July 28, 2025
Shanghai Disneyland uses banana Specialists to keep fruit uniformly sized #themepark #disney
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What makes an IP popular today? It’s not just the box office or streaming stats—it’s the fans who show up, dress up, and wait five hours for a free experience. At San Diego Comic-Con, Percy Jackson, Alien, and K-pop Demon Hunters proved that passion, not just numbers, powers IP. Philip…
Asia was expected to become the new theme park capital of the world—then the pandemic hit. IAAPA Asia drew 7,000+ attendees to Shanghai, but is that enough to signal Asia’s tourism comeback? Philip reports from the show floor, including takeaways from Disney executive Jill Estorino’s keynote, where she credited young…
Hallmark is back with its Kansas City “Christmas Experience,” aiming to top last year’s 100,000-guest debut by doubling down on comfort-food tradition—workshops, red-carpet movie premieres, and even themed Marriott suites. Philip and Scott unpack how leaning into safe, repeatable rituals can turn a pop-up into a pilgrimage. Next, Meow Wolf…
Universal gambles on Gaming IPs for Halloween, while the Winchester Mystery House leans into its haunted legacy for a new event. These two stories form the frame for this show, which discusses the modern Halloween event. June 29 00:00 Intro 01:11 Festival Fright Nights 12:40 Fallout and FNAF come to…
The Louvre’s staff closed the world’s most-visited museum with a snap strike, blaming “untenable” crowding and a 20 % cut in state funding even as attendance soars. Philip and Scott pull three operating fixes every attraction can steal now—hard capacity caps, timed-entry tech, and reinvesting in on-site teams before adding…
Disney and Universal just opened Hollywood’s first heavyweight copyright war against Midjourney, arguing the AI was trained on “countless stolen works.” Philip and Scott debate the case and what it means if your park’s creative team. Then Disney drops a fresh study valuing its U.S. parks at nearly $67 billion…
Six Flags and Cedar Fair’s $8 billion mash-up, Herschend’s shopping spree, and Falcon’s Beyond devouring Oceaneering are just the opening salvo in a consolidation wave now squeezing most regional parks into four corporate camps. But deal-making is only the first of five seismic shifts Philip and Scott unpack this week.…
Herschend finalized its acquisition of Palace Entertainment’s 24 U.S. attractions with a $1.1 billion leveraged loan—and vows 2025 will be a “listening year.” Meanwhile, Six Flags fired every park president overnight, favoring a regional management model instead of a local one. We unpack whether family culture can outshine heavy debt,…
