The Main Street Bakery soft opened over the weekend and is set for an official opening tomorrow. In addition to many of your favorite Disney treats, new sponsorship from Starbucks will bring its product assortment including all the coffee drinks you would normally find.
What will be you first drink order?
And now it’s time to close some tabs with stories I’ve been meaning to get to but just haven’t had the time. So draw a cup of coffee on that Keurig and pull up a chair, here we go:
I did forget to cover one chapter of the Orlando theme park wars. I often see the question, why hasn’t Disney added Marvel characters to Disney’s Hollywood Studios yet? Disney has said they’re actively looking at ways to involve Marvel characters in the parks. They even opened a Stark Enterprises exhibit at Disneyland to promote Iron Man 3. But there’s a big roadblock to using Marvel in Orlando.
That’s because Universal owns the theme park rights to about 8 of the core Marvel superheroes within a 250 mile radius of Orlando. Marvel gave Universal these rights when they opened Islands of Adventure in renewable in perpetuity as long as they paid a reasonable licensing fee every year. That agreement is still in effect and, unless Disney pays Universal a significant sum, it’s not going to change. I’m told that Disney’s lawyers threw everything they had at the contract before they finalized the purchase of Marvel, but Universal controls nearly every option. Disney couldn’t even run the Avengers or Iron Man monorails on the EPCOT look for fear or raising the ire of Universal.
My guess is that Universal would be happy to sell Disney back those rights for the right price. That price would have to include enough money to totally relaunch that corner of Islands of Adventure plus a reasonable sum to cover expected profits from the Marvel characters for probably a decade or so. For Disney to want to pay that amount (most likely in the neighborhood of a half a billion dollars) they would have to be able to convince the Walt Disney Company board of directors that the cost could be recouped with whatever Marvel expansion they decide to build. The leading contenders there are either A) re-theme Streets of America in DHS into a Superhero land (think roller coasters flying by overhead, a stunt show, a dark ride or two, and a Marvel makeover experience for the kids) or B) a fifth gate thrill park with a villains vs hero theme. (combining Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney heroes and villains). Option B) is at least 8 years off, so if that’s what Disney is leaning toward, they probably don’t feel in a rush to make an offer to Universal.
The themepark division as it stands now is earning The Walt Disney Company an estimated $300 million in net profit each year. So any move on Marvel in Orlando would have to raise that significantly to pay for the cost of the payoff to Universal and the new construction. Are there enough Marvel fans that would want to add a day to a vacation to make it worth it? Would the extra guests fill or expand the existing rooms at Disney’s hotels? Would the merchandise sales be profitable?
Even if Disney decides not to buy out Universal, all hope is not lost. It might be possible for Disney to build a Marvel themed hotel at WDW and not violate the ‘theme park’ rule… but if Disney wants to try and recover the rights to Marvel’s characters in Orlando, it will have to play nice for a while.
What do you think Disney should do?
Concept art for Star Wars mini-park planned for Disneyland Paris
Orlando in the 1990′s was bookended by stiff competition between Disney and its rival Universal Studios. When Michael Eisner got wind that Disneyland’s cross-town rival Universal Studios was preparing to open in Orlando as well, he rushed the mouse’s plans for its own studio theme park into production, even opening a whole year ahead of Universal. Universal returned the favor by firing back with Islands of Adventure, which contained rethemed versions of the Beastly Kingdom attractions Disney had cut from its Animal Kingdom project just a year earlier. Universal even hired a lot of the Imagineers Disney had just laid off to help make IOA a quality theme park.
And then things calmed down for nearly a decade. Disney kept churning out new attractions (Expedition Everest, Toy Story Midway Mania to name two) while Universal Studios was the forgotten step-child in a larger corporation that was dealing with ownership and financial problems. Eventually that got all sorted out and two things happened that turned around the fortunes at Universal Orlando Resort.
First, Universal got the theme park rights to use the Kuka robotic arm roller coaster that everyone was excited about at IAAPA in 2004. Second, it was able to convince Harry Potter scribe J.K. Rowling that they would be better caretakers for her story than Disney. The Kuka robocoaster win had something to do with that, but Universal was also willing to give Rowling final approval on nearly every detail. Disney would not.
“Much Ado About Nothing”, directed, adapted and produced by Joss Whedon (director of “The Avengers” and now the unofficial Marvel God) was released last week (in a limited release and will be gaining theaters as its run progresses) to the tune of an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film is a re-imagining of the classic Shakespeare romantic comedy set in modern times, though utilizing the same exact script, and was filmed in black and white, in Whedon’s home within a 12 day shooting period.
I had the opportunity to catch a screening of the film last night and I enjoyed it immensely. I am not a huge fan of Shakespeare, but I have always enjoyed Much Ado, though the last time I viewed the play was 4 years ago. The first scene of the film appeared and I was incredibly confused. To jump right into Shakespearean speak is always a daunting task, but by the 3rd scene, I was enthralled. The film had multiple laugh out loud moments and an incredible score that needs an Oscar nomination. It is a must-see film in my book.
This was a passion project of Whedon’s, a nice palate cleanser between huge superhero films. While watching, I couldn’t help but think, why can’t Disney do this anymore? Last year they released “The Odd Life of Timothy Green”, which was JUST what I wanted. Was the summer release date a good choice for a movie of that nature? Heck no, but it was a refreshing change of pace for Disney and I loved it. Continue reading
