Disney is eyeing world domination of theme parks, toys and beyond. Photo / AP
Disney is eyeing world domination of theme parks, toys and beyond. Photo / AP
Disney chief Bob Iger recently announced his media and merchandising empire would soon be launching one of its biggest theme-park expansions in history: A "jaw-dropping new world" sprawled across Disney's parks in Florida and California, exploring the Big Mouse's newly purchased mega-franchise, Star Wars.
He didn't say when the elaborate 14-acre expansions would open, but analysts agree it hardly matters. In recent years, Disney's theme parks have set records for attendance and profit every quarter, and the big-budget movies of the new Star Wars trilogy and its side "anthology" films are planned to release in theaters once a year through at least 2020.
The world is in the first hours of what Disney hopes will be an infinite, imaginary empire, its Star Wars blockbusters and theme parks fueled by (and helping fuel) Disney's store-conquering merchandising machine.
Even before Disney assumed control over the Star Wars brand in 2012, the $180 billion behemoth was the strongest merchandising force in the galaxy, with Marvel, Pixar and box-office giants such as Frozen helping bring the company billions in revenue every year.
But with the help of the Jedi Knights and decades-old grandeur of the Star Wars universe, analysts said, Disney has set its sights even higher, eyeing world domination of theme parks, toys and beyond for potentially decades to come.
"The canon is big enough that they can spin off stories for the rest of time," said Len Testa, co-author of
The Star Wars-themed lands - at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and at Hollywood Studios at Disney World in Orlando - will feature "a never-before-seen planet, a remote trading port and one of the last stops before wild space", Iger said on Saturday at D23, a Disney fan expo.
The expansions will include two new attractions: one riding through a secret mission aboard the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo's ultra-fast smuggling ship, and another involving a "climactic battle between the First Order and the Resistance". Construction on the Disneyland park will start in 2017; no date was given for the Disney World start.
Disney won't share a price tag for the expansion, though some analysts suspect it will cost $2 billion, a staggering total in line with how much it has spent on other parks. Disney spent more than $1 billion in 2012 expanding its California Adventure Park, and next year it intends to open the Shanghai Disney Resort in China for about $5.5 billion.
During the construction, Disney will profit from Star Wars through a few smaller moneymakers: Star Wars Launch Bay, a courtyard of costumed characters and film props, opening later this year; Season of the Force, a limited-time event starting early next year with themed space-food offerings and fireworks shows set to the Star Wars score; and even a remodeling of the famed Space Mountain roller coaster, which will soon be Hyperspace Mountain.
The few announced rides, analysts said, will largely serve as attraction points for park visitors. From there, they will be shepherded between interactive areas (such as the cantina in Mos Eisley, the "wretched hive of scum and villainy" made famous in the first film) and mega-stores, where all employees (including those at the register) will be expected to stay in intergalactic character.
A still from the latest Star Wars: The Force Awakens, directed by J J Abrams. Photo / AP
The hype over Disney's theme parks lands only a few weeks before "Force Friday" - Disney's stores, online shops and global retailers will open at 12.01am, Sept 4 to unveil new apps, books, collectibles, toys, "lifestyle accessories" and other merchandise.
Disney is already showcasing lines of Star Wars merchandise, including a $399 Return of the Jedi poster and a $149 built-to-scale R2-D2 model, with a swiveling arm and drinking glasses - both of which you can buy with your Star Wars credit card.
But "Force Friday" has been made into its own consumer spectacle, along the lines of a Black Friday; fans have even kept countdowns. Disney has also announced collaborations with seven mega-brands - CoverGirl/Max Factor, Duracell, carmaker FCA US, General Mills, Hewlett-Packard, Subway and Verizon - that have developed their own marketing campaigns.
"Every lightsaber, every action figure, every LEGO set tells a story for generations of Star Wars fans," Josh Silverman, an executive of global licensing at Disney Consumer Products, said in a statement.
Disney's Star Wars rollout will probably best even that of Frozen, the cheeky princess tale that became both the highest-grossing animated movie in history and Disney's 11th franchise to drive more than $1 billion in annual retail sales a year.
Disney Cruise Lines will run eight day-long Star Wars cruises in the western Caribbean next year, including meet-and-greets with characters such as Chewbacca. Even the way visitors get into Disney's parks, via the wrist-worn MagicBands, have been given the Star Wars treatment: Limited-release bands with Luke Skywalker and a stormtrooper sell for $24.95.
The Force Awakens, the franchise's seventh film and the first of its new trilogy, premieres in theaters in December, and Morgan Stanley analysts this summer projected it would make more than $2.3 billion in ticket sales worldwide, making it the second-biggest box-office seller in history, between Titanic and Avatar.
Star Wars holds unprecedented cross-generation appeal - many viewers of the 1977 original are still mega-fans today - and a virtually unstoppable media powerhouse. Even the trilogy that launched with Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999 - which, with its interstellar trade embargoes and Jar Jar Binks, was widely panned by critics - grossed $2.5 billion worldwide.
But Iger has said the Star Wars marketing machine comes with its own risks, including burning out a nation of toy buyers. As he told Bloomberg Businessweek in 2013: "I don't want to overcommercialise or overhype this. It's my job to prevent that."
