256 million for Diagon Alley vs. 1.5 billion for magic bands. Now I ask you, who do you think is going to see a better return on investment?
Without a doubt, magic bands. Disney is able to squeeze way more money out of their current visitors with these babies, they don't need client growth to do it. This is marketing on a whole new playing field.
Regarding Avatar
I loved the movie, I really did. And, the theme of conservation does really fit in to Animal Kingdom. With James Cameron unleashed, I hold out a lot of positive feelings for the coming of this land, as long as disney fronts the bucks for it. This is why I think this
You don't have to have a beloved story to make an incredible theme ride. Splash mountain was based on Songs of the South, certainly not a huge hit, and most kids today would not have a clue about that movie, nor most adults I guess. Same thing with Tower of Terror, a classic ride that is themed to the hilt. Disney does not need a fantastic franchise in order to make a fantastic attraction, or a fantastic land. They just need to let their imagineers go, and fund them.
But, Disney no longer does this. Look at voyage of the little mermaid in fantasyland. Its not bad, not horrible, but its incredibly second rate, using stale technology. One of the rooms looks unfinished, like they did not even care that you could see the ceiling. Have not seen 7dmt yet, and can't judge it, but I expect that its going to be better done then VOTLM, but still underwhelming compared to what is going on at Universal.
(I think there is a rebel at WDW imagineering though - he was given the job of doing the bathroom in fantasyland, and said - I am going to do it like Walt would have wanted it done).
Regarding Universal: they are taking attractions and themeing to the next level, and seriously blowing Disney out of the water. On top of that, the attractions they are doing DO HAVE a HUGE marketing franchise, of people who never have done theme parks MAKING orlando their destination solely due to the HP phenomenon. You add this to incredible attractions, and they are going to have instant success.
Think about this: HP is not a north american market, its a world wide market. Some of the biggest fandoms are in europe, and brazil, and australia.
So Universal has scooped instantly what Disney has enjoyed all along, world wide recognizable characters and movies.
Think about that. World Wide Fandoms + Huge Franchise + Incredible Themeing + State of the Art Attractions = Universal on a whole new level. The extra added benefit of HP is the easy, easy product marketing that is associated with it. The UO team must have been giggling in glee when coming up with product concepts to sell not only to the tourists, but world friggen wide. Again, I say, the poor avatar people are up the creek on their task. However, Star Wars is a franchise that is just as good, or maybe almost as good (is it a little stale?) as HP.
And, I would argue that UO IS a DESTINATION. The only reason its not perceived as a destination is because of the absolutely awful job they have done marketing. Honestly, its got to be one of the things Disney is most happy about with Universal, their marketing team. They have to be thanking the good fairy every night, because if the UO sales team were half as good as the UO imagineers, Disney would be losing people coming to the world. Instead, Disney is gaining people who make the trek out to Orlando to see harry potter, from all points of the world, and then figure, I might as well see some of Disney too. They look at the
ticket prices and STRUCTURE, ME, number of parks, and then spend the lions share of their time at disney and do Universal a day or two.
Thats my opinion, ymmv
