Attendance Tracker

[zg44]

One could equate the parks division to the music industry. A lot in that industry has shifted to comprehensive deals with bands which pushes all sales to live concerts and merch. This is the area people will pay a premium for and those companies are still able to jack the price up. Disney has been charging through the nose with this in mind. It's a shitty area to be in as a fan somewhat.

This is a very good comparison.

In a way, the Movie Industry has the same problem that the Music Industry has; that hard disc sales used to be a huge driver of revenue/profit on the back end, which meant that you didn't need as much revenue up front. Movies always had theatrical releases as an extra edge over Music, but that's eroded somewhat as TV content has boomed and things like Youtube/Netflix and the rest make the theatrical experience less of a draw and less people are willing to pay $10 a ticket and crazy concessions prices.

The only format where Movie and Musical content can't be harmed by streaming (Netflix/Amazon Prime or Spotify/Apple Music and the rest) is in the premium experience format: theme parks for movies and concerts for music.

Disney and Comcast have a huge edge over their competitors in this space because their theme park divisions are immune to most of the trends affecting the major movie studios. Even the supposed "premium experience killer" in VR is still far away from being able to have a negative impact on them.

 

[bob albert]

VR wile majority high end is amazing and I will pay through the nose for it on mobile phones and GPUs

 

[Frank Drackman]

This is a very good comparison.

In a way, the Movie Industry has the same problem that the Music Industry has; that hard disc sales used to be a huge driver of revenue/profit on the back end, which meant that you didn't need as much revenue up front. Movies always had theatrical releases as an extra edge over Music, but that's eroded somewhat as TV content has boomed and things like Youtube/Netflix and the rest make the theatrical experience less of a draw and less people are willing to pay $10 a ticket and crazy concessions prices.

The only format where Movie and Musical content can't be harmed by streaming (Netflix/Amazon Prime or Spotify/Apple Music and the rest) is in the premium experience format: theme parks for movies and concerts for music.

Disney and Comcast have a huge edge over their competitors in this space because their theme park divisions are immune to most of the trends affecting the major movie studios. Even the supposed "premium experience killer" in VR is still far away from being able to have a negative impact on them.

I love a lot of what you are saying and the comparisons.

But the change from disc sales happened long ago. Disney really cleaned up in my opinion along the way (Comcast only recently became a content owner).

See, when I was a youngin, Disney would re-release all their movies, say every 5 years have something in the theater again...then we had Vhs, then DVD then blue ray...all the while folks upgrading or new parents wanting their kids to experience what they did.

Anyhow, Disney saw the drop in blue ray sales a good 7 or more years ago. They got Marvel, Lucas everything...they went big on content and pushed movie budgets way up.

But they also have stuff like a High School Musical...that is pushed to school drama clubs as long as royalties are paid...I do not know, I think I am just always am amazed how many ways Disney has to make money off their IPs, but it looks like (to this outsider) that things are just off with them anymore...I do not even know what I mean by that.

 

[zg44]

I love a lot of what you are saying and the comparisons.

But the change from disc sales happened long ago. Disney really cleaned up in my opinion along the way (Comcast only recently became a content owner).

See, when I was a youngin, Disney would re-release all their movies, say every 5 years have something in the theater again...then we had Vhs, then DVD then blue ray...all the while folks upgrading or new parents wanting their kids to experience what they did.

Anyhow, Disney saw the drop in blue ray sales a good 7 or more years ago. They got Marvel, Lucas everything...they went big on content and pushed movie budgets way up.

But they also have stuff like a High School Musical...that is pushed to school drama clubs as long as royalties are paid...I do not know, I think I am just always am amazed how many ways Disney has to make money off their IPs, but it looks like (to this outsider) that things are just off with them anymore...I do not even know what I mean by that.

Yeah, Disney had the formula down a long time ago; in corporate terms, they really know how to sell vertically and acquiring Lusasfilm and Marvel really demonstrate that. By that I mean, you take a movie like Frozen, then you turn it into a musical, halloween costume/dress sales, theme park ride, figurines sales, and all sorts of other experiences, etc.

Disney likes to say in their earnings announcements that they have several "billion dollar brands" (i.e. movie properties that bring in over a billion in all sales).

In my mind, Comcast (and NBCUniversal more generally) began to learn the formula from Harry Potter's success in the theme parks. That was really when I think they realized that an integrated cross-selling platform from studio to theme parks is a major part of what makes Disney so successful. That's when they decided to keep the theme parks (around 2013 or so).

Despicable Me/Minions are the main instance of where Comcast has really demonstrated an ability to vertically sell the property across all of their formats, from using promotions on NBC's shows to selling toys to the theme parks. They've definitely done a better job of bringing all parts of the company together to sell movies more recently (but that can't substitute for a high quality movie as Mummy reboot showed).

That's all a part of why they purchased DreamWorks; animated movies are really the sweet spot in the movie business where you can make a movie for $75-125 million and expect to earn a very good return. The Despicable Me/Minions movies are arguably the most big budget movies just on their theatrical releases, and that doesn't include any peripheral income. If Comcast can do that with movies like Trolls (where Comcast owns the toy rights) among others, then the DreamWorks move will payoff as well as Disney's various moves.

 

[Scott W.]

AM2 News: Exclusive: Dubai on target to become Orlando 2.0, says Worlds of Adventure CEO

This gave me a good chuckle.

 

[Mad Dog]

AM2 News: Exclusive: Dubai on target to become Orlando 2.0, says Worlds of Adventure CEO

This gave me a good chuckle.

Yes. That's a disaster so far. The parks are EMPTY for the most part. Veritable ghost towns.

 

[Scott W.]

Yes. That's a disaster so far. The parks are EMPTY for the most part. Veritable ghost towns.

Plus about 20% of the posters here are borderline alcoholics and UAE is probably the last place they'd want to visit.

 

[Mad Dog]

Plus about 20% of the posters here are borderline alcoholics and UAE is probably the last place they'd want to visit.

Lots of hands being chopped off for bad drunkeness.

 

[zg44]

AM2 News: Exclusive: Dubai on target to become Orlando 2.0, says Worlds of Adventure CEO

This gave me a good chuckle.

It's always funny when somebody claims that "X is the next Orlando" for theme parks. There isn't really anywhere in the world where a single city is poised to become what Orlando is in the next 10 years.

China's probably the best place to look for that, but their main 3 theme park groupings will be in completely different places: Disney Shanghai, Universal Beijing, and Chimelong in South China. They aren't clustering there because the population is so big in each region that each group will be able to draw well.

Orlando is so unique in its ability to draw from the eastern half of North America as well as Western Europe and South America.

Dubai's offering is just not even on the same horizon.

 

[Scott W.]

Lots of hands being chopped off for bad drunkeness.

That’s why god invented straws.

 

[Mad Dog]

That’s why god invented straws.

:doh:

 

[Joel]

I'm watching avatar.. again

 

[Mad Dog]

I'm watching avatar.. again

Bummer. Your world must be falling apart. Call 911 for help. No one is that desperate for Saturday night entertainment.:yikes::ack:

 

[awhen]

I'm watching avatar.. again

I'm listening to the soundtrack.

To stay somewhat on topic, I'm annual pass deficient at the moment.

 

[Joel]

Bummer. Your world must be falling apart. Call 911 for help. No one is that desperate for Saturday night entertainment.:yikes::ack:

I love Avatar, always have. Plus I just got DreamScreen and thought it would be a great movie to test it out with:

 

[Frank Drackman]

I've been impressed by the number of brits I am running into on this trip. UoR (to me) seems to be expanding well on the international side of things.

I know they've been pushing this 'we love our passholders' thing, but, I must say, they seem to listen. I was surprised that employees will now fill active freestyle cups for you, to me, this is an obvious 'give the people what they want' type move.

I guess as a FL resident, I just feel that seeing action behind words means something to me as a consumer. I feel if they keep this up, they may just keep more of us FL residents to help fill out the numbers during the non summer months.

All of that should help their overall attendance numbers.

 

[Mad Dog]

I've been impressed by the number of brits I am running into on this trip. UoR (to me) seems to be expanding well on the international side of things.

I know they've been pushing this 'we love our passholders' thing, but, I must say, they seem to listen. I was surprised that employees will now fill active freestyle cups for you, to me, this is an obvious 'give the people what they want' type move.

I guess as a FL resident, I just feel that seeing action behind words means something to me as a consumer. I feel if they keep this up, they may just keep more of us FL residents to help fill out the numbers during the non summer months.

All of that should help their overall attendance numbers.

Whenever I'm at Universal Orlando Portofino, just about everyone I meet is an International guest. And always a ton from the UK.

 

[Teebin]

Why would an international guest prefer staying at the Portofino rather than one of the other hotels? Do they prefer American Italy over Italian, Italy?

 

[Mad Dog]

Why would an international guest prefer staying at the Portofino rather than one of the other hotels? Do they prefer American Italy over Italian, Italy?

Probably the amenities and few children, if they're adults without children. Portofino is relatively quiet & serene.

 

[Frank Drackman]

Whenever I'm at Universal Orlando Portofino, just about everyone I meet is an International guest. And always a ton from the UK.

Yes, I have always seen many Europeans at the parks/hotels. When we first started visiting i ran into a lot of Indians (still do).

From Latin America, it is tougher due to language barriers, plus, it sometimes feels like another night in Miami.

I just like talking to folks. I always laugh when folks on here pretend many of UNI's guest do Disney, then a couple at UNI. Now, the folks that get their holiday as two weeks, that is one thing...but I often run into the 'it's bankers holiday or something like that.

Anyway, maybe I thought the stronger dollar and the brexit stuff would have had a bigger impact, but the English (and Steelers shirts) are still rather prevalent here right now.