Boardwalk Times: Stories from the Seashore — IAAPA Showcases An Incredible Future for The Attractions Industry
This month I had the opportunity to attend the IAAPA Expo, and I wanted to write about some of my takeaways from the event.
Welcome back to Boardwalk Times: Stories from the Seashore! This month’s newsletter is going to be a bit different. November was an incredible month for news. So, there is a lot to discuss! On the November newsletter agenda, we will be covering IAAPA Expo (which we attended), Bob Iger’s return to Disney (we will dive into it more in December), and Disney’s box office success and woes. We also got some podcast plugs and as always LINKS OF THE MONTH.
Before we get into this newsletter would you vote in the poll below? It would really help us out. The December edition of the newsletter should have even more poll questions!
IAAPA Showcases An Incredible Future for The Attractions Industry
From November 15 through November 18 we attended IAAPA Expo in Orlando, Florida. With over 36,000 attendees and 1,077 exhibiting companies, it was a truly massive event. Especially in comparison to my IAAPA experience last year, which was much smaller scale due to the effects of the pandemic.
SeaWorld unveiled its ride vehicle for its new coaster Pipeline which is coming in spring 2023, Dollywood unveiled its ride vehicle for Big Bear Mountain, SeaWorld San Diego revealed its Artic Rescue ride vehicle, and there was a ton more coaster reveals. Triotech, who we covered last year for their Hyper Ride, we’re back at IAAPA Expo this year. Triotech in a press conference revealed a new attraction coming to South Korea’s Lotte World called Battlegrounds World Agent based on the popular gaming property PUBG.
Yet, IAAPA wasn’t just about major attraction reveals.
It also featured education sessions and special panels. I was lucky enough to attend the Legends 2022: Epcot, 40 years in a state of becoming. It was an excellent panel that dived into numerous topics about EPCOT. The panel was hosted by Bob Rogers of BRC Imagination Arts and the panel contributors were the recently retired Imagineering Global Ambassador Bob Weis, Rick Rothschild of Far Out Creative, Imagineer Jodi McLaughlin, and EPCOT Vice President Kartika Rodriguez.
The panel didn’t give us anything on the future of EPCOT but it was still a very educational and informational session. A lot of great advice on how to manage creatives and thoughts on value engineering. Bob Weis also revealed some new images from the Marty Sklar archives.
I also visited the Kiteman Productions booth. They are the company that does Disney’s kite work — they did EPCOT Forever and most famously Disney’s KiteTails at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It was cool to see the scale of a Zazu kite in real life, and I’m curious to see if there is more in store from Kiteman Productions when it comes to potentially popping up in a new Disney nighttime spectacular.
I also stopped by the Garner Holt Productions booth and checked out the amazing Grogu animatronic. That was made for collectors. Although I have a good feeling that the Grogu that just appeared in Galaxy’s Edge (Disneyland) was also made by Garner Holt. Disney has a track record of using Garner Holt. Also, if anyone at Disney was paying attention to the Garner Holt booth at IAAPA. It’s time to put a similar Grogu meet and greet in at Florida’s Galaxy’s Edge. The demand is there.
I now want to discuss a certain product that stole the show at IAAPA. One that the internet enjoyed a lot. That is the Condiment Cow. It wasn’t a VR experience, laser tag, new roller coaster, etc. that stole the show. It was the Condiment Cow. Check it out in the tweet below. It’s a pretty creative concept!
Similar to the Condiment Cow, one of my takeaways from IAAPA is that unique food and beverage are essential to themed experiences. ICEE was a prime example. They had a freestyle-like machine for ICEE’s on display. I stuck with just Coca-Cola and Cherry. ICEE also showed different products like ICEE Cookies which taste like cherry and blueberry ICEE’s, and its collaboration with Dippin Dots.
Another storyline I noticed brewing at IAAPA Expo is Mini Melts vs Dippin Dots. I tried both companies but I won’t pick a favorite. That can change if one of them decides to sponsor Boardwalk Times.
Steve Lewis, the creator of Gideon’s Bakehouse gave a talk at IAAPA that I was able to attend. Steve discussed his origins and how Gideon’s became what it is now. It was a phenomenal talk with a lot of cool insights on how to build a beloved brand and business. We shared some of the talk on our Instagram in the form of reels.
Steve also shared some mind-blowing facts about Gideon’s including that it took him seven years…. yes seven years to create the Peanut Butter cold brew. Steve also dropped a bit of a news nugget that Gideon’s Bakehouse similar to Walt Disney World will change over the years. It won’t remain the same. Steve also revealed the holy trinity of Gideon’s Bakehouse is 1. The desserts 2. Escapism 3. The staff. It’s hard to argue with that.
Quick Hits on IAAPA
Zamperla’s Nebulaz attraction was one of my favorite visuals from the Expo.
This attraction would be perfect for a Top Gun flat ride, right?
IAAPA Expo was an impressive showcase that is only bound to grow larger as the attraction industry recovers and rebounds. I said it last year but it is mind-boggling seeing the number of companies it takes to make some of your favorite theme park destinations simply exist. I’m excited to explore IAAPA Expo again in 2023.
Bob Iger Is Back
As I wrote earlier… We will talk more about Bob Iger’s return to Disney in December’s newsletter. For now, we will just briefly give some quick hits on the situation.
It’s remarkable how quickly the Bob Iger comeback came together. Iger becoming CEO got done on Friday, and the press release was issued late Sunday night. It’s incredible how fast this came together.
The Disney Board comes across as pretty indecisive in this ordeal. Chapek was their guy until he wasn’t. The Board was willing to let Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs run the company despite passing on both of them as actual successors! I think it’s time for Disney to add new board members who have experience in media, entertainment, and even attractions.
In the end, what does Bob Chapek think? The guy worked at Disney since 1993. He climbed through the ranks from Home Entertainment to Consumer Products to the Chairman of the Parks to the CEO role. All to be fired minutes before an Elton John concert. How did Chapek react to this? We won’t know for a long time. And yes, I know he’s going to make $23 million. But the man dedicated many years to Disney, this had to take a toll on him. He didn’t even get to graciously step down. It was all rush. No thanks for helping Disney survive the pandemic either (He got a small nod in the statement but really that wasn’t anything). Nothing. Chapek made it to the top just to have his rival predecessor come back and claim the throne.
Bob Iger has tough decisions to make. With economic headwinds approaching, how will Disney deal with potential layoffs? What’s Iger’s plan to reshape the narrative around the Disney Parks and its prices? Can Iger figure out the streaming strategy? Not to mention issues like the box office performance of animation films, ESPN, and rebuilding Walt Disney Imagineering after layoffs and the botched Lake Nona move.
Now we deal with the mess of another successor race. What will be different this time? Can Bob Iger actually train his successor before it’s too late? It’s clear his strategy with Chapek failed. In February 2020, Chapek should’ve been promoted to Chief Operating Officer, not CEO. Then Chapek wouldn’t have been as upset with Iger making the key decisions. I believe Bob Iger within 2023 or early 2024 has to name his COO. Whether it’s Disney Parks chair Josh D’Amaro, Disney General Entertainment chair Dana Walden, or someone else. Iger just has to start prepping his heir for real.
Wakanda Forever Wins and Strange World Slumps As Avatar Awaits
Wakanda Forever is rocking. It made $181 million in its domestic opening weekend. Then it made $66 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. Overall though Wakanda Forever has made $367 million domestic, and $307 million worldwide bringing it to a total of $675 million. We will see if this can reach $1 billion.
On a totally different note, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Strange World made $18 million, and it boasts a budget of around $180 million. A disappointing performance for a Disney family film. There was a lack of marketing but genuinely I think there was a lack of interest from the general audience for this film. I talked about Strange World a bit in my mailbag and it’s clear Disney is going to lose money on this one. It could’ve been avoided with a little effort.
Avatar: The Way of Water is expected to make $150 million to $175 million over its opening weekend. That would be a great start for the long-anticipated sequel. I think Disney just has to be hoping that this film does well. If it doesn’t then they lose a key power property they were banking on for years to come in both movie theaters and in the Disney Parks.
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Podcast Plugs 🎙
Andor wraps up. Check out the last episodes of our Andor series here. (Apple) (Spotify)
Our Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special podcast episode is coming out this week. Be sure to be following our podcast feed. (Apple) (Spotify)
The Zach Perilstein Show is continuing its staff series. Some new episodes may come out in late 2022/early 2023. I also got some episodes with non-staff members in the works as well! Catch up here. (Apple) (Spotify)
LINKS OF THE MONTH
Feels like a lifetime ago: my mailbag on Disney Q4 that tackled Disney+, Strange World, and more. Along with my quarterly analysis. Who knew it would be the last of the Chapek era?
Boardwalk Times columnist Kelly McCubbin is doing a history of Disney music series. Part one is all about Steamboat Willie. (Boardwalk Times)
So does “Disney Prime” still happen under Bob Iger? Check out my article on it anyways. (Boardwalk Times)
The Good and Bad of Writing Star Wars, According to Andrew Stanton. (Gizmodo)
Remembering Alice Davis, one of Walt Disney Imagineering’s finest.
Disney Cruise Line is going to take over the Global Dream cruise ship. (Disney Parks Blog)
Walt Disney World Announces Location, Developer for Affordable and Attainable Housing Initiative. (Disney Parks Blog)
‘The Disney Animation Renaissance: Behind The Glass At The Florida Studio’ Is A Journey of The Small Studio’s Rise and Fall. (Boardwalk Times)
50 Questions We Have After Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Boardwalk Times)
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