How is Star Wars bigger then Potter?
More fans willing to buy stuff? Better then 7 books where each book sold between 50 and 100 million books and counting? Better then 8 decent to great movies compared to 3 great movies and 3 that resemble a turd? Better because it attracts a huge demographic including women and girls?
Don't get me wrong I love Star Wars (the original thrillogy that is only available in a butchered form on blu-ray and DVD not the crappy prequels). Both have upcoming movies, but only Potter has proven the most successful representation in a theme park (not Star Tours that is around sinds forever). So it's not "pretty simple" really.
I am a fan of Both Star Wars and Harry Potter. Read all the Potter books. Seen almost all of the movies first weekend in the theaters(got on the bandwagon late). Made three trips to Orlando just for Potter. I'd be making a trip to Cali if they would have built a great hall restaurant or anything significantly different than Orlando. I don't know how many hundreds or thousands I've spent on Potter merch. And I'm still confidant in saying Star Wars is bigger than Potter. Star Wars changed everything. It was a cultural phenomenon like no other movie or TV series ever. It's over 40 years old and is still a huge deal. The movie coming out this year, is pretty safe to say, going to be in the top 5 box office of all time. Lucasfilm, ILM, Skywalker sound were all created because of Star Wars, and they have had their hands in a ton of huge movies. the merch numbers are the biggest of any IP ever. I wouldn't be surprised if it had surpassed Barbie, Lego, or any toy brand. The SIX Star Wars movies are within a couple hundred million dollars of the total of EIGHT Harry Potter Movies, and thats even with three of the movies being in 1970's-80's dollars. Adjusted for inflation, its not even close. Star Wars is just bigger. The fact that they have 5 more movies in the works, is just going to widen the gap. Granted, I'm only talking domestic here, which may not be completely fair as a lot of Potter stuff is overseas. But When the original Star Wars came out, there was not much of an international box office and no internet, so it was playing in a much smaller pool.
You're absolutely right about Star Wars, I agree. However, it's apples and oranges you're comparing. HP in all Universal parks makes sense because all Universal parks are generally the same. Same theming, same rides, same experience. All Disney parks are different..especially in Orlando. The four parks in WDW are themed in entirely different ways for a reason. It's a nice balance, and throwing Star Wars into all the parks offsets everything. Disney would build a new park entirely before putting a Star Wars planet in every single park in the world.
Yes, nothing is better than having Star Wars in Epcot, Animal Kingdom, or Tokyo Disney Sea...
I'm not talking about what Disney will do. I'm talking about what I think they should do. I'm only talking about the US parks first of all, as Star Wars is mostly a US based IP. And honestly, I don't know much about the theming of the overseas parks. But there is a world in the Star Wars universe that could be made to fit in about all of the US parks.
Endor is a natural fit for AK. Maybe better than Pandora. Dagobah could as well, but that one has limited ideas. Kashyyyk is another.
In Epcot, over near Mission Space and Future world, Coruscant would fit right in. I think Cloud City could be made to fit as well. And I would not hesitate to turn the ball into the Death Star. I mean how cool would it be at night to have it have a laser show from the Death Star that randomly shoots stuff during the fireworks show?
In Hollywood Studios, you can just about put anything or everything, but that where I'd put Hoth, as it would be a little harder to put that Theme in another park. But this is also where I put Tatooine, as thats the heavy hitter of the Star Wars lineup and this park needs that. The sand/ice transition would be odd though, so they may need to be separated.
In MK I probably put something from one of the new movies, or a smaller footprint world. MK doesn't need the added draw that one of the bigger planets would entail.
Out west is trickier, more because of space than anything.
At one of the two parks I put Naboo. Its another of the heavier hitter worlds as it has clear visuals and more ideas you can use from it. You could even have it split into Gungan/Naboo if you really wanted as both would have great visuals. In the other park you will probably want a land from the new movies.
Granted, this is just spitballing, but you get the idea. This would maximize spending as it makes people coming for Star Wars make multi day trips. With a single hodgepodge land on both coasts, a fan can hit one park, one day and see everything. There is no incentive to do more, and theres also only one line of Merch and food that way. With the multi-land approach, you get different merch themed to each land. You can tailor food to each land. There are just so many possibilities. Figuring out the ride and food options in each land might be tough, but most of the smaller worlds can get by with just a single ride, a single food option and a couple stores. The parks that have more room and the more involved worlds you make more in depth. This way you give the Star Wars fans what they want, and don't tie up a ton of space with something those who have interest in Star Wars won't do anyway. Freeing that space up for other stuff.
I'm not saying slap a big Star Wars logo on the front sign at all the parks. I just think the idea they have put out is just a bad idea that really isn't going to really please anyone. It'll be pretty, sure. But it's not going to be what the Star Wars fans want.