Boardwalk Times: Stories from the Seashore — Five Key Disney Moments To Look Forward To In 2025 👀 📈📉
This month's newsletter will encompass Five Key Disney Moments To Look Forward To In 2025, the return of the Rumor/Speculation Section, and Moana 2 and Mufasa Box Office.
Welcome back to Boardwalk Times: Stories from the Seashore!
It’s the end of the year, so we’re going to end it with a bang. A mixture of interesting notes and tidbits throughout this newsletter.
In this issue, we will be covering:
Five Key Disney Moments To Look Forward To In 2025 👀 📈📉
Rumor/Speculation Section: Moana, Avengers: Infinity Defense, Win or Lose, and More 💭
Moana 2 and Mufasa Box Office 🍿💰
Podcast Plugs 🎙
Links of the Month 📰
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Five Key Disney Moments To Look Forward To In 2025 👀 📈📉
Walt Disney World When Epic Universe Opens
I think everyone is curious to see how attendance at the parks and occupancy at the hotels are at Walt Disney World during the opening of Epic Universe. I think I’m more curious to see if Walt Disney World does any more limited-time offerings to entice annual passholders and Disney Vacation Club members to come down.
Disneyland 70th
It’s a big anniversary for Disneyland. It will feature a new show called World of Color Happiness, the return of the Paint the Night Parade, Wondrous Journeys comes back, and Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration! Parade will return at DCA. Additional entertainment will be added as we get closer and Walt Disney: A Magical Life will also debut on May 16, 2025 (the start of the celebration).
Disneyland 70th will also serve as a way to create hype for the future of the resort which will soon feature Avatar, Coco, and more Marvel.
Destination D23 2025
Disney Experiences Josh D’Amaro gets to give an update after his D23 2024 presentation. Expect some news from the parks but also it seems more likely that Destination D23 2025 will also feature other divisions of Disney much more than in years past. I’d expect a larger presence from Walt Disney Studios, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, and Pixar at Destination D23 2025. Yet this event remains a showcase for D’Amaro, Disney Experiences, and Walt Disney Imagineering.
The Opening of The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Deadpool & Wolverine opened big for Marvel/Disney. Can The Fantastic Four: First Steps give Marvel/Disney that same boost? It will likely be coming the same month as James Gunn’s Superman. It’s also going to be the third Marvel Studios film release of 2025 following Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*. The previous Fantastic Four films weren’t as successful, but Disney and Marvel Studios hope this will be a marquee title for the year.
Succession Watch
Chairman of the Board James Gorman is continuing his search. The race is wide open as Gorman is looking at external options as well. Still, Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Dana Walden have the early edge. Still, watch for external and internal options to lobby for the job. I’d also pay close attention to Disney CEO Bob Iger and who he hangs around with. Will he be around D’Amaro more? What about Walden? What about Universal’s Donna Langley?
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Rumor/Speculation Section: Moana, Avengers: Infinity Defense, Win or Lose, and More 💭
It’s been a while but it’s time to share some rumors and speculate on some things.
Moana 3: The worst kept secret and you already likely know if you went to see Moana 2. Walt Disney Animation Studios is in early development on Moana 3. This isn’t shocking at all due to the all-around box office success, and the fact Moana 2 wasn’t developed in the traditional way. It now seems like Moana 3 will be a way for the studio to tell the next chapter of Moana and Maui from the ground up.
Win or Lose doc: Meet the Pickles, a documentary about the making of Pixar’s first long-form TV series Win or Lose, is expected to be released in February. The doc was going to release in December but then Disney+ flip-flopped Win or Lose and Inside Out inbetweenquel Dream Productions. Win or Lose has also been making headlines due to a scrapped storyline surrounding a transgender player on the co-ed softball team. At this time, it’s unclear if the recent headlines will affect the documentary.
Universal Epic Universe expansion: There have been murmurs that Universal has greenlit two new attractions for Epic Universe (which isn’t even open yet). The attractions rumored are a Creature from the Black Lagoon boat ride and a Luigi Mansion attraction. It’s unlikely we will get confirmation from Universal on either of these until after Epic Universe opens but both seem like solid bets.
Zootopia: Better Zoogether: The new show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Winter 2025 is expected to feature Shakira reprising her role as Gazelle. I’m also expecting there to be an original song for this new show at the Tree of Life Theater.
Encanto at Animal Kingdom: Disney Animation CCO Jared Bush recently said on Twitter that he is a part of the Encanto attraction for Animal Kingdom and that it is incredible. I’ve heard great things about this attraction, and it should be a strong draw and serve a need for Animal Kingdom. It’s no surprise Disney wants to start construction in early 2025 and get this attraction out as part of Tropical Americas Phase 1.
Who’s coming back for Avengers: Infinity Defense?: Disney’s E-Ticket Avengers attraction will have a loaded cast. Robert Downey Jr. is confirmed for the attraction as Iron Man, we still have to wait if WDI pulls a fast one and inserts RDJ’s Doctor Doom alongside King Thanos. I’d expect Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell to be featured as well. Previous actors who’ve done projects with WDI are expected to return like Tom Holland, Anthony Mackie, Paul Rudd, Iman Vellani, and Brie Larson. The Disney Treasure Marvel dinner show also featured cameos from Xochitl Gomez (America Chavez), Kathryn Newton (Cassie Lang), and Dominique Thorne (Ironheart). Those three seem like sure bets as well. Truthfully it feels like if they are confirmed for Doomsday/Secret Wars there’s a good shot they are in this attraction as well.
Spider-Man 4: The rumors on this one are all over the place. From villains like Knull and Mephisto to possible team-ups with Venom and Daredevil. Also, there is speculation that Anya Taylor-Joy may join the cast. This makes sense considering Zendaya will likely have a smaller role due to both story reasons (MJ no longer remembers Peter Parker) and the fact that Zendaya has other acting gigs lined up. So what can I speculate on? What’s my read? To me, it seems like both Marvel Studios and Sony are stuck in an intriguing spot. How do you follow No Way Home? For Marvel, how does this film work in the middle of Doomsday and Secret Wars? In an ideal world, Marvel Studios would delay the Avengers films and Sony would embrace a story of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man teaming up with Daredevil against Kingpin and other Spidey villains. Throw in some Venom symbiote/multiverse hijinks at the end or post-credit and boom you got your movie. To me, it now seems like we are getting a film potentially set in Battleworld or even off-world…
Disney live-action check-in: All is quiet on the Disney Parks film adaptation front, which I’ve been watching like a hawk. Disney has a Prince Charming film on deck from Wonka filmmaker Paul King. Disney is also pressing on with live-action remakes of Tangled and Hercules (and yes there is a rumor about these being Mother Gothel and Hades but at the time of this newsletter it feels like these films will remain the status quo). Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has two films in development, both films being overseen by Jerry Bruckheimer. One version will be written by Jeff Nathanson (Young Woman and the Sea, Mufasa) with the possibility of Johnny Depp doing a reprise of Jack Sparrow, and the other version would see Margot Robbie and Christina Hodson chart their own course. I’m expecting a lot of news out of Walt Disney Studios in 2025 because 2026 through 2028 needs its slate filled. We’re going to stay on top of it all.
Drones Comeback: After a test run at Disney Springs with drone show Dreams That Soar, I’m expecting Disney to incorporate drones into a nighttime spectacular in 2025 at Walt Disney World.
Why is General Motors returning to be the main sponsor of Test Track 3.0?: The move is allegedly to showcase all of GM’s brands better. For what it’s worth GM was the original sponsor then for 2.0 it was Chevrolet (owned by GM). GM brands include Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. I’d also expect GM’s OnStar to have a role somewhere in the new experience. Also, the new storyline seems to pay tribute to World of Motion but I’d expect General Motors to tout some of their main initiatives like electric and autonomous vehicles.
Moana 2 and Mufasa Box Office 🍿💰
Box Office Win for Moana 2 🍿💰: Moana 2 made a whopping $225M over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. Surpassing our own $100M-$200M range projection. The three-day weekend total was around $139M which is strong. Post-Thanksgiving the film made $51M in its follow-up weekend. Moana 2 has also made $450 million internationally. The global haul for the sequel sits at $833M, which is $190M more than what the first Moana made in its entire theatrical run. The film still has legs too. Seems like $1B remains in play. Now we are waiting for the official confirmation of Moana 3 and some Disney Parks projects across the globe.
Mufasa Opening Weekend 💰: Mufasa faced a tough domestic battle with Sonic 3 and made $35M. A much lower total than expected as most analysts projected $50M, which is still way down from the opening of the live-action The Lion King in 2019.
Mufasa Outlook 🍿: Here’s the positive outlook on Mufasa though. The film is performing better internationally with a $133M haul. The global haul sits at $221M. It also seems like word of mouth may be picking up on Mufasa as well. Mufasa won Christmas Day at the domestic box office with $14.7M, that daily total is higher than what the film grossed on the Friday ($13M), Saturday ($11M), and Sunday ($10M) of it’s opening weekend. Mufasa then went on to earn $12M on the day after Christmas and another $12M on December 27. Did the audience not realize it came out before Christmas? Maybe this is just a case of word of mouth, regardless it will be interesting to see how Mufasa continues to perform.
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Podcast Plugs 🎙
Boardwalk Times Podcast Network had a successful Spotify Wrapped: This is the Waycast had 64% new listeners this year, and Multiverse of Marvel had 89% new listeners this year. The Zach Perilstein Show increased followers on Spotify by 73%. Waycast and Multiverse also increased their follower count by double digits. Also if you’re trying to reach the 25-35 age demographic we are the place for you, sponsors take a look.
The Zach Perilstein Show had Cinemablend’s Dirk Libbey on to discuss Disney Succession, Monsters Inc.’s takeover of Muppet*Vision 3D, Muppets Rock N Roller Coaster, and so much more. (Spotify) (Apple)
This is the Waycast is covering Skeleton Crew. (Spotify) (Apple)
The Lowdown on the Plus-up has new episodes about Adventures Thru Inner Space and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. (Spotify) (Apple)
LINKS OF THE MONTH
— This exec shredded Disney’s family-friendly marketing blueprint to promote Deadpool & Wolverine (Fast Company)
— Ryan Reynolds sharing insights on the future of Deadpool. (The Hollywood Reporter)
— Disney adds Bluey film to its 2027 slate. (The Walt Disney Company)
— Bluey again! Disney Experiences announced Bluey would join Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort, and Disney Cruise Line in 2025. (The Walt Disney Company)
— Why S.E.A. is Disney’s Sleeping Giant Multimedia Franchise. (Boardwalk Times)
— Robot Walt Disney — History of the Ethics of Theme Park Simulacrums. (Boardwalk Times)
— Elton John: Never Too Late: A Candid Look At The Rockstar And The Man (Boardwalk Times)
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