- Dec 14, 2020
- 171
- 493
That's an interesting thought experiment. I think it depends on the use case. For example, Pandora is actually a special case because, whether through luck, foresight, or skill, it works regardless of any familiarity with the IP because it's predicated on being a beautiful alien world with a focus on nature. I don't necessarily think many people are going on either attraction for the Avatar IP itself (as massively popular as it is) because they are largely a tour of nature divorced from a specific main character. It's arguably the same thing for the rest of Animal Kingdom as well, which is why the park works so well other than the lack of rides. It's divorced from reliance on nostalgia or other factors that Disney typically leans on. You could scrub Animal Kingdom of Disney references with relative ease as it stands right now.I’m fascinated to see what happens when one of the IP that these single-theme, multi-attraction lands falls out of favor. Interestingly enough, WWoHP might be the closest because of all the fall-out surrounding JK Rowling. But, yeah, it’s one thing to swap out Splash Mountain or Jimmy Neutron…whole other to do that to a Pandora or How to Train Your Dragon.
Harry Potter, on the other hand, mostly requires that you know and understand the IP to gain anything from the rides. To that end, you simply could not turn the theme park into generic wizard land and it would have to be completely demolished. I personally think that JK Rowling will pull a George Lucas someday and reliquinish control for a payout if the franchise begins to wane in popularity so much that it hurts her pocketbook. I don't doubt that if Universal could get the rights to Harry Potter for a few billion dollars, they would do so because it would be cheaper than razing the property at three theme parks and coming up with new lands from scratch.