3 ms·

I never understood the "Disney's differentiator are their theme park". We didn't have a theme park in all of Europe until the '90s, but the whole continent gre

I never understood the "Disney's differentiator are their theme park". We didn't have a theme park in all of Europe until the '90s, but the whole continent grew up with Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck.

curiousllama 3y ago
Business differentiator. Presumably, Europe simply wasn't very profitable for them until the parks opened up
TillE 3y ago
The parks are a very particular thing, obviously oriented towards children. But recently some people have been talking about how they might offer "live experiences" that go beyond that. Disney just shut down the Galactic Starcruiser, a two-day immersive Star Wars LARP experience which was weirdly mis-marketed as a hotel. Adrian Hon has a long, interesting writeup on it and suggests that future versions could be much more successful: https://adrianhon.substack.com/p/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser https://adrianhon.substack.com/p/star-wars-galactic-starcrui...
irrational 3y ago
I think I remember while reading about Carl Barks that it was through comic books, right? Maybe that is another differentiator.
- bronikowski 3y ago
  Comics were popular but even behind Iron Curtain we had all the Disney stuff, starting from the Snow White ending on Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, Donald and Mickey shorts. It was as common as dirt for kids in Poland.
ballenf 3y ago
The average American kid in the 90s never had a chance to go either, but knowing that Disneyland is a real place changes your perspective or relationship with the content. It feels more real and more permanent. Knowing that millions of people are going and have gone to a real place where the characters "live" sets them apart. That's my take anyway. It would be interesting to know the % of kids in the US that have been to a Disney park at various points in time. My wild guess is that the number has always been well under 10%.

I never understood the "Disney's differentiator are their theme park". We didn't have a theme park in all of Europe until the '90s, but the whole continent grew up with Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck.

curiousllama 3y ago

Business differentiator. Presumably, Europe simply wasn't very profitable for them until the parks opened up

TillE 3y ago

The parks are a very particular thing, obviously oriented towards children. But recently some people have been talking about how they might offer "live experiences" that go beyond that. Disney just shut down the Galactic Starcruiser, a two-day immersive Star Wars LARP experience which was weirdly mis-marketed as a hotel. Adrian Hon has a long, interesting writeup on it and suggests that future versions could be much more successful: https://adrianhon.substack.com/p/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser https://adrianhon.substack.com/p/star-wars-galactic-starcrui...

irrational 3y ago

I think I remember while reading about Carl Barks that it was through comic books, right? Maybe that is another differentiator.

bronikowski 3y ago
Comics were popular but even behind Iron Curtain we had all the Disney stuff, starting from the Snow White ending on Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, Donald and Mickey shorts. It was as common as dirt for kids in Poland.

ballenf 3y ago

The average American kid in the 90s never had a chance to go either, but knowing that Disneyland is a real place changes your perspective or relationship with the content. It feels more real and more permanent. Knowing that millions of people are going and have gone to a real place where the characters "live" sets them apart. That's my take anyway. It would be interesting to know the % of kids in the US that have been to a Disney park at various points in time. My wild guess is that the number has always been well under 10%.