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Oh my goodness. From our studios in Los Angeles and Tampa.
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This is green Tag Theme Park in thirty. I'm Philip
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from Ganta Mighty and Controls, and I'm joined as always
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but my delightful co host, the amazing Scott Swinson of
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Scott Swinson Created Development. Here on green Tech, we look
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at the top news each week and we explain why
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it matters to industry professionals in the themed entertainment in
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the theme park space. And this week we have been
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asked by many people, and of course it is the
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major news is that a Universal Kids res wort has
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opened for press previews. We have a lot of coverage,
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both video and written coming out from Universal's newest foray
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into the family market, I guess in the DF in
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the Texas region. Right, So we'll talk about that and
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then we'll just see how far we get with other stories, right, Yeah,
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so right. I honestly don't know how long this is
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going to take because it's kind of like on its surface,
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I think that we all kind of know that nobody
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seems to like it, as in from a visual or
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from a that standpoint, But I think it's I guess
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I would like to approach. It just me personally from
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the nuance of like, this is meant for kids, so
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we kind of have to take our adult hats off
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and say, this is meant for kids like five to nine,
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and it's meant to be a local family park. Just
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a lot of interesting things, like the park has weird
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zoning requirements with the city, so it's not allowed to
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open till ten am, and most days it closes at
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five pm.
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On weekends seven or eight pm. Targeting kids. That's completely fine.
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Right, except that it is there's no shade and it's
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really hot in Texas.
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I haven't gone there yet, yeah, So I think it's
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also I think it's also important to recognize though, that
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this is you know, Universal has a bunch of different
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buckets that they operate in, and this is not necessarily
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even in the theme park bucket. This is in the
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I can't remember what they call it, but the outreach
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bucket this falls under the same buckets is Monsters, Monsters Unleashed, No, yes,
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the biggest.
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Thing horror yeah.
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Is the riot yeah yeah yeah, and Horror Unleashed is yeah.
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So I think it's that's interesting parallel. I think these
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are similar in that I think the biggest issue, Like
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I don't, I don't objectively.
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Speaking for I was gonna say, before we start, before
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we start dissecting this, Philip, maybe we should talk about
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what people are saying about it. I mean, let's let's
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start there, because I I think that we can justify
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away all of the not so positive comments. But let's
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hear what some of the positive comments are. Number One,
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no shade, and I've heard that multiple times. I've read
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that multiple times. Obviously I was not at the press preview,
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so I did not see it, but that is what
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I have heard many many times. And I think the
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term under themed has come up several times.
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Right, I think the those are the biggest, So lack
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of shade and under theming have seemed to be the biggest. Also,
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everyone calling it like a like like it's on theming
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for a prison, or that it is it's a Timu park,
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or it's what happens when, uh, you know, you build
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a theme park using Amazon delivery services.
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You know, there's a lot of.
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Like people kind of pointing out that it's very basic.
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You know, a lot of the like the the Shrek
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ride is basically just flats you know that are that
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are propped up and painted, and a lot of people
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saying it looks like someone's backyard, like they their neighbors
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do better, better rides, So there's a lot of that
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going around. On the split side, it sounds like most
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of the people that took children like the children seem to
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have fun. But of course the biggest counterpoint to that
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is that that age group has fun with anything. So
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I think that's that's more the lens I wanted to
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analyze it on is like, here's what people are saying,
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but these are all adults. The kids are having fun,
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and the kids, of what matters, accept that, which is fine.
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So in that way you could say it was successful.
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Accept that.
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I think you need to look at it in the
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context of families in the area, and that's what I
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researched most is thinking about let's assume that those kids
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love it. Okay, great, but those kids probably also like
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cardboard boxes that you know, they could just hang out in.
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Like I mean, this is the perfect this is the
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perfect example of Christmas morning where you you open the
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big toy and the big toy gets Oh, I got
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the big toy, and the rest of Christmas Day is
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spent playing in the giant box that it came in.
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So that's exactly how I was thinking about this, right, Yeah,
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so that's that's what I.
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Looked at it.
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You also you also have to recognize when when the
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first when the first Lego End Parks opened, some of
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the same comments came out. Is that you know, this
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is not this is not fully fully envisioned, this is
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not fully fleshed out. But the kids don't care. The
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little kids don't care. I also think that I also
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think that Universal is its own worst enemy in the
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fact that it put the Universal name on it. Now,
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I will say, because people have come to expect very
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high quality, the cutting edge animations, animatronics, that sort of thing.
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Uh a lot of a lot of high end whiz bangery.
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And I think that it's interesting because the things that
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happened with Epic Opening and people, the things that people
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didn't like about Epic Opening are some of them are
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very similar. But it's also like you know, you've heard
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me rag on the on the Monster's ride at Epic
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because they've got great animations, great animatronics next to pipe
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and drape, it seems unfinished. Now had the whole thing
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been flats and I would never have noticed the pipe
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and drape. So they've set up their expectations for their
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for the Universal park goers to be so very high
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that when you see the name Universal attached to the
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park and it's not that level, you kind of go, oh,
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it's that.
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Well, I think it's I agree with you.
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What I want to add is another dimension, which is
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something that was brought up by Theme Park Insider where
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they basically here's the quote he said before we got
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into the park. A representative from Universal said this park
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was meant to be a gateway to the immersive thematic
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experiences the company has become known for. They also said
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that this was meant to be a gateway to the bigger,
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better resorts offered in Orlando and Hollywood. I think the
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problem is our perspective as industry people is that this
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is an embarrassment.
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That's that's I think that's pretty universal.
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I don't think anybody that's a professional would say this
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is not embarrassment from a from a theme park theming level. However,
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if you think about it, just as local families that
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have never been to a Universal, maybe they have a
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different mindset. But to your to the point you were
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just kind of making. It's like, is is this park
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two under themed to represent Universal as a brand? So
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will it actually end up discouraging people from going to
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So Universal just said that Epic is going to make
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them a week long vacation, so you could go there.
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So in theory, you know, you could see what Universal
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just said. The representive said, it's become a gateway to
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the immersive thematic experiences the company has come known for.
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If this is if your local and you go to
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this park and you're like, oh, this is what Universal is,
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I'm not sure you're gonna now decide to pay for
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a week long vacation to go to Orlando if you
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think that this is what Universal is.
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So I think that's I think that's that's where I'm going.
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That's right, That's where I'm going.
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And and why I'm what I'm wondering is you know,
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and again perhaps hindsight is twenty twenty, but if I'm
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looking at it going Okay, we're not going to quite
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invest in the A level theming, the A level attractions
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that people expect from the Universal brand. Why wouldn't they
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have opened it under an umbrella company? Why wouldn't they
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have opened it and just make it and just make it,
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you know, even if they called it epic, epic kids
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resort or fun Fun, something Universal aligned, I don't know,
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but not make it because I mean, we all know
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that that there are brands and sub brands for pretty
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much everything, and you know, the top line, the top
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line brand is going to be the top line brand.
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If you can introduce people to the brand without saying
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this is the be all and end all, it does
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then serve that purpose. I will say that this quote
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that you just shared with us, to me, this sounds like,
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oh my god, we have to come up with an
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excuse as to why it looks like this, And you
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know why it looks like this, I don't know. I
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do not believe, in my heart of hearts that this
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was the intent. I do not believe that it was
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designed to be a lesser than Park. I think the
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intent was to make it something that was that would
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represent the Universal brand. But for some reason, be that
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budgetary or timeline or I mean, we all know the challenges.
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That can happen, ended up being.
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Absolutely I mean, there's a million and one things. There's
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a million on reasons for it. What it sounds like
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to me is and I know, Philip, you and I
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experienced this when we were in when we were in Riod.
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It sounds like the kind of attractions that they put
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up in Boulevard City, which are temporary and they represent
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high end brands, I mean, really well known ips. It's
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sort of it's sort of like the five Nights at
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Freddy's that we went through. It's like, is does this
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represent the level that five Nights at Freddy's really deserves? No,
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it doesn't. It's flats and it's mediocre characters and it's,
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you know, kind of a rundown rinky dinkie side show attraction.
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But it's got the big IP. So it sounds as
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though they're trying to hide behind the IP. But what's
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ending up happening is it's undermining the IP. It's making
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the universal name less than and to act as a bridge.
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It's a bridge that's rickety that I don't think anybody
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wants to cross.
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Yea.
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I think the problem is with brands like this, you
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can't normally go backwards, right, so you can't. It's like
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they're trying to go backwards, and I think that's harder
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to do, like Toyota can go forward and make a
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premium brand, right, and I think Universal has spent the
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last decades right going more premium like Epic represents them
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going forward, but now they're like in both of these cases,
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which has been the major complaint with Horror leashed as well,
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is that I think it's again to your point, it's
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all branding. It's like you had a brand that you've
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established through Epic as premium, and now you're trying to
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go backwards and make a like a tmub version, you know,
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kind of a thing which I think just is not
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normally brand just can't do that. It's not successful to
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go backwards like normally can only you can only start
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and then go premium, so like six Flags can go premium,
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like six Flags can make the conjuring as a premium
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experience and everyone loves it because they can go forward,
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but you can't normally ratchet backwards. And I think that
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to your exact point, the only way that this would
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have been successful other than the pricing, which we're going
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to have to get to. But the pricing and the
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branding I think are the two major problems, and it
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should have just been like the kid's experience, you know,
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or and it should have just been a different horror name.
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They shouldn't have called it Universal Horror least because again,
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then they're comparing it. The problem is they put themselves
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into their own a box or their own making, because
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this is being compared to theme parks when it shouldn't
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be compared to a theme park. Same with Horror Unleashed
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is being compared to Horroronized when it shouldn't be because
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it's not horrornized and it shouldn't be. But the brand themselves, though,
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they get up on all these panels and they themselves
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compare them to themselves, which I just I don't understand.
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Like I'm like, you guys need to stop, and you
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just need to make a separate company, like you're saying
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a shell company, and that's what it is. But I
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also want to get to the pricing. This is I
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think the bigger part. So I always, you know, as
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the CEO, I think my major job is thinking about
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strategy and thinking about competitive mixes and you and I've
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talked a lot about that about just understanding your simple
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product offering in the market.
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And so that's what I did.
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I did a full competitive analysis of the local market