The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[PeterAlt]

Holy cow! I just had a moment of clarity and figured out what Lucas is doing (based on my conversation with Timothy Zahn). So, back in the 70's, Lucas commissioned a writer to author a sequel to Star Wars called Splinter of the Minds's Eye. This was before Lucas decided to make Empire and Jedi. The stories for Empire and Jedi were roughly outlined at this time, but he let the author of Splinter write his own stuff. In a later interview with Lucas, he was asked why he chose to let someone write a sequel to Stars Wars that was not canon to his plans for Empire and Jedi. He said that he didn't know how successful Star Wars was going to be and that he was not sure if there were even going to be more Star Wars movies. That's why A New Hope ends so that it can very easily be a stand alone movie. Had it had been a stand alone movie, any story from any writer writing a Star Wars sequel would do, and Lucas would still have his originals, if ever there were an opportunity to make them in the future.

So, I would bet this was his thinking, as well, when he commissioned Zahn to write the books of original trilogy sequels. At the time he commissioned him to write the books, he was not sure if he would ever make the sequel trilogy of his (Lucas') own original stories, but he held on to them just in case there's ever an opportunity to have them made. Selling his company to Disney presented such an opportunity.

 

[AEfx]

Oh, I think there have been posters here on this thread that said exactly that - that WDI just can't deliver anymore because they don't have the creative ability. It might not be what you are discussing, or @WDW1974 (if he ever comes back to his thread...), or many others. But I have read it quite a few times over the last weeks.

As I said, no one with a brain...

 

[WDWFanDave]

The latest Motley Fool article should be fun:

Comcast Is About to Cream Disney

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/07/comcast-is-about-to-cream-disney.aspx

This should be a nice, calm discussion.

Okay, so I read the article. But, perhaps the most telling thing of all, in my opinion, are the handful of comments that have been posted at the bottom of the article.

If I'm wrong in any of what I put here, please correct me (nicely ).

So, let's start with the last comment on that page...Spiderman ride was replaced with Transformers since Disney bought Marvel. Hmmm...well, then I guess Uni needs to update their website.

Simpsons...am I out of my tree here? Didn't that just get completed last year? Am I remembering correctly all the construction pics just a year ago of Springfield and the burger place, the guy with the big donut, etc?

And, I had NO IDEA WHATSOEVER that Disney has CONFIRMED that they are closing not only American Idol, but ALSO Indiana Jones to make way for Star Wars. Not just confirmed, but ANNOUNCED and everything!

I hate the word STUPID, but in this case it fits.

And, as for the first poster on that page...has Uni reduced entertainment offerings over the last year at the same rate that WDW has? Haven't we shuttered two full parades at this point?

Argh. Now I really need that friggin drink.

Thanks for sharing the article, @ParentsOf4 , and I hope that it gets noticed by some important folks on Wall St...those that can perhaps begin to rattle Iger and Rasulo's cage a bit, and even make the board start asking questions.

 

[Travel Junkie]

It was very brief. When asked what he thought was next in theme park attractions, he replied, "Harry Potter". He said that he thought they'd learned Walt's formula: it's the sense of being in touch with the emotional center of your audience, and knowing what your audience dearly, dearly wants to do.

In another podcast some time back (around the time he “retired”), Baxter called Potter a once in a generation IP, perfect for inclusion into theme parks. He goes onto to infer that Disney really blew it by not getting the rights.

 

[AEfx]

And here I was thinking all of this prattle would avoid the Disney vs. Universal debate. Can't imagine where that idea came from....

LOL, prattle is the right word. I make long posts, but I daresay they usually make sense.

His premise is "we need to stop all this Uni vs. Disney" and then he goes on and on about it for posts, so what he really meant was "you all need to stop this Uni vs. Disney just listen to me go on about it" LOL.

All this debate is silly, though. Very few folks who come to Orlando to go to theme parks know about or care about ROI or any financial information about them, nor do they care that "hey, Disney has a great state of the art park...in Asia". That's all irrelevant. What folks want are amazing rides and attractions - and anyone who is not intellectually disabled can tell you who has been pumping out the newest, greatest, most frequent rides in the Orlando area.

Unless you are some idiot who thinks that 7DMT is an E-ticket, which again - I shouldn't use the term idiot, that's not polite when someone has intellectual disabilities...

 

[PhotoDave219]

Okay, so I read the article. But, perhaps the most telling thing of all, in my opinion, are the handful of comments that have been posted at the bottom of the article.

If I'm wrong in any of what I put here, please correct me (nicely ).

So, let's start with the last comment on that page...Spiderman ride was replaced with Transformers since Disney bought Marvel. Hmmm...well, then I guess Uni needs to update their website.

Simpsons...am I out of my tree here? Didn't that just get completed last year? Am I remembering correctly all the construction pics just a year ago of Springfield and the burger place, the guy with the big donut, etc?

And, I had NO IDEA WHATSOEVER that Disney has CONFIRMED that they are closing not only American Idol, but ALSO Indiana Jones to make way for Star Wars. Not just confirmed, but ANNOUNCED and everything!

I hate the word STUPID, but in this case it fits.

And, as for the first poster on that page...has Uni reduced entertainment offerings over the last year at the same rate that WDW has? Haven't we shuttered two full parades at this point?

Argh. Now I really need that friggin drink.

Thanks for sharing the article, @ParentsOf4 , and I hope that it gets noticed by some important folks on Wall St...those that can perhaps begin to rattle Iger and Rasulo's cage a bit, and even make the board start asking questions.

No. Indiana Jones has not been closed. Nor has an announcement of it being closed occurred.

A Star Wars expansion has not been announced nor have any of the usual credible sources said anything about it lately. Personally, I'm pretty sure it's going to happen… Eventually. Hopefully this budgetary season.

 

[71jason]

So is it crazy to think that at some point this summer, folks (non-theme park geek families) waiting in 2 hour+ lines for Gringotts may think to themselves, "I wish Universal had a system like Disney where I could reserve my spot ahead of time. It's friggin hot out here."

I believe most of the queue is indoors and air conditioned, in addition to highly themed. Same with many of the shops. (For example, the "owl shop" is nothing but switchbacks to get into Madam Milkins' for your robe fitting.)

 

[seascape]

The latest Motley Fool article should be fun:

Comcast Is About to Cream Disney

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/07/comcast-is-about-to-cream-disney.aspx

This should be a nice, calm discussion.

Very good article. However he did not say to sell Disney stock and it also did not say to buy Comcast. The article is right and this summer is going to be great for Universal in Orlando. The most interesting part of the story was the paragraph about cable and that part is big for both companies. More and more people are going to cut the cord and drop cable. The question is who it hurts more Comcast the cable company or Disney the company that collects the largest fees from the cable companies. Anyway for theme parks in Orlando universal wins this year.

 

[PeterAlt]

LOL, prattle is the right word. I make long posts, but I daresay they usually make sense.

His premise is "we need to stop all this Uni vs. Disney" and then he goes on and on about it for posts, so what he really meant was "you all need to stop this Uni vs. Disney just listen to me go on about it" LOL.

All this debate is silly, though. Very few folks who come to Orlando to go to theme parks know about or care about ROI or any financial information about them, nor do they care that "hey, Disney has a great state of the art park...in Asia". That's all irrelevant. What folks want are amazing rides and attractions - and anyone who is not intellectually disabled can tell you who has been pumping out the newest, greatest, most frequent rides in the Orlando area.

Unless you are some idiot who thinks that 7DMT is an E-ticket, which again - I shouldn't use the term idiot, that's not polite when someone has intellectual disabilities...

You mean it's not an E-ticket?! I'm kidding!

But it's the best non E-ticket ride I've ever ridden!

 

[PeterAlt]

Oh, and I also walked I to a conference with the creator of Sponge Bob. He was asked if a Sponge Bob ride will be coming to Universal from a member of the audience. He confirmed a ride is indeed in development and it will be part of Sponge Bob themed area. Not my cup of tea, but I thought you all would be interested in hearing.

 

[gmajew]

Wall Street will flip on Disney and tell them know they need to spend more on the parks... It is a business we all need to accept that and they will spend on the parks. The people on this board may not like all of their expenditures but they will invest and grow the parks. Remember that when you are dealing with public company their number one job if we like it or not is to make sure their stock rocks! It is a fact no one wants to admit.

Igor has done a great job of this and he will continue to watch the stock and make sure the outcome is good. So if they say build in the parks he will.

 

[GoofGoof]

The latest Motley Fool article should be fun:

Comcast Is About to Cream Disney

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/07/comcast-is-about-to-cream-disney.aspx

This should be a nice, calm discussion.

I was just going to post this.

It's interesting to see an unbiased person ackowledge exactly what a lot of people here are saying. These types of articles are good as they can only fuel more anxiety in Burbank and hopefully they loosen the purse strings to fight back

One of the bigger takeways is his reference to the 2 park ticket for HE and the lines of people buying the upgrade. Universal hit a home run by squeezing people into buying a 2 park ticket. Really shrewd and just plain smart on their part. Meanwhile, as we talked about earlier Disney missed a golden opportunity with MM+ to make the highly profitable resorts more popular. Forget Gringott's vs Mine Train. From a business prospective Uni's move to increase multi-park tickets vs Disney's missed opportunity with MM+ is the real story of the summer and will have more of an impact on the bottom line than which ride is better.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

Oh, and I also walked I to a conference with the creator of Sponge Bob. He was asked if a Sponge Bob ride will be coming to Universal from a member of the audience. He confirmed a ride is indeed in development and it will be part of Sponge Bob themed area. Not my cup of tea, but I thought you all would be interested in hearing.

Well I sure hope its better than 4D ride that they used to have at SFGA.

 

[GoofGoof]

Actually it's almost impossible to prove one way or another if next gen is working. My best gage to judge is if Disney increases their 4 park total attendance more in actual numbers than universal. Reading this site one would think Disney is falling apart but most people know better. If universal grows 15% in total attendance they will draw 2.5 million more this year. Disney needs a 6% increase get 3 million more. The strongest sign for a major increase is the increase in park hours for the rest of the year. This is something disney has never done this far in advance. I also think the signs look great for universal since they will be building more hotel rooms, or should I say their partner is. After all all the Universal Hotels are a partnership with Loews and not owned by universal like most of Disney's are. Based on hotel occupancy it's possible that universal could increase 20% and Disney 10% which would be a little over 3 million for universal and 5 million for Disney. Universal is doing great and bringing in wonderful rides but Disney is also doing very well and growing.

IMHO they will need to point to per guest spending. If its up they will credit MM+ if its not they won't talk about it and try to dodge questions. They can't just point to attendance numbers since they don't release them and there are so many other factors. It will be interesting to see.

 

[PeterAlt]

I wonder if it's too late for Cameron to take his blue sex kittens down the road to Uni. I'm sure a good lawyer can find a loophole for him.

What are you referring to?

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

The latest Motley Fool article should be fun:

Comcast Is About to Cream Disney

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/07/comcast-is-about-to-cream-disney.aspx

This should be a nice, calm discussion.

I learned so much from the comments! Did you know Disney announced the closure of Indy for Star Wars already? And that Transformers was just a reskin of Spider-Man because Uni lost the rights? Mind. Blown.

 

[PeterAlt]

No. Indiana Jones has not been closed. Nor has an announcement of it being closed occurred.

A Star Wars expansion has not been announced nor have any of the usual credible sources said anything about it lately. Personally, I'm pretty sure it's going to happen… Eventually. Hopefully this budgetary season.

I thought the SW land project for HS was cancelled and has been replaced with a SW makeover of TL, similar to what DL may be getting?

 

[seascape]

IMHO they will need to point to per guest spending. If its up they will credit MM+ if its not they won't talk about it and try to dodge questions. They can't just point to attendance numbers since they don't release them and there are so many other factors. It will be interesting to see.

I know they will try to credit all increases in spending to next gen but as I said you really can't. There are too many variables. Now just think I believe it's working but stating is hard to prove. I would have expected some people to jump in and agree with me as it's more proof next gen doesn't work. But only Disney will know for sure but they will also claim increased attendance on next gen. One thing is certain attendance is going up this year and it will be higher than was thought a year ago. Disney can thank universal, Frozen and the better economy which the top third of the country are seeing. Record stock prices and higher property values. The travel industry and tourism will set records in 2015.

 

[PeterAlt]

I learned so much from the comments! Did you know Disney announced the closure of Indy for Star Wars already? And that Transformers was just a reskin of Spider-Man because Uni lost the rights? Mind. Blown.

Huh? (Mind. Numb.)

 

[wm49rs]

Oh, and I also walked I to a conference with the creator of Sponge Bob. He was asked if a Sponge Bob ride will be coming to Universal from a member of the audience. He confirmed a ride is indeed in development and it will be part of Sponge Bob themed area. Not my cup of tea, but I thought you all would be interested in hearing.

Ok....