Home » Turning Point: Disney Embraces the Force

Turning Point: Disney Embraces the Force

With Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance open, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has finally become what Disney had promised in 2015. A Galaxy far, far away is officially the present and the future at Disney’s American theme parks. How smoothly have the parks transitioned to these unprecedented Star Wars Lands? In the latest Turning Point, let’s examine how well Disney has done thus far with Galaxy’s Edge in terms of park planning, audience reception, attendance, and revenue.

Park planning

One of my favorite movie quotes ever comes from The Matrix. One character says, “No one has ever done anything like this.” The reply is, “That’s why it’s going to work.” I feel like that applies to Galaxy’s Edge, the grandest attempt at a themed land ever.

While Pandora – The World of Avatar certainly reset the standard for themed entertainment, it’s unmistakably a nook in a larger theme park. At Black Spire Outpost, the experience is so immersive that guests can’t even spot other Disney attractions most of the time.

Disney reportedly spent one billion dollars to construct the world of Batuu…and they did it twice, once at Disneyland and again at Walt Disney World. These twins are somewhere between fraternal and identical, with unmistakable similarities everywhere.

Park officials announced the project in 2015 and opened it in 2019. In this area, it undoubtedly bests Avatar Land, which took 50 percent longer. With such a gigantic project, delays and setbacks are inevitable. I’m not going to ding Disney for experiencing the unavoidable.

Minor setbacks and struggles

For example, in 2016, Disney hosted a preview for Batuu. Illustrations promised a Table Service restaurant, one with an alien performing onstage in the center of the room. We don’t have that place today, although Disney’s Hollywood Studios will get it in a couple of years. Park officials transferred it to the upcoming Star Wars hotel, currently scheduled to open in 2021.

Amusingly, the inside word is that Disney didn’t open the upscale eatery at Black Spire Outpost for fear of crowds. You know how that’s gone, so it wasn’t the best call. Even so, that’s the only significant setback in terms of ditched plans.

Virtually all essential projects are now a part of the park. The last remaining holdout was Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, the technically dazzling immersive experience that has wowed guests since its debut. The attraction’s so complicated that Disney had to push back the opening date. Otherwise, it would have spent more time broken than functional.

Realistically, what happened with Rise of the Resistance is a blemish on Disney’s ledger sheet. Park officials promised the greatest attraction ever on opening day, only to delay the Disneyland version by eight months and the Walt Disney World one by three months. Relative to the overall accomplishment of Galaxy’s Edge, it’s a minor inconvenience and a historical footnote more than anything else. But its absence did suck for most of 2019, especially for guests who can’t revisit a Disney theme park for a while.

Audience reception

Let’s quickly go down the checklist. Would the majority of theme park tourists agree that Star Wars Land is spectacular? Oh yes. Do most people believe that the experience feels like a Star Wars experience in the real world? Absolutely.

Are the two rides worthy of their hype? Believe it or not, there has been some debate on this point. Not everyone loves Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. An analyst that I trust has claimed that it’s one of the lowest-rated rides at Hollywood Studios. That’s madness to me, but it’s the way that many feel. However, the arrival of Rise of the Resistance has tipped the scale. EVERYONE loves it, and so the overall answer to this question is yes.

Do theme park tourists find the experience immersive? Good lord, yes. It’s the ultimate in escapism. Many of us lose track of time while we’re visiting Batuu. Finally, do people love the food and beverages at Black Spire Outpost? Eek. That question is wholly in the eye of the beholder.

Some have fallen in love with Green Milk and whatever Ronto’s roasting (best not to ask). Others resent the menu’s needless level of complexity, as Galaxy’s Edge employs themed names for its cuisine.

You won’t find nuggets and fries here. For all we know, we’ve been snacking on Baby Yoda all this time. It’s the problem with not speaking Batuu-ian or Batuu-ese or whatever that language is. All joking aside, theme parks serve comfort food for a reason. Guests want to be comfortable during a vacation day. At Galaxy’s Edge, the menu feels like some weird compromise between interstellar Vegans and carnivores. It’s the most glaring issue with Star Wars Land thus far.

Finally, how would visitors describe the shops? Nobody likes the price tags. That’s for sure. Despite the billionaires-only prices of some things like the Droid Depot and Savi’s Workshop, I’ll post some results later that resolve this debate. Guests love the merchandise here so much that they’re willing to increase their budgets to get that one unique souvenir.

Overall, I count many more positives than negatives. At the end of the day, people can leave Batuu and head to ABC Commissary for a burger. But the rest of the Star Wars Land project is a tremendous triumph.

Park attendance

I don’t just write about Disney. I read about it, as well. And for six months, it seemed like every comment involving Star Wars Land ended with a snide remark. No matter how many positives a person wrote, the attendance issue received a mention.

Were those negatives overstated? I’d like to say no, but that’d be disingenuous. During Disney’s fiscal quarter conference calls, executives inform investors about many details of park operation. Attendance is one of these statistics, and the truth is that CEO Robert Iger grimaced some in relaying the data.

During the fiscal third quarter of 2019, park attendance dropped three percent at Disneyland. At the time, it hosted the only Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge on the planet, which should have driven admissions.

Iger commented that many consumers stayed away due to the fear of large crowds. This defense is at least somewhat valid. In fact, it’s happened to Disney on a much larger scale.

When Walt Disney World opened in 1971, some had projected opening day attendance in the hundreds of thousands. Barely ten thousand people showed up. Over time, research proved that fear of crowds had kept away a lot of potential customers.

Even allowing for that defense, ticket price increases played a factor. In fact, Disney raised the prices on everything in the months leading up to Star Wars Land. That’s the real contributing factor here.

During the fiscal fourth quarter, Walt Disney World didn’t get a Star Wars bump, either. Attendance was mostly flat, while Disneyland’s park traffic again decreased year-over-year. So, I do think that Disney finally created its own pain point with overpriced theme park miscellany. BUT…

Disney revenue

The other three discussions are important, of course. However, The Walt Disney Company exists to earn revenue. Corporate officials signed off on Star Wars Land as a way to capitalize on their purchase of Lucasfilm. How well has the company done in this regard?

Obviously, Disney’s earned a lot of money from its Star Wars purchase. Revenue from merchandise and theatrical releases alone would justify Disney’s investment several times over. Since we have “theme park” right there in the name of our site, we’re mostly interested in Star Wars Land, though.

This discussion is two-fold since Disney operates two parks with a Galaxy’s Edge themed land. Thanks to the company’s quarterly earnings reports, we have a firm idea about the money situation.

Despite the aforementioned attendance drops, revenue increased by seven percent in the fiscal third quarter of 2019. While Black Spire Outpost isn’t responsible for all those earnings, we can tell it had a significant positive impact.

I say that because all of the secondary park numbers improved while attendance dropped. Admissions, food and drinks, and merchandising increased by a staggering 10 percent per customer on average. Similarly, hotel occupancy and in-room spending improved.

The fourth quarter was also great

You may wonder whether the fiscal fourth quarter of 2019 behaved the same. At that point, Walt Disney World’s version of Batuu had opened, too. Well, Hurricane Dorian impacted that park somewhat, but the song is generally the same.

Revenue increased by eight percent year-over-year. Guests again spent more money on theme park essentials during this quarter. Also, Disney explicitly stated that Disneyland and the Disney Vacation Club earned a disproportionately large amount relative to 2018. Importantly for this discussion, I should add that the executive team indicated that the cost of operating Galaxy’s Edge is higher than the average themed land.

Finally, I should mention that the revenue gains happened despite unexpected losses at Hong Kong Disneyland. The social struggles there have led Disney to lower total revenue projections there for at least the next two quarters. So, that eight percent increase could have matched the third quarter one if not for something utterly beyond Disney’s control.

The conclusion to draw here is that Disney has already justified the creation of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Despite all of the clickbait headlines on the subject – and yes, we’re sometimes guilty of that – it’s already persuaded many guests to raise their vacation budgets. Importantly, this revenue gain happened before the opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Disney’s best ride in the world.

Overall, in the four categories that matter, Disney has exceeded expectations in three out of four. Even if attendance doesn’t improve significantly, the bottom line will continue to put a smile on Bob Iger’s face.