Forbidden Eye said:
Thanks for finding that graph, Forbidden Eye, but it's a bit dubious. (Remember, you wrote "the theme
parks dropped in attendance". Not just one park.)
1) It doesn't seem to correspond with the numbers I've seen.
2) It says "Disneyland". Is this just for the Anaheim park or for all of them?
3) In the early-to-mid '80s, attendance for Walt Disney World in Florida was at an
ALL-TIME HIGH!
4) The Tokyo park opened in '83 but its numbers
quickly shot up like a rocket in the following years...(and continued
up &
up &
up).
5) Notice how your graph shows that the 1985 & '86 attendance were the
HIGHEST POINTS since the beginning. This was before Star Tours in early '87 (and Captain EO in late '86).
It would be very interesting to know exactly when Lucas was approached to collaborate on the Star Tours ride.
The answer might be in one of those articles that Attila provided links to... (I've read them but don't recall the details, at the moment). Juxtaposing that info with the dates of park attendance might reveal something...
Forbidden Eye said:
Of course, maybe its more accurate to say Disney the company as a whole was suffering in the early 80s. That definitely is true(why else do you think Disney made Tron and The Black Hole if not to cash in on the Star Wars phase).
While I agree that Disney, in general, was probably suffering during the early '80s, it must be said that, "The Black Hole", was already planned even before "Star Wars" came out (and there was no guarantee that SW was going to be a smash hit). "Tron" can be associated with the growing popularity of home computers more than anything else. It was a very, original concept which had nothing in common with "Star Wars" (other than being in the sci-fi genre).
On the outside, both of those films may seem like cash-ins on "Star Wars" but they really weren't.
Forbidden Eye said:
Disney needed something big and excited to attract wide attention like they did when Walt was around, so why not Lucas?
Because using "Star Wars" and Indiana Jones was a cop-out solution which compromised Disney's artistic integrity. Why not create something NEW using their own team? (Or at the very least; why not develop something NEW with Lucas...as was done with Captain EO?)
HJTHX1138 said:
Speaking of which, Star Tours was almost "Black Hole: The Ride", until they realized the popularity was not with-standing. (It seems like it was almost a predecessor to Buzz: Astro Blasters too)
Supposedly, the main reason why "The Black Hole" Ride was canned was because it was too costly to make at that time
(and, yes, the movie wasn't a box office success).