Category: Disney News

An exhibition about Walt Disney and surrealist artist Salvador Dali opens Jan. 23 at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The show will document their friendship and their shared vision for taking art off the canvas and into the real world.

The show, called “Disney and Dali: Architects of the Imagination,” will be on view through June 12.

The show will include a short animated film that the two men collaborated on called “Destino.”

The museum has also created a virtual reality experience called “Dreams of Dali,” that will immerse visitors in a dreamy, surrealistic 3-D landscape inspired by Dali images.

Dali Museum director Hank Hine says Disney and Dali met in the 1940s when Dali was frequenting Hollywood.

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It’s a small world after all—so small that Disney World is making some serious cuts.

Disney World’s Hollywood Studios theme park is saying goodbye to a handful of its iconic attractions come May 2, according to an announcement on the Disney park’s blog.

The closures come as a result of plans to unveil two new lands within the park, including Toy Story Land and a Star Wars-themed land.

Which go-to spots no longer make the cut? To start, the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show is getting the boot after more than ten years inside the studios.

A staple show of the park since it’s creation in 2005, the 40-minute performance walks audience members through the process of bringing death-defying stunts to life and cutting them together for the silver screen.

 

This shutdown follows a series of closures to hit the park since 2014.

One of the studio’s original rides, the Backlot Tour, took its final trip in September while the American Idol Experience—an attraction that allowed visitors to perform like a contestant on the famous Fox show—was replaced by a Frozen-themed singalong in July 2014.

While the news may be devastating to life-long visitors, the planned successors don’t sound too shabby.

For the future Toy Story Land, “Andy’s backyard will come to life and the famous little green aliens from the movie will take you for a spin in their very own flying saucers,” the post said. Watch out, Rock n’ Roller Coaster—a Slinky Dog-inspired thrill ride is also in the works.

As for Star Wars fans, the themed land is set to give guests a fully immersive experience into a galaxy far, far away, including “a customized secret mission on the Millennium Falcon.”

While the announcement marks a difficult loss, there’s nothing like a simulated stroll inside the world of Toy Story to ease the pain.

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For residents in landlocked Laos — one of the world’s least developed nations — it seemed too good to be true, and in the end it was.

The Walt Disney Company has confirmed it: the world’s seventh Disneyland theme park will not – repeat, not – be built in the Communist nation after all.

The confusion stemmed from an article early this month in the Lao-government-run Vientiane Times which appeared to state that the next Disney theme park was to be built in a rural province of southern Laos.

“Excavation work to prepare land for construction of Disney Laos … will begin next month” at Thakek, the newspaper stated on its inside cover.

Thakek is the capital of southern Khammouane province which is up to 10 hours by road from the capital Vientiane. In the rainy season the road is often washed away by floods.

The $US5 billion project was to include three phases, the newspaper said, “with the construction of Disney Laos to be part of the last phase” completed within 7-10 years. The newspaper outlined extensive details of the project, citing investors from Thailand, Malaysia and Laos.

The report generated an immediate frenzy of interest — and scepticism — on social media and in neighbouring Thailand.

Nearly 30,000 people “liked” the report on a Lao-run Facebook page.

“This is perhaps my favourite news story of the century so far,” said one reader.

“It’s the logical next destination for ole Walt: Paris, Hong Kong, Vientiane,” said another.

Although, the reaction was not all positive.

“We do not need Disney,” said one Lao woman. “We are already a Mickey Mouse country.”

And savvy Thai business leaders told Thailand’s The Nation newspaper they feared the report was a deliberate hoax to spark land price speculation.

Thailand’s north-eastern province borders the planned “Disney” site. Yet, as Thai media pointed out, Disney had no plans to build a similar theme park in Thailand, which after all has a population around 10 times that of Laos — 70 million versus six million.

Now, the Walt Disney Company has dispelled the reports as rumour.

“We continually look for ways to grow our business and as part of that process we have conversations with many different entities,” a US-based company representative said in an email to the Thai media website Khaosod.

“While Laos is an attractive market, we have no plans for the region at this time,” Christi Erwin Donnan said.

Rumour may stem from mistranslation

Residents in Vientiane are still coming to grips with the news.

“I am brok heart (sic),” posted one.

“Sheeeeeeet, I’d just boxed off my 2023 field trip!” said another.

One Vientiane resident suggested the false report may have stemmed from a mistranslation — that “Disneyland” is simply a generic term for “theme park” in the Lao language.

It is not the first time that Laos has apparently upset a huge global brand.

It is common knowledge in Vientiane that a local fried chicken shop took the name KFC when it opened a few years ago.

One resident even remembers a picture of Colonel Sanders above the shop, that had an uncanny resemblance to Ho Chi Minh.

It has since become urban myth that an employee from the real KFC noticed the shop while holidaying in Laos and reported the copyright breach back to headquarters.

Soon after, the shop took down the signage and Colonel Sanders.

Although there is now another shop in Vientiane that also trades on the KFC name — Kouvieng Fried Chicken, named after its location in the capital.

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Disney’s launching another major security change at its Orlando parks nearly a month after metal detectors were put up at the front gates.

WFTV found out Disney is hiring and training its own security personnel.

Industry experts said the move shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Disney likes to control what’s going on inside the parks, even when it comes to security.

“The trick is to provide enough security to make people feel safe, but not so much that they feel alarmed,” said theme park expert Dr. Rick Foglesong.

He said the metal detectors were a big departure, especially for Walt Disney World, a company that prides itself on immersing guests into the experiences at the parks.

Disney has been using a private firm, with security officers using black and bright yellow jackets for added security, but now Disney is beefing up its own security force, with plans to move to an all in-house operation.

“It does not surprise me, because Disney likes to bring things under control, and bringing security in-house gives them that control,” said Foglesong. “Probably, the security guards won’t wear bright yellow shirts.”

Foglesong said it will give Disney control over background checks, who they hire and how they operate.

Disney said it’s starting the transition with Animal Kingdom.

Company officials have not said how many security officers it’s hiring.

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When Ben Sherwood was president of ABC News, he was notorious for calling the control room at all hours with tips, corrections and queries.

“He’d send notes at 11:30 at night to my clients who are anchors on ‘Nightline.’ The guy is relentless,” said United Talent Agency partner Jay Sures.

That relentlessness rankled some, but it pushed ABC’s “Good Morning America” past NBC’s “Today” as the most-watched morning show in 2012 and helped “World News Tonight” close the gap against NBC’s top-rated “Nightly News.”

It also got Mr. Sherwood promoted to president of the Disney/ABC Television Group and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks. With the exception of ESPN, Mr. Sherwood oversees Walt Disney Co.’s TV operations, which include the ABC network and stations, cable networks ABC Family and Disney Channel and all TV production.

In this role, Mr. Sherwood signs off on all programming and distribution strategies including this week’s name change of ABC Family to Freeform and where and how Disney should sell its shows. He also sweats the small stuff such as getting heavily involved in the promotion and marketing of last year’s Academy Awards telecast, according to executive producer Craig Zadan.

 

Almost a year into the job, the 51-year-old has had to take on the immense challenges facing the television industry—but is still looking to make his mark. He is among the next generation of media leaders who must confront cord-cutting and ad-skipping, which are threatening the core of the TV business. At the same time, the competition for viewers is intensifying, with more than 400 scripted shows produced in 2015.
There are also some new headaches looming at Mr. Sherwood’s old stamping grounds. “Good Morning America” now trails NBC’s “Today” in the key 25-to-54-year-old demographic, and Lester Holt has proven an able successor to Brian Williams as anchor of NBC’s “Nightly News.” This season, ABC’s prime time is down 12% in total viewers but is a close second to NBC in adults 18 to 49 if sports isn’t included, according to Nielsen.

In addition, Fusion, the news/lifestyle channel ABC co-owns with Univision that Mr. Sherwood championed has been struggling, and now Disney is looking to exit the venture.

Disney has the luxury of a surging film unit thanks in large part to the latest installment of Star Wars. But the company’s TV business still accounts for 44% of its revenue and 60% of profit, so finding ways to grow is a high priority.

Since taking over for Anne Sweeney last February, Mr. Sherwood has begun a rethink of Disney’s relationship with Netflix Inc. amid concerns that the streaming powerhouse’s popularity cuts into traditional TV viewership. And he has made a push to develop sophisticated data analytics and ad-targeting capabilities for Disney’s networks. Mr. Sherwood also has played a key role in Disney’s on-again off-again negotiations with Apple Inc., which has been vying to launch an online TV service with a slimmed-down package of channels. Disney is trying to hammer out an agreement to package ABC, Disney Channel, ABC Family and ESPN for the new service, a person familiar with the talks said.

With regard to Netflix, Mr. Sherwood has emerged as a voice of caution. Disney has sold reruns of high-profile shows to Netflix like ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder.” But Mr. Sherwood also gave ABC Family the green light to opt out of licensing some shows to the streaming service—particularly those aimed at younger viewers—in favor of in-house digital platforms.

Mr. Sherwood wants Hulu, the streaming service that Disney has a one-third stake in, to be a more aggressive competitor to Netflix. That means focusing on growth overseas where Netflix is expanding rapidly.

On the advertising front, Mr. Sherwood assumed oversight of research and consumer insights and put former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive Cindy Davis in charge of a Seattle-based team focusing on targeting ads to viewers to better compete with Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc.
A Harvard University graduate and Rhodes Scholar, the patrician Mr. Sherwood is known for being hypercompetitive and exacting. He even corrected Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger on a bowling score during a recent company retreat, people at the outing said.

Unlike Ms. Sweeney, who gave her team a fair amount of autonomy, Mr. Sherwood has been much more involved in the day-to-day operations of the Disney/ABC TV Group and ingratiated himself with the Hollywood community.

“He was very inquisitive,” Steve Levitan, co-creator of ABC’s hit sitcom “Modern Family,” said of his first meeting with Mr. Sherwood. “He didn’t come in with an attitude of ‘I know everything so watch what I can do.’ It was, ‘I come from a different world so help me learn.’”

Mr. Sherwood’s promotion has been an adjustment for some particularly Paul Lee, the head of ABC Entertainment, according to people familiar with the men. When ABC was developing shows for the 2015-16 television season, Mr. Sherwood wondered whether the network relies too heavily on serialized dramas such as “Scandal” and should instead focus more on procedural shows like “NCIS” in which each episode is a self-contained story, according to a senior ABC executive. Such shows are often easier to sell in syndication and in international markets.

Mr. Lee bristled, according to people familiar with the matter, and ultimately ABC stuck with its current programming strategy.

Disney executives have advised Mr. Sherwood that with so much terrain to cover, he should keep focused on bigger issues such as digital platforms, one senior staffer said.

“He’s chasing mice while the elephants go stomping by,” said a Disney executive of Mr. Sherwood’s tendency to micromanage. In recent weeks, he has adopted a more low-key approach, people inside the company said.

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Reports indicate that Disney Infinity 3.0 is now the most popular toys-to-life video game, with its Star Wars content helping the game pull ahead of Skylanders.

About five years ago, Toys for Bob introduced an innovative new concept to the gaming industry: the toys-to-life genre. Kicking off this ambitious new vision was Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, and it started a phenomenon that other developers soon tried to imitate. Until now, those efforts have failed to match the popularity of Skylanders, but after three entries in the franchise, Disney Infinity from Avalanche Software and Disney is now the most popular toys-to-life series.

Reports indicate that Disney Infinity 3.0 games and toys have managed to pull in an astounding $200 million since its release this past August. It seems likely that most of this revenue is from the toys, not the actual video game, as the game only managed to appear on the top selling games of September 2015 chart, and has failed to crack the list since then.
The release of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens playset also gave Disney Infinity 3.0 a significant boost. The playset released on the same day as Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, and its sales almost certainly benefited from the massive popularity of the film. After all, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is on track to become the highest grossing film ever made, and not only that, but it released to widespread critical acclaim as well.

It’s safe to say that Disney Infinity 3.0‘s surge in popularity is largely thanks to its connection to Star Wars. As some may recall, last year’s iteration of the toys-to-life relied on Marvel superheroes to improve its sales, but this strategy ultimately failed to help Disney Infinity move ahead of Skylanders. It’s no coincidence that, with the addition of Star Wars, Disney Infinity is now the top toys-to-life game on the market.
Another factor to consider is perhaps the gimmick from this year’s Skylanders didn’t resonate with consumers. This year’s game, Skylanders: SuperChargers, integrated vehicles into the Skylanders formula, with new gameplay mechanics built around the vehicles. While not a drastic departure from previous games in the series, it stands to reason that fans of the franchise just weren’t as interested in collecting vehicles as they are in collecting new character figures.

Regardless of why Disney Infinity is on top, there’s no denying that Disney Infinity 3.0 has earned more money than its competition this past fall. It will be interesting to see if it’s able to maintain its lead this coming fall, without the help of a major new Star Wars film to generate more interest in the game.

Disney Infinity 3.0 is currently available for PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, as well as Android and iOS mobile devices.

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‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ has already earned over $800 million in domestic box office since its December opening. But for the Walt Disney DIS -3.06% Co., the real money is being made on merchandise.

As my colleague Natalie Robehmed reported, analysts expect ‘Star Wars’ toys, apparel and other tie-ins to generate $5 billion through the end of 2016.

The size of Disney’s payday could’ve been bigger had the entertainment giant not made a huge blunder, leaving Rey — the woman protagonist of ‘The Force Awakens’, and a fierce, headstrong heroine for young fans — out of much of the merch.

A set of Hasbro figurines released to coincide with the film included Chewbacca, a handful of male characters and even an unnamed Stormtrooper but not Rey. The toy giant also unveiled a new Monopoly set featuring ‘Star Wars’ characters as game tokens. Guess who was missing? As FiveThirtyEight put it: “No women, no Rey.”

This led to a social media campaign, with #WheresRey used to highlight gender disparity in ‘The Force Awakens’ merchandise. The film’s director J.J. Abrams chimed in, calling Rey’s absence on toy shelves “preposterous and wrong.”

Disney appears to have received the message. On Tuesday, the studio’s consumer products division unveiled new toys and collectibles the company says they “kept under wraps to preserve surprises for fans.” The line “puts heroine Rey front and center,” said Disney in a press release, adding that this staggered unveiling has been planned since September to protect plot points.

This second wave of merch includes a Rey Lightsaber toy, an updated action figure set featuring Rey (and iconic female character General Leia), buildable Lego figures (one of them being — you got it — Rey), and a plethora of other tie-ins, from costumes to home decor.

“Rey is a true break out hero in the movie and is proving a huge hit with our guests,” said Elissa Margolis, senior vice president of The Disney Store. “Demand for Rey merchandise was strong even before the movie released, with products selling as quickly as we could restock shelves, and it’s only growing with the success of the film.”

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Shanghai Disney Resort to open in June, after more than a decade of planning, five years of construction

A $5.5 billion bet that China is ready to embrace one of the most American of corporate symbols will finally come to fruition in June.

Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday said Shanghai Disney Resort, its first theme park in mainland China, will open June 16 after more than a decade of planning. Originally scheduled to debut in 2015, Disney last year delayed the launch to the first half this year.

After more than a decade of planning and five years of construction, Disney is officially opening a theme park in China this summer. Here are details. Photo: Disney
The opening date, on the tail end of that time frame, reflects not only the significant construction challenges of a 963-acre theme park, hotel and entertainment complex, but the political and cultural barriers of undertaking such a massive project in partnership with a state-owned consortium in a communist country.

The opening will now come amid a slowdown in China’s economic growth, potentially threatening the confidence that leads middle class consumers to take pricey vacations.

It also comes as the entertainment giant’s recent big-screen success has better established its brands in the country. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” opened last weekend to a healthy $53 million there. In 2015, Disney released a number of box office hits in China including “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” which made $225 million there; “Ant-Man,” which made $103 million; and “Cinderella,” with $68 million.
Chinese and Hollywood companies have been forming partnerships and striking deals at an increasing rate recently, as studios rush to establish their brands in the world’s most populous nation and the Chinese government views entertainment as an important piece of “soft power.” On Monday, Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co. agreed to acquire film production and finance company Legendary Entertainment for a hefty $3.5 billion.

 

Shanghai Disney remains the largest such deal to date. The park is 57%-owned by a state-backed consortium, Shanghai Shendi, and 43% by Walt Disney Co. Local partners are responsible for construction and the accompanying infrastructure, including a subway extension.

However, the media giant is 70% owner of the joint venture that will operate the park, and its executives are largely overseeing that process. Any problems at Shanghai Disneyland won’t just affect the theme park, but could hurt public perception of all of Walt Disney’s businesses in the country, from film to television to consumer products.
Significant competition is on the horizon. Comcast Corp.’s Universal Parks & Resorts is building a $3.3 billion theme park outside of Beijing that could include rides based on Harry Potter, which have proved very popular at the company’s Orlando, Fla., location.

Theme parks are Disney’s second-largest business behind television. Last fiscal year, revenue for the segment grew 7% to $16.1 billion and operating income rose 14% to $3 billion. However most of that growth has been driven by Disneyland and Walt Disney World in the U.S. International operations in Hong Kong and Paris have recently been a drag on growth.

Disney hasn’t disclosed the capacity of its Shanghai Disneyland theme park, but it is expected to be one of the largest of the company’s six at launch, a person close to the park’s planning said.

Although some construction will still be ongoing at launch, all previously announced attractions and features are expected to be open. Among the most prominent are the Enchanted Storybook Castle, the company’s largest princess-themed park centerpiece, a reimagining of the Chinese zodiac with Disney characters and a “Toy Story” hotel.

That should help avoid some of the problems the company faced a decade ago at Hong Kong Disneyland, where attendance was lower than projected due in part to a lack of appealing attractions. The park has since added new attractions, helping to improve the situation, though attendance was down in the fiscal quarter ended Oct. 3 last year.

Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger previously said he hoped to announce an opening date for Shanghai Disney by the end of 2015—a goal that appears to have slipped due to the challenges of coordinating an announcement with Chinese officials.

Shanghai Disneyland’s Five Unique Things
Major construction on the park is now close to complete, according to the person familiar with the matter. The next several months are expected to be spent largely on hiring and training employees, testing systems and working on entertainment, including a Mandarin-language version of “The Lion King” musical.

Disney so far has hired 2,000 of the 10,000 employees it will need to operate its new resort.

About 8,000 people have been involved in construction.

Tickets aren’t yet on sale and Disney hasn’t announced prices for the Shanghai Disneyland theme park.

Disney has been looking to build a park in Shanghai since the 1990s. In 2002, it signed a letter of intent with the local government with the goal of a 2008 opening. Construction began in April 2011.

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