The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[TeriofTerror]

I know people who have never seen Star Wars.

I tried to get my wife to watch it when we were dating. She never made it very far.

Star Wars is deeply ingrained into pop culture but nothing is universal. Harry Potter, however, is at Universal.

And you married her?! Sorry, I couldn't resist. (Hugs)
You know, I've never believed in love at first sight... until the night I met the man who later became my husband. He was able to quote "Horizons". (And this in a bar in the middle of Nowhere, OH.)

 

[PeterAlt]

The next movie to beat Avatar in the box office will be Anita: Battle Angel.

I will bet money on that. That's assuming that the Avatar sequels won't do better than the original.

 

[WDF]

I want to mention something about Harry Potter, and why Universal is at an advantage going forward.

I don't know what the Star Wars target audience age was....Harry Potter was first written for children around 8 and up from what I know.

Things that we first experience around that age have more importance to us than things later on...the same way Disney was introduced to millions of children, who now go back and take their children when they grow up.

Although I am a grown man, there was a recent event that drove home the point to me. When I was young, there was a cartoon on Nickelodeon called "The Mysterious Cities of Gold"....great show, had one season and went off the air.

About 2 years ago, (30 years since the first season ended)....the show's producers came back to the original story and characters and made a NEW second season.

The moment I heard the news, I literally cried. It was an amazing thought that people enjoyed the show as much as I did, would bring a 30 year old dead series back and instead of re-starting it, or forgetting the first one ever existed...added to it, so the story continued.

If I had been 15 or 16 when the series first came out, I don't think I would have had that reaction.

MANY people were introduced to Star Wars at a formative age and have then introduced it to their children at a formative age. The same will happen with Harry Potter...they are cyclical and on differing cycles. The children who read Harry Potter at 8 don't...for the most part...have children that age yet.

So to say that Universal has an advantage going forward may not be correct, especially if Star Wars continues to produce new movies and merchandise and Harry Potter does not.

 

[khale1970]

iPOD Touch, they are small and cheap... Not a solution to the problem, more of a workaround to avoid having to deal with kiosks the entire vacation.

Is there some reason a smart phone from some other part of the world couldn't be put in airplane mode with the WiFi turned on for in park use?

 

[ChrisFL]

MANY people were introduced to Star Wars at a formative age and have then introduced it to their children at a formative age. The same will happen with Harry Potter...they are cyclical and on differing cycles. The children who read Harry Potter at 8 don't...for the most part...have children that age yet.

So to say that Universal has an advantage going forward may not be correct, especially if Star Wars continues to produce new movies and merchandise and Harry Potter does not.

Assuming that Disney actually does something with Star Wars at WDW and doesn't make wookie mistakes, sure

 

[doctornick]

MANY people were introduced to Star Wars at a formative age and have then introduced it to their children at a formative age. The same will happen with Harry Potter...they are cyclical and on differing cycles. The children who read Harry Potter at 8 don't...for the most part...have children that age yet.

So to say that Universal has an advantage going forward may not be correct, especially if Star Wars continues to produce new movies and merchandise and Harry Potter does not.

Plus, the recent and future cartoons for Star Wars are a great "gateway drug" for young kids to be introduced to the world before even watching the movies.

 

[Mouse Trap]

The next movie to beat Avatar in the box office will be Anita: Battle Angel.

I will bet money on that. That's assuming that the Avatar sequels won't do better than the original.

Assuming it ever goes into production. Hasn't that thing been pushed back since the moment Cameron wrote the script?

 

[spacemt354]

That report was discredited. Paramount's opening weekend numbers were as accurate as you can expect from any studio.

Actually most studios fudge box office numbers, especially in Paramount's case since 9 figures looks a lot more promising than 8. It's never an exact science. And it's known throughout Hollywood that this happens. This one simply got more attention than others.

 

[WDF]

Assuming that Disney actually does something with Star Wars at WDW and doesn't make wookie mistakes, sure

[A New] Hope springs eternal!

 

[Quinnmac000]

I was a little surprised, but Google Trends, at least, suggests it's not the juggernaut I assumed it was.

Not an Anime being more popular than all of them. And I was being told many times that Anime was niche.

 

[ChrisFL]

I wish Iger would have looked at the trend for Avatar, how it dropped like a rock before 2011 (assuming the Google trends feature was available)

Edit: Maybe Cameron should make a cartoon series for now

 

[truecoat]

Not a chance it beats Avatar. Avatar had the enviable benefit of being the first big 3D film, arguably the biggest change in big screen entertainment in decades.

Right place, right time.

True but Up was in 3-D a good 6+ months earlier and didn't even come close to those numbers.

 

[truecoat]

Also Avatar will never have the loyal following or impact Star Wars did on our culture Just wanted to throw that out there. People will go to AK to see it, but more for to see what the land is about. Not for the characters or the story, just to see what there is to offer. Avatar just doesn't have the fan base SW had and I can't see it having the legs to be talked about 35 years after it's release. JMHO.

This remains to be seen. There are three more movies coming out, we can be a better judge of it after that. Comparing one movie to a series of movies isn't fair.

 

[FrankLapidus]

My wife, while I convinced her to see Phantom Menace with me, would never watch the SW movies again...nor would she ever read or watch the Potter flicks. Heck, I couldn't even get my daughters to read the Potter books. Bottom line, they're both incredibly popular but to sit and argue about relative popularity of a nearly 40 year old franchise versus one that is nearly 20 years old is a waste of time. They both have their strong fanbase, have worldwide appeal but both have people that have never heard or don't care about either.

I don't blame her if her first experience of Star Wars was the Phantom Menace. Tell her that after Jar Jar Binks, it really can only get better.

 

[Mouse Trap]

True but Up was in 3-D a good 6+ months earlier and didn't even come close to those numbers.

Avatar was about seamless meshing live action and cgi together in a fabulous world composed of massive digital environments. A tad more of a movie going "experience" than Up.

Nothing against Up btw. Much better story than Avatar.

 

[ChrisFL]

Wasn't Avatar using a different 3D technology than Up and other Disney (or Pixar) movies at the time?

 

[lazyboy97o]

Is there some reason a smart phone from some other part of the world couldn't be put in airplane mode with the WiFi turned on for in park use?

You'd be safer just turning off cellular services than using airplane mode, but no, there are no problems aside from people knowing they can do just that.

 

[marni1971]

Is there some reason a smart phone from some other part of the world couldn't be put in airplane mode with the WiFi turned on for in park use?

None at all. That's what I do.

 

[lebeau]

Letting the creatives in charge of Marvel do their thing is a good thing. They put faith in Marvel putting out movies that would appeal to their core. If they let Kennedy and the folks at Lucasfilm do the same -- and I think they will -- it should pay off.

You have a lot of faith in the people responsible for Greedo shootin' first. That's all I'm sayin'.

 

[lebeau]

And you married her?! Sorry, I couldn't resist. (Hugs)
You know, I've never believed in love at first sight... until the night I met the man who later became my husband. He was able to quote "Horizons". (And this in a bar in the middle of Nowhere, OH.)

Worse still, she won't watch Raiders of the Lost Ark. But she watches the Real Housewives shows religiously.

Lucky she's hot or that would have been a deal breaker.