Star Wars and Marvel are two big intellectual property acquisitions for Disney that are already paying off (to put it mildly). Not that Disney is in the market to add more franchises to its collection, but Bob Iger has said they would make the move… Read More »5 Franchises Disney should consider buying (or at least renting)
Big news out of Burbank this morning. The rumors are true. Disney plans to follow up Cinderella with a live-action interpretation of its classic animated feature “Beauty and the Beast.” Actress Emma Watson, from the Harry Potter movies, has been cast as Belle. The film… Read More »Emma Watson cast as Belle in Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast movie
I’ve been doing my best to avoid major spoilers to the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter area at Universal Studios Florida. Not every blog can be invited to the press events and for some reason, Universal didn’t invite us to last week’s mega-preview event.… Read More »Universal Orlando Resort – Diagon Alley Preview
Just released today is Universal Orlando Resort’s third preview trailer for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Diagon Alley area. The preview uses scenes from the movies to hint at what’s coming to Universal Studios Florida. More details of the expansion will be revealed… Read More »Live Preview of Harry Potter Diagon Alley Expansion at Universal
After Comcast’s CEO made it clear yesterday that Universal plans to challenge Disney for a larger slice of the Orlando travel market, it makes sense to check in on the progress of Universal Orlando’s next salvo in the theme park wars – the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Diagon Alley expansion.
It’s 2014. At some point this year, Universal plans to open Diagon Alley to teems of Harry Potter fans young and old. They’re definitely making progress.
The London facade that faces into the park is absolutely huge. You can’t even see much of the Diagon Alley area beind those walls, but it’s big too. But the real giant of the bunch is the show building for the Gringott’s bank attraction. That will disappear behind theming, I hope, although you can see a little bit of it poking through right now.
Follow below the jump for many more photos:
Read More »Diagon Alley – Harry Potter Photo Update from Universal Orlando
While the rest of the world focused on Comcast Chair and CEO Brian Roberts statement regarding a return to growth in subscribers to their legacy cable network business, the Orlando Sentinel picked up on quotes from Roberts that signal the theme parks wars in Orlando are well and truly on.
Okay, no one is actually declaring a theme park war, but when Roberts spoke today in Las Vegas at a Citigroup event and said, “We’re doubling down on theme parks. We think that there is a lot of ‘there’ there in the theme-park business for many years to come and that we have a low market share — and only one way to go,” that’s a sign that in Comcast and Universal’s mind, it’s game on.
When Comcast bought NBC/Universal, they took on the theme parks with an eye to selling them at some point in the future. But after some small investments in the parks paid off with an sizable increase in cash flow, they were convinced to invest in the larger Harry Potter land, which has been an unqualified success for the resort. Since that point, Universal has been going full speed ahead with other expansions including: The Simpsons, Transformers, a huge new resort, and more. Read More »Universal Studios Parent Company Declares Orlando Theme Park War
Universal Studios just released a teaser poster for it’s upcoming expansion of Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley themed area. Last week Universal Orland Resort uploaded two trailers for the first Wizarding World of Harry Potter expansion. The first is a not so subtle jab at Disney’s… Read More »Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley Trailer and Teaser Poster
We talked last week about how Universal Orlando Resort plans to hold Disney’s feet to the fire by continuing its investment in the parks. Today I want to discuss a way you can tell if Universal is making progress in its quest to steal market share from Walt Disney World.
I have one simple indicator that tells me which park is pulling ahead at the moment — it’s a statistic I believe Disney really cares about, or should at least — how many tourists visit Universal before they visit Disney. It’s pretty simple to observe. Sit at any Disney park where you have a clear view of crowds as they walk by and count how many guests are wearing recently produced Universal merchandise. Every hat, t-shirt, or Harry Potter robe that passes by represents a large sum of money that Disney missed out on. In addition to that t-shirt, that guest also dined at Universal, bought admission media, and maybe even stayed at the resort (soon much more likely as Universal looks to add thousands of hotel rooms).
Although they seldom admit it, Disney doesn’t really care that much if you spend a day at SeaWorld or Universal at the end of your trip. By then you’ve already spent the vast majority of your vacation budget (including importantly your souvenir, lodging, and food budget), with them. Having Orlando internationally known as a family vacation destination benefits Disney (those marketing dollars go a lot farther when its true) so it doesn’t make sense for them to set the phasers on kill when it comes to their competition.
Read More »Universal and Disney fight for your Vacation Dollar