Thread by @AlexandraErin

Apparently the new article of faith among TLJ haters is that their personal backlash is responsible for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge underperforming at Disneyland this summer.

Like they all had vacation plans they canceled or something.

First they took credit for Solo, a May movie that didn't get a TRAILER before the Superbowl ,that changed creative teams and was plagued with problems throughout production and then dumped between Deadpool and an Avengers movie, bombing.

The Last Jedi topped Blu-Ray sales when it came out... you'd think if Star Wars's fortunes were falling based on audience reactions to this movie, its home video sales would have been trash. But they're stronger than all the things the anti-fans point to as signs the brand's dead

So what's the real story at Galaxy's Edge?

What's usually the problem when something underperforms: overpromising. Unrealistic construction targets led to a rushed opening with only one operational ride in a merchandise-rich environment.

And on top of that, memories of Pandora's opening led Disney to try for a "soft" opening. They took active and passive steps to mitigate crowds, reasoning they'd rather have fewer people waiting for two hours to ride the Millennium Falcon than more people waiting three or four.

One ride as an island in a sea of a bunch of expensive "activities" and merchandise isn't that appealing, and Disney's crowd management efforts just exacerbated that. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd... nothing sucks like a vacuum.

Sucks for the theme park workers who were hired and scheduled based on expected demand (let's get UBI and a robust social safety net so they can enjoy their job whether they get the hours or not) but notably, "underperforming" means wait times for the ride are one hour, not two.

So it's all over for Star Wars at Disney? They're going to write off their whole 40 billion dollar investment and rebrand the whole wing, as some alt-right sites have suggested?

Nah.

They can see the pot of gold.

The last Star Wars movie before Galaxy's Edge opened was the disappointing Solo, which landed with barely a ripple last year.

This December, the hotly anticipated Episode IX opens.

And in January, Force willing, Galaxy's Edge gets its second big tentpole attraction.

I don't think a lot of US pop culture awareness of Disneyland Paris goes beyond "EuroDisney failed, LOL. They tried to open a park in France and thought it would work."

https://twitter.com/jurijuri/status/1161405232829620225

But yeah, openings are hard and complicated and they basically all fail one way or another. Disneyland's opening was so rushed that the asphalt didn't have time to harden. People lost shoes. There were malfunctions, shortages.

AND IT WAS TELEVISED LIVE.

The Animal Kingdom was pretty miserable when it opened.

When they added the World of Pandora... it was successful. So successful that you couldn't move through it. Couldn't sit down. Lines backed up TO THE FRONT OF THE PARK.

It's easy to say, in hindsight, that Disney made the wrong call in trying to stagger participation in Galaxy's Edge and soft pedal the initial advertising, but the people who haven't been there yet aren't disappointed.

Disney probably has more objective data and analysis thereof on the opening of giant theme park attraction-based "lands" of anyone on the planet as well as a deep understanding of marketing and crowd psychology generally...

...but every single park they open is unique, every situation is different, and they never get to open the same park twice.

They went for manageable crowds and in that one respect, they massively overperformed.

But they'll be fine once the holidays hit.

Yep.

Every Disney park is an expensive, huge, complicated experiment and they just fiddle with them until they get them right. And sometimes it takes a while for the crowds to catch on.

https://twitter.com/jurijuri/status/1161408035614597120