A new era (2005)

Image: Disney

When Michael Eisner became chairman in 1984, he inherited a Disney in disarray. His guidance revitalized Disney’s sagging studios and reignited the company’s animation division. His acquisitions of ABC, ESPN, The Muppets, and Miramax modernized and diversified Walt Disney Productions and literally transformed it into the international media conglomerate of the Walt Disney Company...

Unfortunately, in retrospect, Eisner’s legacy is also tied to a frustrating era at Disney theme parks marked by cost-cutting leadership practices, underbuilt and creatively-starved overexpansion, and a moritorium on the kinds of bold, ambitious, cinematic, "ride the movies" attractions he'd initially supported. He left behind a period of sustained decline at the box office, a company overrun with budget-minded executives, and floundering, low-cost theme parks like the Declassified Disasters: Disney's California Adventure and Walt Disney Studios Park.

Image: Disney

That's why, when Bob Iger became CEO in 2005, he, too, inherited a Disney in disarray.

While Eisner's solution was partnerships, Iger's has been acquisition. Iger has essentially armed Disney for the so-called "Content Wars" through the absolutely unimaginable acquisitions of Pixar (for $7.4 billion), Lucasfilm (including Star Wars and Indiana Jones, $4 billion), Marvel ($4 billion), and the entirety of 20th Century Fox (including National Geographic, $71.3 billion), amassing Disney an unprecedented catalogue of intellectual properties in today's content-driven world.

That would become especially important, because the future of attractions was about to change.

Magical reinvention (2007-2010)

Image: Warner Bros. / Universal

In 2007, Universal announced something unexpected. They had secured the international rights to build attractions based on Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling's book series-turned-blockbuster film series that had shaped a generation. At first, the licensing deal might not have read any differently than Disney's licensing of Star Wars back in the '80s. In fact, early artwork even showed the existing Medieval-themed Merlinwood section of Islands of Adventure's Lost Continent lightly redressed as a Harry Potter themed village, with the requisite Hogwarts castle beyond.

Image: Universal / Warner Bros.

But when the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was announced, it was something entirely different. Working with Warner Bros. and the real design team behind the films, Universal had painstakingly recreated the snow-covered village of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry beyond... in real scale.

Per Rowling's requirements, the land was insulated from the rest of the park... it wouldn't sell "Harry Potter" LEGO sets and action figures, but robes and wands; no Coca-Cola, only Pumpkin Juice, Fizzy Otters, and Butterbeer; no character meet-and-greets with actors dressed as Harry, Ron, and Hermione, just citizens of Hogsmeade selling their wares. Only authentic Scottish dishes would be sold in the restaurant, and each shop would be built to "authentic" (read: cramped) scale, not up-sized for theme park crowds and flow...

Image: Universal

The land's new ride would be an ultra-high-tech dark ride through Hogwarts and beyond... but the Wizarding World was the attraction. It wasn't just that Islands of Adventure's attendance jumped an absolutely unprecedented 65.9% between 2009 and 2011; it was that guests inside were happily waiting in line – not to get onto rides, but into gift shops and restaurants, eager to spend $40 on plastic wands or $100 on "house robes." Suddenly, “riding” a movie wasn’t enough. Guests wanted to eat where the characters ate; to shop where they shopped; this was a world they wanted to live in.

And just like that, the race was on... Read on as we see how the "ride the movies" era turned into something even grander...