Defunctland: The Failure of Hong Kong Disneyland

- On September 30, 2005, Michael Eisner officially left the Walt Disney Company. He formally resigned as a member of the company's board of directors and as CEO. His successor, Bob Iger, had been running the company for the past six months as he transitioned to his new role. Eisner's departure was not front-page news, the climax of the events that led to his resignation had already occurred a long time ago, and the only thing left was to pack up his things and return home. He declined questions from the press, leaving only a one-page career retrospective of himself for publication in the company newsletter.

People close to the executive explained that Eisner was not willing to leave his job at Disney and that what worried him most was his legacy at the company. The second half of his 21-year tenure, especially the last few years, had certainly tarnished what was one of the greatest corporate success stories of all time. How then did it come to this? To understand that, we'll need to back up a bit. *Video rewind sound* - The big cheese? I'm not the... I wish I was Big Cheese. This is the Big Cheese. *Video rewind sound* - : I now declare Euro Disney officially open! ♪Dramatic Music♪ - On November 1, 1999, the Hong Kong government announced that an agreement had been reached with the Walt Disney Company to bring a Disney Resort to the self-governing territory.

Hong Kong was banking on the new resort to help its struggling economy recover, and they were confident that a Disney park would increase tourism and create new jobs. The Walt Disney Company remained silent on the matter. Although a spokesperson had confirmed a few months earlier, in March, that Disney was considering expanding internationally to Hong Kong. If the plans become reality, it would be the company's third international resort, after Tokyo and Paris. At the time, the Walt Disney Company still saw expansion as a viable option. Many at the company, including Eisner, felt that Disney had not adequately capitalized on the immense success of the studio's recent animated films.

However, it was not for lack of trying. The

failure

of Euro Disneyland in France and the inability to build Disney's America in Virginia had steered Eisner away from big-budget expansion projects at the parks. In addition to this, Eisner struggled to secure a stable management team. The death of Disney chairman Frank Wells, the departure of Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the hiring and subsequent firing of Eisner's talent agent and personal friend Michael Ovitz had left Eisner a lone wolf in the top of the company. All he had was the most lucrative executive contract in the business: a CEO extension he had signed a few years earlier, guaranteeing his position at the company until 2006.

With an annual salary of $750,000 and stock options worth projected $771 million, Eisner had significant insurance in his work. Since Disney can't afford another high-cost severance package after spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the departure of Katzenberg and Ovitz. This would help Eisner greatly as Disney entered the new millennium. After Disney's acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC was completed in 1996, Disney officially became the largest media company in the world; passing through Time Warner. This also meant that Eisner now had to oversee the company's film division, television division, and theme park division. In retrospect, Walt Disney Pictures was ending its renaissance era of hit animated films.

Tarzan, released in the summer of 1999, would end the second half of Disney's most financially successful era. Disney's post-renaissance would bring films such as Fantasia 2000, Dinosaur, The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet in a few years. Some of these films were well received by critics and audiences, but all except Lilo & Stitch and Dinosaur were considered box office

failure

s. Films planned for after 2002 would produce similar, if not worse, results, and the success of Pixar and DreamWorks Animation would demote Walt Disney Animation to third place. An unimaginable result, since the company had enjoyed a monopoly on the medium for more than six decades.

The company's new involvement in the television business also did not go as planned. Eisner and Disney were having trouble putting together a successful block of prime-time programming, and ABC was relying on a newly produced American version of the British game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? to compete in the ratings. One of the bright spots of the merger was Robert Iger, chief operating officer and president of Capital Cities/ABC. The young executive impressed Eisner, although he worried that Iger lacked the creative skills necessary to run a company like Disney. Iger would become president of the Walt Disney Company in early 2000, a position he had vacated since Ovitz's departure.

Finally, the theme park division was not thriving as many thought it should, and much of the expansion and renovations promised ten years earlier as part of Eisner's "Disney decade" plan had not come to fruition. Eisner had been able to add additional parks in both Orlando and Anaheim, adding Disney's Animal Kingdom to the Walt Disney World Resort in the spring of 1998 and beginning construction on Disney's California Adventure to create Disneyland Resort in January of that year. Additionally, plans for a second park in the Paris resort were revived and development of the Walt Disney Studios park began. Additionally, a second park was also being developed for the successful Tokyo Disneyland Resort.

Its most recent attempt at expansion outside of existing resorts was Disney Regional Entertainment. Three entertainment chains would debut in multiple cities across the U.S. The flagship concept, virtual reality arcade DisneyQuest, had just opened its Chicago location in the summer of 1999. Now, with rumors of a third international park With Hong Kong circulating, it seemed that Eisner was willing to try expansion again. On November 2, 1999, the day after news broke that a deal had been reached between Hong Kong and Disney, representatives from both sides officially announced that a Disney Resort would be built in Hong Kong. The treatment Disney received in France following the announcement of Euro Disneyland was quite different to the reaction it received in Hong Kong.

While Disney had the support of a few French contractors and some government officials, it seemed that the overwhelming majority of citizens aggressively rejected the prospect of Disney coming to their country. Hong Kong had exactly the opposite reaction. They welcomed Disney's arrival, treated them as some kind of economic savior, praised Disney, and proclaimed that the theme park would rescue them from their long recession. Some local media were skeptical and used the same arguments that Disney had to fight every time they tried to build a new park outside of Orlando or Tokyo. This could easily be compiled into an Opposition Greatest Hits album.

Here are a few: The government will spend taxpayer money to subsidize and incentivize Disney to come to the area. In the case of Hong Kong, it is estimated that this could be around $2.6 billion. A compromise that Hong Kong officials used to steer Disney away from a park in mainland China. The employment benefits that the park will bring after construction will be part-time, low-wage jobs. While it was discussed during the time of Disney's announcement in Hong Kong, the consensus was that given Hong Kong's difficult economy, any employment would be a good thing. Finally, that the positive economic impact promised by Disney is exaggerated and that the subsidies granted to the park will offset any financial benefit derived from it.

The small opposition raised these points. But overall, Hong Kong seemed to welcome Disney, expecting it to attract an additional 1.2 million tourists and spark annual GDP growth of almost 0.5%. The site for the park would be located in Penny's Bay, a northeastern section of Hong Kong's largest island, Lantau Island. After rumors began to circulate about the new Disney Resort, local archaeologists went to the island to search for and remove any artifacts before Disney's arrival. Disney's new Hong Kong Resort was set to open in 2005, so development began immediately. This resulted in the construction of Disney's California Adventure, Walt Disney Studios Paris, Tokyo DisneySea and Disney's Hong Kong resort at the same time.

Eisner and other executives were tired of spending too much on three of the four new parks. The development and construction of DisneySea was carried out by The Oriental Land Company, the independent Japanese company that pays royalties to Disney and hires its Imagineers. Finances were rarely an issue in Tokyo, unlike in the United States, France and now Hong Kong. In 2000, Disney began clearing the land to build the park, but the dredging upset local fishermen and environmental groups. They petitioned the Hong Kong government to stop the development. Claiming that Disney was violating their agreement, as the dredging had been killing many of the fish in the bay.

Hong Kong ignored the accusations towards Disney, telling those concerned that the number of fish killed was generally in line with what they expected. The same year, Eisner commented on the worrying amount of air pollution in Hong Kong, which the government quickly assured him they were fixing. This would be the beginning of what could only be described as an uneasy relationship between Disney and Hong Kong. On February 8, 2001, Disney California Adventure opened to mostly negative reviews. Visitors did not like the budget park, citing the lack of attractions and the terrible poor quality of the existing ones. Executives were concerned that the small park's main problem was its limited capacity, but it turned out that this would not be a problem at all.

Attendance was poor from the beginning. This, combined with the potential for an economic recession, caused Disney to panic about the future of California Adventure and the other three parks currently under construction. Despite these concerns, it appeared that Eisner was planning even greater international expansion. In the summer of 2001, an article published in the Beijing Evening News reported that Disney was planning to build a park in the capital in time for the 2008 Olympic Games. This angered Hong Kong officials. If another Disney park were to open in China, it would destroy Hong Kong Disney's chances of attracting mainland tourists and becoming a top vacation destination.

After the outrage reached Eisner, he announced that Disney would not open another park in China for at least eight years, that the company was 100% concentrated in Hong Kong and that in the event that Disney built a park in mainland China, most likely it will be in Shanghai and not Beijing. A clarification that seemed to demonstrate Disney's desire to have a new park. Later that year, the 9/11 terrorist attacks triggered an economic recession and the tourism industry suffered the worst: many people across the United States and the world were afraid to travel. Additionally, rumors circulated that Disney theme parks could be targeted by terrorists.

This did not bode well for the struggling parks division or the company as a whole. Every division of the company seemed to be in deep trouble. This led to more budget cuts at the parks and the cancellation of more projects in development. Hong Kong Disney was too far along in development to stop, but the Walt Disney Company's financial difficulties eliminated any chance of a budget increase for the park. In 2002, rumors of a park in Shanghai resurfaced, and Disney declined to comment. Hong Kong officials and residents were once again outraged. By now, half of Hong Kong Disney's visitors were expected to be from mainland China, and the region had already invested $2 billion of public funds into building the park and improving surrounding infrastructure in preparation for its launch. opening.

Analysts estimated that it would take Hong Kong Disney 13 years after opening to make up for construction costs, and if a park in Shanghai opened during that time, there would be little to no chance of recouping the investment. The park was to begin construction the following year, and Hong Kong continued to beg Disney not to commit to a park in mainland China. Before construction on the park began, workers still dredging the water surrounding Disney's Hong Kong site found something peculiar in the bay. Dozens of bombs buried at the bottom of the ocean were exposed and local bomb experts were charged​​of underestimating the amount of shells and explosives left over from World War II.

Bomb experts assured Disney and workers that such old bombs do not explode, although they mentioned that sometimes they do. Crews continued dredging, a little more carefully than before. At the same time, an outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus, known as SARS, claimed the lives of nearly 800 people, with the majority of reported cases coming from southern China. The disease finally spread to Hong Kong in February 2003, terrifying public health officials. Travel was discouraged as containment efforts intensified, with Hong Kong at the center of the epidemic, which did not bode well for the under-construction Disney park. Fortunately for the health of the inhabitants of the affected regions, and also beneficial for the new Disney park, Hong Kong was removed from the affected areas by the World Health Organization in June 2003, and the outbreak was classified as contained in July.

This had a major impact on Hong Kong's economic recovery, and officials were confident that Disney would restore tourism to the region more than ever. On November 20, 2003, Roy E. Disney; nephew of Walt Disney, son of Roy O. Disney, chairman of Walt Disney Animation and vice chairman of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company, resigned from his position. Stanley Gold, another Disney board member and Roy ally, also resigned from his position. These two had one goal with his resignation: to take down Michael Eisner. In a letter addressed to Eisner and sent to the press, Roy explained his problems with the executive.

He pointed to Eisner's conduct with the firing of board member Andrea Van de Kamp, who expressed dissatisfaction with the company's direction. Roy accused Eisner of stacking the deck in his favor and expelling anyone who disagreed with his ideas. In the letter, he outlines seven main reasons for his resignation and why Eisner should be removed from office. #1: Eisner and Bob Iger's inability to develop successful programming for ABC. #2: Eisner's micromanagement of those around him. #3: The loss of quality in the parks. Roy mentions theme parks built on the cheap, specifically citing Disney's California Adventure, Walt Disney Studios Paris and the upcoming Hong Kong Disneyland. #4: The decline in Disney brand value as a result of greed and lack of creative direction.

Roy claimed that the public perception was that Disney was always trying to make a quick buck. #5: The discouragement of creativity and art produced in recent years. #6: Eisner's inability to build and maintain relationships with Disney's creative partners, emphasizing Pixar, which at the time was unhappy with the partnership with Disney for a multitude of reasons. Months after this, Pixar would announce the end of its distribution partnership with Disney, turning many more against Eisner and the Disney management team. #7: Eisner's refusal to discuss the succession. In the letter, Roy also made specific reference to the death of Frank Wells and Eisner's inability to run the company without his partner.

A common belief among employees that infuriated Eisner. This was the beginning of Roy and Gold's "Save Disney" campaign. A costly and elaborate effort to unseat Eisner and his management team by appealing to shareholders and, if necessary, legal action. Roy used the legacy of his father and uncle Walt to his advantage, urging shareholders to preserve the company's magic. He specifically appealed to cast members and smaller shareholders who invested in the company, not just to make a profit, but to be a part of the magic he creates. Eisner and management dismissed Roy's efforts as a political stunt, and many within the company believed that Roy's problems were personal, and that by taking over the public, he was only making things worse for Disney.

They also noted that many of the actions Roy and Gold cited as management failures were decisions they approved as board members. Roy admitted that he had given management the benefit of the doubt too many times, but that his campaign was to prevent the company from continuing its string of failures. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong the supposed economic park was still being built, which is now being used as an example of mismanagement at the company years before its opening. The question that arises from Roy's accusations is: How do you build an affordable Disney theme park? The parks are known for their "no expense spared" immersion and attention to detail.

This results in attractions that cost tens of millions of dollars to build, and potentially billions for an entire park. How can you create a well-themed and inexpensive immersive environment? As Eisner demonstrated, it was actually quite simple: it all comes down to choosing the right topic. If you want to build a faraway land with detailed dark vehicles that take you on adventures beyond a person's wildest dreams, then it's nearly impossible to do so on the cheap. The key is to choose a theme that is easy and low-cost to implement to its full extent. For example, choosing a county fair, pier amusement park, or carnival as your theme land in the parks is a great way to operate multiple attractions without having to create an immersive theme.

Any poor craftsmanship or lack of effort fits that theme perfectly. Another example is the theming of a section of the park, or the entire park, according to Hollywood. This saves a lot of money when it comes to attraction scenery. There's no need to build your coaster into a beautifully sculpted coaster; Instead, build it into a large tan box and spray paint "Studio" on some of the corners; It doesn't cost that much and technically it fulfills the promised theme of Studios. In the case of Hong Kong Disneyland, how could money be saved on something as crucial as the park's central icon, for example?

There would certainly be no way to avoid spending what was necessary to make the center of the park the most beautiful and themed section. Except there was. The solution to the problem of the expensive icon was to reclaim nostalgia and create a tribute to the original Disneyland Castle. The smallest of all the castles in Magic Kingdom Theme Park, by far. This wouldn't be the only area in which the company would save money, but being the icon, it would be the most obvious. This was the corporate mentality with which Hong Kong Disneyland was built. On March 3, 2004, the Walt Disney Company held its annual shareholder meeting in Philadelphia.

Just weeks earlier, Comcast had made a surprise offer to acquire the Walt Disney Company, catching both Disney and the media off guard. Disney was struggling, but the company had just released a strong first-quarter earnings report and was coming off a successful film series in 2003. The seemingly random offer raised the stakes for the shareholder meeting. While Disney had not expressed any interest in the merger, this reinforced Roy's argument for preserving the soul of the company, which would certainly be destroyed if it were absorbed by a large media conglomerate. At the same time, he provided management with many options, including a possible elegant escape plan for Eisner should he approve the merger.

Everyone was present at the shareholders meeting. Roy gave an impassioned speech about his Save Disney campaign, which was met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation. Eisner's speech talked about the company's success and its future, and stated that the points Roy was making were exaggerated or simply false. The applause he received was described as light. Then it was time to read the re-election vote of the board of directors. Roy expected about 20% of shareholders to withhold their votes for Eisner's re-election, which would have been a strong vote of no confidence in the chairman and CEO. Once the votes were counted, Eisner jokingly tried to adjourn the session.

After howls of protest, he said: "I almost got away with it." The voting results were then read. For Roy, the news was much greater than he could have imagined; for Eisner, it was much worse. 43.4% of shareholders withheld their votes to re-elect Eisner as a board member. An opposition vote of that magnitude was unprecedented, and there are only a handful of comparable examples in the history of corporate America. It was later revealed that over 70% of cast members voted against Eisner, indicating how pay and budget cuts at the parks were affecting morale in the company as a whole.

After the vote, Eisner was stripped of his position as chairman of the board, retaining his position and his position as CEO. Eisner had floated the idea of ​​him resigning as president long before the meeting, but it was a strong indication that his days at the company were numbered. - All of us at the Walt Disney Company are grateful to have the opportunity to create, for the people of Hong Kong and China, their own Disneyland. With the Chinese New Year just around the corner. I wanted him to be the first to say: Happy Chinese New Year. Thank you. - Later in 2004, it was announced that Hong Kong Disneyland would open on September 12, 2005.

The company spoke of Hong Kong's enthusiasm for the new park and how it would focus on bringing the American entertainment experience to the region . Closer to the strategy of Tokyo Disneyland, unlike Euro Disneyland. Still, they were careful to incorporate the area's distinctive culture and hired a professional Feng shui consultant to ensure the park provided a familiar and harmonious design for its visitors. Next year was shaping up to be an important one for the Disney parks. Both with the opening of the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and with the celebrations of Disneyland's 50th anniversary. On September 10, 2004, Eisner wrote a formal letter to Disney's board of directors announcing his intention to leave Disney after his contract expired on September 30, 2006.

The move was merely a formality, as it was clear that the board would not renew Eisner's contract. contract anyway. He also endorsed Bob Iger as his successor, although the board launched an external search. Many, including Eisner, questioned whether or not he would remain on the company's board, but after deliberating on the issue, it became clear that he would have a complete exit from the company. Roy and Gold continued their campaign. Claiming that Eisner's resignation letter was a well-calculated move to hand over CEO duties to his ally, Iger, and that he could still try to retain power at the company.

They urged the board of directors to terminate his contract a year early, removing Eisner from the company in 2005. The board rejected their request, but ensured that a successor would be chosen before the summer of the following year. On March 14, 2005, Disney's board of directors voted unanimously to select Bob Iger as Eisner's successor. The selection process was quite controversial, with Roy and Gold criticizing the decision to appoint Iger and the lack of external candidates. The search was made more difficult by Eisner's insistence on being present during every interview, a situation that turned away many potential candidates. There was good news for Roy and Gold, as with the announcement of Iger's promotion, it was revealed that Eisner would be retiring a year earlier than expected, on September 30, 2005.

Coincidentally, three weeks after the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland. Iger would handle day-to-day CEO duties, while Eisner would help with the transition. In June 2005, environmentalists opposed Disney's plan to serve shark fin soup at wedding receptions held at the resort. Even though the dish is a traditional Chinese cuisine, activists were concerned about the declining shark population and the animal abuse done to obtain a shark fin. Which included fishermen pulling sharks out of the water, cutting off their fins, and throwing them back into the ocean to die. Disney attempted to find an environmentally sustainable way to offer the dish, but a study revealed that such options were not available.

The park removed the dish from the menu and stated that they would only serve it for parties that specifically requested it. In addition, they gave those who ordered the dish a pamphlet explaining the horrors committed to make the meal possible, which would undoubtedly have been a hit among the newlyweds. Even with these adaptations, activists did not back down and Disney decided not to serve shark fin soup at all. A month after the shark fin backlash, a news story emerged claiming that Disney had detained and killed nearly 50 stray dogs wandering around the Disney site in Hong Kong.

The headlines were sensational, as Disney simply called in government dog catchers, who immediately took the stray dogs to a shelter. The shelter, not having time to find homes for the animals, was only able to rehome three of the 45 dogs and give lethal injections to the remaining 42. The media also reported that some of the dogs were dogsunofficial guardians used by construction workers. , but both Disney and the construction company denied these accusations. Instead, they claim the dogs, which travel in packs, put crews in dangerous situations. The bad press, deserved or not, was just the beginning, as these types of negative reports about Disney in Hong Kong would increase exponentially as the park's September opening approached.

On August 19, 2005, reports were published accusing Disney of running manufacturing plants in mainland China that overworked and underpaid their employees. It reportedly compensated about 33 cents an hour, nine cents less than China's minimum wage of 42 cents an hour. Disney promised to investigate the matter, while the factories denied the allegations. On August 27, 2005, Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu expressed his opposition to the park and announced a personal boycott. He claimed that when he and the other stars were filming a promotion for the park, American workers disrespected them. A spokesperson for Hong Kong Disneyland attributed the incident to a lack of communication and hoped everyone would come to the park to see the fantastic service.

On September 4, Hong Kong Disneyland held a rehearsal day, with 29,000 guests attending to test the attractions and traffic flow. The event was created to avoid an opening day disaster like Disneyland 50 years earlier, but it actually accomplished the opposite. The day was a disaster. Guests waited in some lines for hours only for the attraction to break down, and the park's restaurants did not have enough seating to accommodate the crowds. It certainly didn't help that Hong Kong Disneyland was the smallest Magic Kingdom-style park ever created. While some early conceptual work showed a more ambitious version of the park, the economic park looked like it would live up to its title.

It also appeared that Disney was planning to expand the resort before expanding into the park, previously planning for a second gate and more hotels. Weeks before it opened, a case of food poisoning at the park made the news. Worse yet, when Hong Kong authorities came to investigate, Disney security demanded that they remove parts of their uniform before entering. When the story broke, Hong Kong residents were outraged and there was a possibility that Hong Kong authorities would take legal action over the encounter. Luckily, the opening of the park would overshadow the incident. Before the opening, Disney seemed eager to distance itself from the last year of controversy and see how well its budget park would do. - On September 12, 2005, Hong KongDisneyland Resort officially opened to the public.

Both Iger and Eisner were present on the big day. Reportedly, while Iger watched the opening day parade, he noticed that children responded more to the Pixar characters than to the classic Disney animated characters. This realization prompted Iger to repair Disney's relationship with Pixar, which he would do less than six months later by acquiring the computer animation company. Hong Kong Disneyland featured only four themed lands: Main Street U.S.A., Adventureland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. The park advertised 22 attractions, including Autopia, which wouldn't open until 2006. For reference, this is about half of the attractions currently offered at Magic Kingdom.

Of these 22 attractions, one was City Hall and Guest Services, and another was Main Street Vehicles. Another was a large set of Tiki statues that sprayed guests with water. Sleeping Beauty Castle and a Snow White-themed wishing well were two others, the railroad, and its only stop in Fantasyland, were listed separately. Of the remaining 15 attractions, two were live shows found elsewhere: Animal Kingdom's Festival of the Lion King and Disney Cruise Line's Golden Mickeys. In Adventureland, Tarzan's Treehouse and the rafts to get to Tarzan's Treehouse were listed separately, in Fantasyland, there was Mickey's PhilharMagic and a character encounter. Visitors would consider the remaining nine attractions to be the only attractions in the park.

This included Jungle Cruise, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Cinderella Carousel Mad Hatter Tea Cups, Orbitron, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and the soon-to-open Autopia. And that was it. Neither The Flight of Peter Pan, nor Pirates of the Caribbean nor Great Thunder Mountain. The scamp park was more developed than the Walt Disney Studios park in Paris at the time of its opening, but Hong Kong Disneyland certainly had similar financial capacity. This is not the fault of the Imagineers or the cast members, those who designed and operated the park were still able to create a sense of magic and add beautiful features and decorations despite the financial constraints, and the park was a great success in providing the perfect mix of American and Chinese culture.

However, the executives didn't care at all what the park looked like on the guide map, they were focused on how the park looked financially. The Walt Disney Company's chief attendance estimate estimated that 5.6 million people would visit the park in its first year, and about 10 million would visit each year thereafter. Hong Kong's population was only 6.8 million in 2005, so the park depended on two-thirds of its estimated visitors coming from mainland China and other Asian countries. From the beginning, things were not looking good. Quite the opposite, actually. Despite concerns from Disney executives and Hong Kong officials that the park's low capacity would lead to unmanageable crowds, opening week park attendance fell short of predictions.

One indicator of the weak performance was the resort's inability to fill rooms at its two hotels, a problem similar to the one it faced in Paris. For Hong Kong, this meant that mainland and international tourists were not turning up in droves, and it seemed that locals were unwilling to make up the difference. A month after the park opened, an employee climbed to the top of Space Mountain and threatened to take his own life. Luckily, the attempt was thwarted. However, an opinion poll following the incident revealed the extent to which the public relations nightmares the park had suffered were affecting public perception of the complex. 24% of those surveyed by Asian trade magazines reported that they had a negative view of Hong Kong Disneyland;

Only 42% stated that their opinion was positive. The negative publicity, combined with high ticket prices, Hong Kong's struggling economy, the Chinese people's lack of attachment to company, and the lack of attractions revealed the problems the park could have. Worst of all, Hong Kong Disney was having a difficult time competing with nearby Ocean Park, which saw an increase in attendance after Disney's opening in Hong Kong, and visitor numbers seemed evenly matched between the two, with the possibility that Ocean Park was doing better. As if things couldn't get any worse, Hong Kong Disney finally saw the crowds officials feared.

During the Chinese Lunar New Year Festival, a swarm of guests packed the park. Hong Kong Disneyland reached capacity day after day during the holidays, doubling the usual crowd size. Disney, not anticipating the crowds, had no special holiday tickets, and crowds of guests with valid entry passes were turned away at the gates. Furious at being denied entry, many got into shouting matches with cast members and police. While a few took a more active response and attempted to scale the park's fences. This brought more bad press for Hong Kong Disneyland, and park officials apologized profusely and issued official statements almost every day of the festivities.

The following year a simple special event ticket would be needed to avoid a similar disaster, but the damage had already been done to the struggling park. Disney's first year in Hong Kong underperformed, with 5.2 million guests visiting the park, nearly half a million fewer than projections. The news would get worse from there: the predicted 2006 attendance of 10 million visitors was a bit off. Actual attendance was even lower than the first year, with 4.17 million visitors. Within two years, the park had created a $200 million deficit; Hong Kong lawmakers began to publicly criticize the park's poor performance. Hong Kong owned 57% of the park and Disney owned the rest.

With an initial cost of $3.5 billion and a large deficit, the park's debt was going to continue to grow. Disney was already trying to remedy the lack of attractions: in 2008, four new shows and the classic It's a Small World boat ride opened. This increased attendance slightly, but it was not enough. Disney and Hong Kong knew they had to do something big to save the resort, especially since a deal was about to be reached between Disney and Shanghai. The solution was a $465 million expansion for Hong Kong Disney. This would add up to 30 new attractions to the small park and three new lands: Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch and Toy Story Land.

This would also increase Disney's stake in Hong Kong Disneyland from 43% to 48%, and Hong Kong's would fall from 57% to 52%. Toy Story Land would be the first to open, debuting on November 17, 2011. The park was a mere clone of the quick-fix land that had opened at Walt Disney Studios Park a year earlier; both feature small Toy Story-themed carnival attractions. Story franchise. On July 14, 2012, Grizzly Gulch opened with a new roller coaster, Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. A unique twist on both Frontierland and its famous e-ticket, Big Thunder Mountain and Big Grizzly Mountain featured audio-animatronic bears, direction changes, and a launch.

The new additions brought great news for both the Hong Kong government and Disney. The resort had finally turned annual profits. The new attractions saw attendance increase to 6.7 million guests, and the resort was poised to get out of debt. There was one problem: The long-rumored Shanghai Disneyland project had been approved and was scheduled to open in 2016. This meant that fewer mainland visitors would visit Hong Kong as the date approached. The bad news, although expected, put a damper on the park's recent success, all Hong Kong could do is continue its expansion with unique attractions and hope that guests would continue traveling to the resort.

On May 17, 2013, Mystic Point opened with its signature attraction: Mystic Manor. The ride takes the place of the Haunted Mansion found in other Disney parks. Due to Chinese traditions and censorship laws that restrict depictions of the supernatural, the popular dark ride featuring departed spirits cannot be cloned at the resort. The new attraction, Mystic Manor, tells the story of Lord Henry Mystic and his cute Albert, when Albert opens Mystic's music box, the house comes to life. The trailless dark attraction is one of the best attractions ever created by Disney, it was a hit with guests and solidified the park's expansion as an overwhelming success. 2013 profits were even higher than 2012, and would be even higher in 2014.

Unfortunately, this was the last year of profits Hong Kong Disneyland has seen to date. Shanghai Disneyland opened on June 16, 2016, the high-capacity park featured unique, state-of-the-art attractions. Unlike the economic park built in Hong Kong and which arguably learned from its mistakes, Disney and Shanghai spared no expense, and that was reflected in the attendance. In its first year, more than 11 million visitors visited Shanghai Disneyland; The enormous success of the park was one of the main factors in the loss of profits in Hong Kong. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, the park reported increasing losses, even though revenue recently increased. This is partly due to the cost of expansion, including a third resort hotel and a new simulator, The Iron Man Experience, both opened in 2017.

A new Moana show, a new Ant-Man attraction and the Wasp. Opened in March 2019 replacing Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, a Frozen-themed land and another Marvel attraction set to open in the coming years, and perhaps the most symbolic of the park's transformation: a new castle. The small Sleeping Beauty Castle would be renovated and built into a much larger and more elaborate centerpiece. This appears to mark the end of Hong Kong Disneyland's years as a budget park, and while the resort will most likely continue to report losses during the $1.4 billion expansion, there is hope for Disney's worst-performing Magic Kingdom.

The expensivePark reimagining is a typical strategy used by CEO Bob Iger, and he has had to carry out similar financial bailouts with Disney California Adventure and Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris. High prices have never scared Iger during his years at the helm, and it is too early to see a return on some of these investments or evaluate Iger's strategies as a whole. However, it is possible with the predecessor of it. Since Michael Eisner left Disney in September 2005, he has continued his career in entertainment, albeit on a much smaller scale. He has financed some TV shows, including Netflix's hit animated comedy BoJack Horseman, and his investment company recently bought Portsmouth Football Club.

He left a mixed legacy at Disney; He certainly saved the company from a takeover and financial ruin in the 1980s and 1990s with the help of Disney Chairman Frank Wells, sparking Disney's renaissance, revitalizing old assets and creating and acquiring new ones. However, after Wells' tragic death, Eisner let the Walt Disney Company fall into a situation similar to the one he found it in. Since Eisner had to fend off a potential Comcast acquisition, Disney was much bigger, more diverse, and more poised for success than it had been two decades earlier, but it was certainly in trouble. No better indication of Eisner's downfall was his relationship with those around him, like Roy and Gold, and the endless list of executives who left the company because of him or refused to work with the company with him at the helm. .

So what happened that reversed Eisner's most powerful touch? It's hard to narrow it down to just one event. The death of his partner, the failure of Euro Disneyland, the backlash against Disney's America, the fallout from Katzenberg and Ovitz, the failure to expand the parks, the difficulties in creating programming for ABC, and the series of early box office failures. of the 2000s. all played a role in the fall. Perhaps the most important factor was not an isolated event, but a general change in mentality. Eisner was a one-of-a-kind creative executive, as he told DisneyWar author James B. Stewart: "I'm not sure you're going to see another CEO in Hollywood like me.

I think I'm probably the last one of a kind." creatives to run a company like this. Eisner constantly highlighted the power of creativity, how a unique, quality product is all it takes to be successful. He did it early in his reign at Disney and even earlier, when he was at Paramount, green-lighting low-budget movies with good concepts instead of high-budget, low-quality scripts. He continued to emphasize creativity even until his final days at the company, referencing his concern about Iger's lack of creative abilities on numerous occasions before his departure. While he continued to mention the creative process and the importance of it, his understanding of it became skewed.

In his last years at Disney he forgot or had difficulties implementing one of the most important aspects when producing and publishing a creative work: risk. Producing art is unpredictable and difficult, producing an artistic experience is even more so. When done wrong, whether on purpose or by circumstance, it can make risks seem like the enemy and make the safe option much more attractive. But when it's done right, when you find the balance between financial responsibilities and creative aspirations, it's beautiful, memorable, special, magical, profitable and powerful. A world devoid of this type of creation is bland, and an artistic landscape full of copycats and imitators is not much better.

These colorful and extraordinary experiences become part of who we are as people, and it is essential to continue creating them, regardless of the risk. It's everything, and it all comes from one thing, that little spark of inspiration. And despite forgetting it for a brief period in his career, Eisner knew it. Possibly better than anyone else. - Because mediocrity is what fearful people will always settle for. Again, think of a pointless painting, one bad spot can't ruin the painting, you fix it and move on. However, if people are afraid to take risks with bright and bold colors, then the whole work will be very boring and bland.

If you want to discover, inspired ideas that you simply have to accept, you will have to find quite a few who don't measure up. ♪String music ♪ What about science?