The Game Changer

Recently, much has been made about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  The bar has been raised for what makes up a themed environment, and this time it is Universal Creative that is behind it.

I have not experienced The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and I won’t be seeing it until the end of August.  With that in mind, this won’t be another article praising the special effects or total immersion.  I’m actually looking to what this massive success means to Walt Disney World.

To really understand what type of crowds were at Islands of Adventure on Opening day, take a look at these photos courtesy of poster RobGraves on wdwmagic.com

I’ve said many times that the subject of any given ride is somewhat irrelevant in terms of making that ride a quality attraction.  I still standby this, but I’d like to modify it from a merchandising standpoint.  An attraction like Splash Mountain can succeed with characters that premiered in a movie that Disney is afraid to re-release to today’s audience.  The movie in question, Song of the South has racial undertones that could be offensive to today’s audience, even though in it’s day it was an Academy Award winning film.  While Splash Mountain certainly is a fantastic attraction, it doesn’t generate a large amount of merchandise sales by comparison to other E-Tickets.

It’s the merchandising of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter that’s going to catch Disney’s attention.  They missed out on the opportunity to sell $30 wands, $8-12 Pumpkin Juice and Butter Beer, and far more Theme Park exclusive merchandise to every visitor to this theme park within a theme park.  So how does Disney react to this?  Here are some of my thoughts.

Do nothing: Admit defeat, recognize that they missed out on Harry Potter, and no current franchise can possibly compete with the marketing level and demand of Harry Potter.  Having said that, I doubt that Disney does nothing.  Disney doesn’t like to lose.  If they lose money through either attendance or merchandising it is highly unlikely they will stand by and take it.

Expand the Lucas Universe: Star Tours 2.0 opens in May of 2011, and while the last film was several years old – the fanbase is still quite rabid.  An expansion to the Star Wars area of Hollywood Studios, as well as more unique Star Wars merchandise could certainly help makeup any ground lost to Harry Potter

Re-Work the Fantasyland Expansion to include more merchandise locations: While some have speculated that the demand for the Princesses and Fairies merchandise has dwindled, it’s certainly conceivable that Disney may have re-kindled that demand with some of these intimate interactions with the Disney princesses.  I anticipate the Cinderella, Aurora and Belle attractions to be comparable to the Ollivander’s Wand shop in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  In the fine Disney tradition of dumping guests off in a gift shop, I expect all of these mini-attractions to have corresponding merchandise locations.

Carsland: Widely speculated, but seemingly never more than a Disney World fanboy’s dream, Carsland would be a logical addition to Hollywood Studios.  Already in construction in Disney California Adventure, Carsland features 3 attractions based on the hugely popular Cars series.  Young boys live and breath the Cars characters.  My nephew has t-shirts, hats, pajamas, toy cars and more of every character in the Cars universe.  The R&D for the land has already been done, and the space is available in Hollywood Studios’ backlot.

All of this talk is speculative, but here’s hoping that Disney does re-act.  As I mentioned on here several months ago, I love the idea of Theme Park Wars, and Universal has made a bold move with Harry Potter.