Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
...smooth. I like itLess demonstrative.
...smooth. I like itLess demonstrative.
The land was a failure 24 hours ago and now it’s Star Wars is awesome...what happens next? Lol
Disney fans don't care about Starwars??? Thats the incorrect statement.
It's the conclusion I've drawn from the performance of the land. The quality is there but most people grew up in a world where Star Wars was not Disney and it is still difficult to accept the premise. More importantly, Star Wars has fans. There is absolutely no doubt about that. But most of them are not going to give Disney over 100 dollars to go visit a theme park land especially when everything except the two rides is double the price (in the best case scenario) of what it should be. So I suppose you could say there is a pricing issue. While it is still too early to tell since Rise of the Resistance has been open a single day, if that ride under performs, my view is that Disney theme park fans reject Star Wars as "Disney." And I know Avatar does not have a big fan base and did fine but Avatar was fairly new when it was announced it would be added into Disney. Star Wars went decades without being a Disney product. With regard to Star Tours, it was accepted by Disney park fans when it was a single attraction in a Disney park. Not an entire land dedicated to it. That's my view of the situation at the moment.
Many Disney fans ONLY care about Disney...they can take or leave Star Wars as long as it doesn’t interfere with a 4,000 Calorie breakfast at crystal palace or a 2 hour wait for a projection show.
Now Star Wars fans have little use for Disney if they don’t give them enough of what they want in good enough quality.
That’s where we are with the franchise since “last of the story coherency”
Please allow me to chime in with a top-ten list of quick facts about the demographics at DL vs. WDW, and how these differences affected the perceptions.
But even though I’ll keep these bite-sized, it’s still going to be a long list, because Like most things in life, the reality is complicated. Life is not an easy “pass” or “fail,” “love” or “hate.”
1) The claim “SWGE was a failure“ is based on the reaction in DL. Everyone knew it would be more successful in DHS, because there’s little else to do anyway. But in DL, where many CMs and APs enjoyed extensive previews before being blocked out, the land had already failed to meet satisfaction rates before blocking APs and opening to low demand.
2) That’s because word travels fast in SoCal, and APs act as if DL belongs to them (not a judgment, just a known observation). Perhaps a better description would’ve been, “SWGE has a poor reputation because its creative decisions confused APs who expected music and entertainment.”
3) The combination of high prices and AP blackouts would’ve doomed any new land in the SoCal market. DL doesn’t get as much day-ticket tourist traffic at WDW.
4) The land opened unfinished.
5) The land is based solely on Disney’s sequels, and people wanted to experience the Star Wars universe they’ve seen onscreen. No matter how much this doesn’t matter to some people, it absolutely matters to the SoCal market, where the entertainment industry is a big part of the local culture.
5) SWGE was indeed a financial failure, as evidenced by quarterly results. But again, this is complicated by the blockouts and admission hikes.
6) Disney privately acknowledges the problems with the creative decisions surrounding SWGE — and by extension, the new sequels. They fired Catherine Powell as a scapegoat for Iger and Chapek, they privately refer to the land as “our billion-dollar IP mistake,” and they’re burying the marketing for Episode IX under the success of the Mandalorian, a show which appeals to classic SW fans. The infamous Lucasfilm story department is getting a shakeup too.
7) MFSR is a mediocre attraction, but it was never intended to anchor the land. In the AP world of DL, it quickly became a “one-and-done” for many passholders.
8) ROTR is an incredible attraction! But it also looks and feels like the SW film universe fans expect, not a new, unwanted Batuu. (Oh, fwiw, the rumors are true, and it was designed to be easily reskinned to the OT.)
9) I’ll repeat it because it matters: ROTR is an incredible attraction that could’ve been built in any SW land, or even attached to Tomorrowland. It doesn’t need the Batuu (SWGE) environment to wow guests.
10) Bottom line: the opening of SWGE as a land was indeed a “failure” resulting from poor decisions made re: admission, blockout, music, and IP. But ROTR is a home run, and one of the best attractions Disney has created on U.S. soil in over a decade.
Hey, even DCA 1.0 gave us GRR and Soarin’.
I think there was an ego at play here whereby they thought demand would be so high that those guests that were blocked out would buy tickets to see this. I think that was conceivable if both attractions opened this summer.3) The combination of high prices and AP blackouts would’ve doomed any new land in the SoCal market. DL doesn’t get as much day-ticket tourist traffic at WDW.
That would be the right move...the “diagon alley” second spot.If the land now becomes a huge success but they still have large numbers fans who are unhappy with the lack of OT characters what if they went the route of Harry Potter/universal instead? Not add another ride to the original Star Wars land but add a second land at a different park. But this time a different time period, during the OT. It would force Star Wars fans to visit 2 parks like at Universal and the OT fans will be extremely happy. Of course I think the existing land would have to be a runaway success like Harry Potter was. Just a thought.
To be clear: there is no “next phase”. This happens everytime they open something that isn’t a disaster since the 90’s. They want your money...they don’t want to spend more when you give it freely.The next phase should be the sit-down restaurant, probably opening in 2021 in tandem with the Star Wars Hotel.
That was the exact misplay.I think there was an ego at play here whereby they thought demand would be so high that those guests that were blocked out would buy tickets to see this. I think that was conceivable if both attractions opened this summer.
@tirian
...I had heard about how the ride could be “reskinned”....but If you suggest that here you get labeled a “hater”
From what I’ve heard...if you replace one AA and put new helmets on the troopers...it becomes Atari 1983
star tours closes reskinned to something else.. maybe diff things on both coasts,
Florida...
the hotel opens and the response isn't great
the hotel prices drop
the hotel does better
if episode 9 is great, obi wan is great mando keeps going... and star wars land becomes what it should as far popularity...
muppets is gone ( I hate to say it) indy is gone and that entire side becomes star wars land connecting to batuu. the park becomes star wars and Pixar.
It doesn’t matter what critics say at this point...they are not winning the battle with Star Wars fans to convince them that bad Star Wars is “good”Even if “Rise of Skywalker” isn’t great, critics might say it is anyway. Many mainstream, reputable critics are still discussing “Last Jedi” as if it were an underrated masterpiece, despite its plot holes and poor screenplay that would’ve doomed other films. There’s a lot of industry pressure to promote the socially conscious Disney and Marvel films, which is why you get journalists pretending “Capt. Marvel” and “Black Panther” were somehow more than well made popcorn flicks, and why so many ignore the issues with the new Disney sequel. (And by extension, Iger’s now-infamous response that “Black Panther” is just as good as “The Godfather.”)
***
I guess I should add that I’m only a casual SW fan, and my issues with the Disney sequels are based on their own merits, not how they affect the larger canon. TBH, I don’t care.
***
So in many ways, Disney’s PR machine can spin small victories and ignore larger problems, and claim SWGE is a success—which is exactly what they did during Chapek’s, uh, performance.
Please allow me to chime in with a top-ten list of quick facts about the demographics at DL vs. WDW, and how these differences affected the perceptions.
But even though I’ll keep these bite-sized, it’s still going to be a long list, because like most things in life, the reality is complicated. Life is not an easy “pass” or “fail,” “love” or “hate.”
1) The claim “SWGE was a failure“ is based on the reaction in DL. Everyone knew it would be more successful in DHS, because there’s little else to do anyway. But in DL, where many CMs and APs enjoyed extensive previews before being blocked out, the land had already failed to meet satisfaction rates before blocking APs and opening to low demand.
2) That’s because word travels fast in SoCal, and APs act as if DL belongs to them (not a judgment, just a known observation). Perhaps a better description would’ve been, “SWGE has a poor reputation because its creative decisions confused APs who expected music and entertainment.”
3) The combination of high prices and AP blackouts would’ve doomed any new land in the SoCal market. DL doesn’t get as much day-ticket tourist traffic at WDW.
4) The land opened unfinished.
5) The land is based solely on Disney’s sequels, and people wanted to experience the Star Wars universe they’ve seen onscreen. No matter how much this doesn’t matter to some people, it absolutely matters to the SoCal market, where the entertainment industry is a big part of the local culture.
5) SWGE was indeed a financial failure, as evidenced by quarterly results. But again, this is complicated by the blockouts and admission hikes.
6) Disney privately acknowledges the problems with the creative decisions surrounding SWGE — and by extension, the new sequels. They fired Catherine Powell as a scapegoat for Iger and Chapek, they privately refer to the land as “our billion-dollar IP mistake,” and they’re burying the marketing for Episode IX under the success of the Mandalorian, a show which appeals to classic SW fans. The infamous Lucasfilm story department is getting a shakeup too.
7) MFSR is a mediocre attraction, but it was never intended to anchor the land. In the AP world of DL, it quickly became a “one-and-done” for many passholders.
8) ROTR is an incredible attraction! But it also looks and feels like the SW film universe fans expect, not a new, unwanted Batuu. (Oh, fwiw, the rumors are true, and it was designed to be easily reskinned to the OT.)
9) I’ll repeat it because it matters: ROTR is an incredible attraction that could’ve been built in any SW land, or even attached to Tomorrowland. It doesn’t need the Batuu (SWGE) environment to wow guests.
10) Bottom line: the opening of SWGE as a land was indeed a “failure” resulting from poor decisions made re: admission, blockout, music, and IP. But ROTR is a home run, and one of the best attractions Disney has created on U.S. soil in over a decade.
Hey, even DCA 1.0 gave us GRR and Soarin’.
Is the X wing coaster that I’ve seen some people mention a fan creation or an actual project that has been worked on?
No...that’s not it.Disney fans can’t accept Star Wars as Disney when Star Wars has been involved with the company since the 80s? Right, okay.
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