With the tremendous success of WWoHP for Uni, Carsland for Disneyland and the expected arrival of Pandora and Star Wars expansion, are original concepts a thing of the past for major stateside theme parks?
It seems that the parks now believe they can't rely on an unknown concept to deliver attendance boosts and return on investment. Much like the way of film studios of the past decade or so, they've realized you can have a better chance of success by giving people something they're familiar with (sequels, remakes) than trying to create something unknown which may not draw interest.
It's sad considering the best known Disney staples (Pirates, Mansion, Small World) were successful and now globally recognized despite not having a previously known property association. More upsetting is seeing how amazing newer original attractions can be, specifically Mystic Manor overseas.
In the exceedingly competitive Orlando market, Disney looks to be giving up on original creations and trying to combat the Potter success only by obtaining popular properties for their own parks. It must be frustrating for the talent in Imagineering to likely create many unique storylines and concepts for attractions, only to be told 'We've bought a movie tie-in, work on this'.
Do you think we'll ever see an original, non-IP, major attraction again?
It seems that the parks now believe they can't rely on an unknown concept to deliver attendance boosts and return on investment. Much like the way of film studios of the past decade or so, they've realized you can have a better chance of success by giving people something they're familiar with (sequels, remakes) than trying to create something unknown which may not draw interest.
It's sad considering the best known Disney staples (Pirates, Mansion, Small World) were successful and now globally recognized despite not having a previously known property association. More upsetting is seeing how amazing newer original attractions can be, specifically Mystic Manor overseas.
In the exceedingly competitive Orlando market, Disney looks to be giving up on original creations and trying to combat the Potter success only by obtaining popular properties for their own parks. It must be frustrating for the talent in Imagineering to likely create many unique storylines and concepts for attractions, only to be told 'We've bought a movie tie-in, work on this'.
Do you think we'll ever see an original, non-IP, major attraction again?