News Round Up 2020

skeeter31 said:
Checked into OKW this morning. Room wasn’t ready when we arrived so went to the desk to see if others were, and they were, just not at South Point like we requested. Gladly took a room in building 62 that was ready immediately. Dropped our stuff and went for a nice walk around the resort. Love OKW. Quite a few noses out when people are just walking on the sidewalks around the resort, but CMs on golf carts are pointing and yelling as they drive by to kindly push the mask back up.

Went to the drive thru McDonalds on property for a quick lunch (haven’t had McDonalds since the beginning of March so that was quite a treat). Now just chilling for a bit before heading over to Springs for some shopping. Tomorrow is AK.
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Oh wow! Have fun!!!
 


jknezek said:
The Park has operated at a loss since 2014. I believe 2013 and 2014 were the only years the park operated in the black, though there might be one or two others. It has the unique issue of not meeting attendance goals and at the same time being known for massive lines. Mainly because it never had enough attractions to meet the attendance goals. It was designed as a half day park, built in a rush, and suffers from being outside Mainland China, but inside an increasingly Chinese controlled area.

The Park is in an updating and expansion period obviously, but it will still be the smallest Disney Park globally I believe. There have been several expansions over the years, but it never seems to really make it a full day park, except because of the lines, though at least they have created a few of their own attractions as the place was basically full of clones at opening, though Mystic Manor is obviously well known on its own.

It's a tough spot obviously right now, but it's always been a tough spot. The goal was to create a park in an area that would attract both Chinese consumers and other Asian consumers. That half in/half out appeal to both didn't work as well as expected. The Chinese consumers stayed away because Hong Kong was and is a sore subject for them, and so did non-Hong Kong consumers because, frankly, it's one of the most expensive places to visit. Add that to the execution problems and it's always been a financial laggard.
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also this if I had to guess..

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/...marks-china-policy-gerald-r-ford-presidential
From July 16th:
"I suspect Walt Disney would be disheartened to see how the company he founded deals with the foreign dictatorships of our day. When Disney produced Kundun, the 1997 film about the PRC’s oppression of the Dalai Lama, the CCP objected to the project and pressured Disney to abandon it. Ultimately, Disney decided that it couldn’t let a foreign power dictate whether it would distribute a movie in the United States.

But that moment of courage wouldn’t last long. After the CCP banned all Disney films in China, the company lobbied hard to regain access. The CEO apologized for Kundun, calling it a “stupid mistake.”[19] Disney then began courting the PRC to open a $5.5 billion theme park in Shanghai. As part of that deal, Disney agreed to give Chinese government officials a role in management. Of the park’s 11,000 full-time employees, 300 are active members of the Communist Party. They reportedly display hammer-and-sickle insignia at their desks and attend Party lectures during business hours.

Like other American companies, Disney may eventually learn the hard way the cost of compromising its principles. Soon after Disney opened its park in Shanghai, a Chinese-owned theme park popped up a couple hundred miles away featuring characters that, according to news reports, looked suspiciously like Snow White and other Disney trademarks. "
 
For those interest in the problems of Hong Kong Disneyland there is a "Defunctland" episode on youtube that covers it and sums it up pretty well. Basically though it was built dependent on tourism from mainland china that never materialize. then when they opened the park in Shanghai they cut off even more of the limited tourism that they were getting. It's something they are probably somewhat "stuck" with at this point - not being able to draw international tourist and therefore will likely never get the numbers they need to be popular. I'm not sure Disney would close it, but I also don't see them pouring some massive "PHase 2" cash into it. And especially not right now, when they probably are looking at major losses for the next several years.
 
mikeamizzle said:
also this if I had to guess..

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/...marks-china-policy-gerald-r-ford-presidential
From July 16th:
"I suspect Walt Disney would be disheartened to see how the company he founded deals with the foreign dictatorships of our day. When Disney produced Kundun, the 1997 film about the PRC’s oppression of the Dalai Lama, the CCP objected to the project and pressured Disney to abandon it. Ultimately, Disney decided that it couldn’t let a foreign power dictate whether it would distribute a movie in the United States.

But that moment of courage wouldn’t last long. After the CCP banned all Disney films in China, the company lobbied hard to regain access. The CEO apologized for Kundun, calling it a “stupid mistake.”[19] Disney then began courting the PRC to open a $5.5 billion theme park in Shanghai. As part of that deal, Disney agreed to give Chinese government officials a role in management. Of the park’s 11,000 full-time employees, 300 are active members of the Communist Party. They reportedly display hammer-and-sickle insignia at their desks and attend Party lectures during business hours.

Like other American companies, Disney may eventually learn the hard way the cost of compromising its principles. Soon after Disney opened its park in Shanghai, a Chinese-owned theme park popped up a couple hundred miles away featuring characters that, according to news reports, looked suspiciously like Snow White and other Disney trademarks. "
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I don't think anyone in China or Hong Kong cares what Bill Barr has to say about this. HK was never about drawing American or Western tourists. It was a compromise to open a park that was supposed to draw Chinese consumers without being in or under Chinese direct control. It has and continues to fail at doing so, and, as has been pointed out, Shanghai is the outcome. Exactly what Disney was trying to avoid became reality when their alternative didn't work.

The fact that they opened a small, derivative, and under developed Park didn't help either.
 


jknezek said:
I don't think anyone in China or Hong Kong cares what Bill Barr has to say about this. HK was never about drawing American or Western tourists. It was a compromise to open a park that was supposed to draw Chinese consumers without being in or under Chinese direct control. It has and continues to fail at doing so, and, as has been pointed out, Shanghai is the outcome. Exactly what Disney was trying to avoid became reality when their alternative didn't work.

The fact that they opened a small, derivative, and under developed Park didn't help either.
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Its just another proxy in the ongoing decoupling between the US and China(see Huawei, TikTok, Mulan in China etc). It will only continue between both sides despite who wins in November.
 
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