we get 'this is happening!' and then it keeps getting pushed back, stalled, altered, etc. The TL innovations/nemo/autopia stuff has been done and undone and now redone what.. for a year now?

I think the rumors are being reported as just a bit more baked then what they really are...

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

Officially tired of hearing about my little pony, and the stupidly titled 'bronies'.

 

[fosse76]

WDW's attendance is a closely guarded corporate secret. Even organizations such as TEA, supposedly the best public source for attendance at most theme parks, gets it wrong. Sometimes by a lot.

Can a casual WDW guest tell whether 45,000 or 50,000 people attended the Magic Kingdom today? How about 23,000 or 25,000 at DHS? Yet the difference between these numbers spread out over 365 operating days represents a profound impact on corporate revenue.

Several methods are available to estimate crowd levels. However, even well-tried methods used by experienced hands come up with wildly varying estimates. Estimates for rallies held on the National Mall often vary by hundreds of thousands.

I'm suggesting that trying to project a sufficiently accurate estimate to truly understand what's happening at the macro level at WDW seems to be beyond current technic. While I think it's possible to come up with gross estimates, these have sufficiently large margins of error that make it difficult to truly comprehend trends. Is WDW attendance up 5% or down 5% this summer? Again, I'm suggesting that the margin of error used by any estimating technic drowns out such variance as nothing but noise.

Yet, corporately, up 5% vs. down 5% represent two very different business cases at WDW.

We're talking about two different things. You claimed that even a CM doesn't have the ability to have accurate attendance numbers. My point was that, no, I'm sure they do. When I worked for Six Flags, the hourly numbers were aired over the radio to all supervisors. The previous day's maximum hourly guest count was listed on a board in the operations office, as was that and the next days projected attendance and the day's attendance from the previous year. Does that mean everyone knows? Of course not. But it's relatively easy for them to find out. I can't imagine Disney isn't much different in that aspect. These numbers are needed for operational reasons, and are nopt closely guarded internally.

As for accuracy, All ticket media is scanned. Disney knows EXACTLY how many people are in any one park at any one time. Even if you can argue that some tickets aren't scanned (for whatever reason), it is not a significant enough number to have any effect on attendance.

 

[fosse76]

importantly, I really want to encourage folks go see Lone Ranger because it is one of the best movies currently out and a fun ride.

I wouldn't go that far. It was mildly entertaining, but had some serious issues (that completely unnecessary framing device, too much focus on Johnny Depp's Tonto and not on the Lone Ranger himself, the predictable humor, and I knew who the real villain was in that first scene and his motive as soon as they claimed the "Indians" violated the treaty). Personally, I think The Heat is currently the most entertaining film in current release. Monsters University was boring and Despicable Me 2 only exists because of the minions.

 

[IWant2GoNow]

Did I stutter?

*video of disturbing McDonald's trip*

I would like to pose the question of how is this gentleman allowed out in public alone?

I truly feel this is the middle to late stages of some kind of mental illness.

 

[71jason]

We're talking about two different things. You claimed that even a CM doesn't have the ability to have accurate attendance numbers. My point was that, no, I'm sure they do. When I worked for Six Flags, the hourly numbers were aired over the radio to all supervisors. The previous day's maximum hourly guest count was listed on a board in the operations office, as was that and the next days projected attendance and the day's attendance from the previous year. Does that mean everyone knows? Of course not. But it's relatively easy for them to find out. I can't imagine Disney isn't much different in that aspect. These numbers are needed for operational reasons, and are nopt closely guarded internally.

This is very true. Even lower-level managers seem to have access to this information. Same goes for hotel occupancy--odds are good your server at your favorite resort restaurant knows approximately how full the hotel is that night.

 

[GoofGoof]

We're talking about two different things. You claimed that even a CM doesn't have the ability to have accurate attendance numbers. My point was that, no, I'm sure they do. When I worked for Six Flags, the hourly numbers were aired over the radio to all supervisors. The previous day's maximum hourly guest count was listed on a board in the operations office, as was that and the next days projected attendance and the day's attendance from the previous year. Does that mean everyone knows? Of course not. But it's relatively easy for them to find out. I can't imagine Disney isn't much different in that aspect. These numbers are needed for operational reasons, and are nopt closely guarded internally.

As for accuracy, All ticket media is scanned. Disney knows EXACTLY how many people are in any one park at any one time. Even if you can argue that some tickets aren't scanned (for whatever reason), it is not a significant enough number to have any effect on attendance.

I'm pretty sure his point is that the average fan cannot accurately predict exact crowd levels just by being in the parks and observing lines or crowds. You may get a feeling of the park being crowded or light, but equating that to 45,000 vs 50,000 people isn't really easy. Even a front line cast member working a ride or the front gate wouldn't know the exact numbers. Sure management has the exact count from the gates, but Disney isn't putting that out there to just anyone.

 

[AmongMadPeople]

I would like to pose the question of how is this gentleman allowed out in public alone?

I truly feel this is the middle to late stages of some kind of mental illness.

I don't want to encourage this MLP discussion, but this comment (and others) are egregiously inappropriate. It's one thing to not like someone's hobby, it's another to say people with apparent disabilities shouldn't be allowed out in public.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Maybe some positive word of mouth will give it a little boost this week. It deserves it.

Perhaps this is a movie that doesn't have a great opening weekend but word of mouth lets it get up to a respectable number. It happened with the first Pirates. Avatar had a similar thing where it was doing $60-80 million weekends for several weeks.

 

[twebber55]

Perhaps this is a movie that doesn't have a great opening weekend but word of mouth lets it get up to a respectable number. It happened with the first Pirates. Avatar had a similar thing where it was doing $60-80 million weekends for several weeks.

well avatar made 77 million domestically opening weekend in december where movies typically do not drop off as much as summer movies...i do hope you are right and word of mouth helps build but i wouldnt put this movie in the same league as avatar in terms of opening weekend

 

[Sue_Vongello]

Yea Lone Ranger doesn't have that hook of crazy 3D visuals to overcompensate for lack of story or characters like Avatar did, which could sustain it week after week ...

I think Lone Ranger is dead. Unfortunately.

I found it FAR FAR more engaging, fun, and interesting to watch than Avatar.

 

[twebber55]

Yea Lone Ranger doesn't have that hook of crazy 3D visuals to overcompensate for lack of story or characters like Avatar did, which could sustain it week after week ...

I think Lone Ranger is dead. Unfortunately.

I found it FAR FAR more engaging, fun, and interesting to watch than Avatar.

hopefully lone ranger can get to 77 000 000 total to save a little face

think it will be a red box movie for me..im sure its funny i like depp

 

[Sue_Vongello]

hopefully lone ranger can get to 77 000 000 total to save a little face

think it will be a red box movie for me..im sure its funny i like depp

I think the last 30 minutes alone are worth seeing it on the big screen. Story/plot gripes aside ... that last 30 minutes is a lesson on how to shoot an action scene. The pacing, the editing, the use of space and characters ... all note perfect. It was shot coherently and visually interesting but in a way that we, as the viewers, know where everything is and how it works together. The best part is, the ending action scene basically contains four characters ... and DOESN'T involve a HUGE MASSIVE CITY DESTROYING EVENT. It's four characters trading places, doing "battle" on two parallel trains. Brilliant sequence ... easily the best action SEQUENCE of the summer.

 

[manutdfan1]

I think the last 30 minutes alone are worth seeing it on the big screen. Story/plot gripes aside ... that last 30 minutes is a lesson on how to shoot an action scene. The pacing, the editing, the use of space and characters ... all note perfect. It was shot coherently and visually interesting but in a way that we, as the viewers, know where everything is and how it works together. The best part is, the ending action scene basically contains four characters ... and DOESN'T involve a HUGE MASSIVE CITY DESTROYING EVENT. It's four characters trading places, doing "battle" on two parallel trains. Brilliant sequence ... easily the best action SEQUENCE of the summer.

I think you just convinced me to go see it. Haha.

 

[Sue_Vongello]

I think you just convinced me to go see it. Haha.

PS I'm not saying it's a great movie ... I had alot of FUN with it ... but that last 30 minutes, I mean compare that to Man of Steel which is pummeling city destruction with no idea what's happening or where characters are or how they got where they are (Lois at the train station?!) ... Lone Ranger's climax is great, no debate.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

New still for Saving Mr. Banks. You can now start ranting about all the Disneyland anarchisms involving tree sizes, building colours and so on.

And for those who want a direct comparison: