Acquired
03:16:34 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[03:16:34] S0: to do some comparison on this 17,000,000 inflation adjusted to 210,000,000. The rise of the resistance star wars ride that they built in 2019, which is excellent if you've never been on it, was rumored to cost anywhere from 200,000,000 to 450,000,000 for just one ride. Right. [03:16:55] S1: And they built the whole park for less than that? Yes. Man, the things you could do back then.
03:16:55 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:16:55] S1: And they built the whole park for less than that? Yes. Man, the things you could do back then. [03:17:00] S0: Yes. Right? I mean, permitting was pretty light back then. So we get to opening day. How's it go? Well, less than half of the planned rides were open. And, just to give you a sense of how down to the wire it came, Walt personally put on a mask and was helping to paint the 20,000 the day before it opened. Opening day comes, it's nearly a 100 degrees in the middle of July in Southern California. That created issues with the newly poured asphalt. And there are legends of women's high heels sinking into the asphalt because of that. There are water fountains, but they don't yet have the plumbing finished to turn on. So if you want something to drink in this 100 degree heat, you can go buy a Pepsi. Exactly. The restaurants ran out of food. Rides were breaking down. Mister Toad's wild ride went down because it was too much for the power grid, and the Mark Twain riverboat began to sink since the operator let 500 people onto it, which was double the 250 that he was supposed to. But despite all of this, it is a giant, giant hit. That first day, that was technically a preview day for press and invited guests. 15,000 people were invited, but it is believed that 30,000 attended. [03:18:21] S1: And then that was in person. Yes. Then there's the TV show.
03:18:21 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:18:21] S1: And then that was in person. Yes. Then there's the TV show. [03:18:25] S0: So ABC rolls in with 22 live TV cameras and a giant crew to operate it all with nineteen fifty five technology. The viewership numbers are astonishing. It was the world's largest live telecast ever. 83,000,000 people tuned in to watch from home, which means that nearly half of America watched this broadcast. [03:18:50] S1: Watched this ninety minute commercial. [03:18:53] S0: Right? And it's it's crazy. Right? It's live coverage of this, like, Wackadoo Amusement park opening. On the one hand, why would you wanna watch that? On the other hand, you've been conditioned over the last year by one of the most popular television programs in America that this It's all living a giant deal, so you better be watching when it happens. [03:19:11] S1: Do you know I'm sure you do. But do you know who the three anchors were that ABC [03:19:17] S0: hired to do the opening? One was Ronald Reagan. [03:19:20] S1: Right? Ronald Reagan is the big one. Art Linklater, Bob Cummings, and future president of The United States Of America, Ronald Reagan. [03:19:28] S0: It's crazy. The the TV strategy just absolutely knocked it out of the park. What does half of America tune into anymore? I mean, ever. Yeah. [03:19:36] S1: I mean, even the Super Bowl today, which is the biggest television event in America, only gets about 40% of US households tuning in. [03:19:46] S0: And this was just to watch guys talk about what's going on behind them at an amusement park.
03:19:46 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[03:19:46] S0: And this was just to watch guys talk about what's going on behind them at an amusement park. [03:19:51] S1: No. I think it was that America had been primed via the TV show for the whole past year that this was gonna be the event of 1955. [03:20:01] S0: Yeah. So cool. By the end of the first week, there was a 160,000 visitors. Two months after opening, the millionth visitor walked in. And in the first year, there had been 3,600,000 visitors. [03:20:15] S1: Yep. In the second year of the park's operation, it does over 4,000,000 visitors, which makes it more popular than both the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park. It's like the most popular park in America is now Disneyland. [03:20:29] S0: And today, the park has over 900,000,000 visitors since opening day. [03:20:34] S1: My favorite little bit of trivia about Disneyland was learning about the original business model. So you used to have to pay to get on the rides. You would pay, I think it was a dollar for admission to the park, and then you could buy booklets of tickets that would get you admission to the various rides and attractions. And different rides and attractions would have different ticket grades and would be priced differently. It was this whole complicated business model that they obviously have drastically simplified since and raised prices astronomically.
03:20:34 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:20:34] S1: My favorite little bit of trivia about Disneyland was learning about the original business model. So you used to have to pay to get on the rides. You would pay, I think it was a dollar for admission to the park, and then you could buy booklets of tickets that would get you admission to the various rides and attractions. And different rides and attractions would have different ticket grades and would be priced differently. It was this whole complicated business model that they obviously have drastically simplified since and raised prices astronomically. [03:21:08] S0: Yes. Absolutely. And, I mean, the the biggest sort of success of the whole thing is it just couldn't be farther from a carnival or a fairground, and that turned out to be a great, great business. Yes. Harrison Price, who led the research at SRI for Disneyland, said Disney's rethinking of the American amusement park had striking and immediate business consequences. Because his park was such a pleasant place, people stayed there longer, and because they stayed longer, they spent more time. Basically, Price said, he tripled per capita expenditures because he tripled time. [03:21:43] S1: And then, of course, you know, fast forward to today at Disneyland or Disney World. [03:21:47] S0: You go for, like, fourteen hours. [03:21:48] S1: Yeah. Right. Per day. I mean, you you you're not going there for just today. You're going there for multiple days. Right. You're making a whole trip out of it. [03:21:54] S0: And if you're going to Disney World, then they're there a whole week. [03:21:57] S1: Yep.
03:21:57 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:21:57] S1: Yep. [03:21:57] S0: So I I promise we won't do too much part two foreshadowing on this episode, but this is just one point I gotta drive home. Disney Parks and Cruises today does $36,000,000,000 in revenue and $10,000,000,000 in profit per year. That is twice the amount of profit that their entertainment division produces. [03:22:18] S1: Yeah. Also just wild to think about physical amusement parks having essentially a 30% net income margin. Right. What what other physical park operator is gonna operate with those kind of margins? [03:22:32] S0: And the fact that it's a bigger business for Disney than their movies. Yes. Like, twice as big of a business. And this is you know, there's a 160 acres in California. There's a a big swath of land in Florida. There's five or six of them around the world. There's some cruise ships, and that spits off more profit. Twice as much profit than all of the other Disney things you can experience anywhere, anytime. [03:22:55] S1: Well, we're gonna get into this in a minute here. Really, the impressive thing is that Disney films are now great again, and still the parks do more revenue. We're about to hit a period where the parks do a lot more net income than the films because the films suck.