Shanghai Disneyland crossed 100 million visitors since opening. Bob Iger wants you to know about it. The park opened in 2016 while everyone else pulled out of China or got their intellectual property stolen. Disney built a castle instead.
This is the same company that spent decades perfecting the art of charging forty dollars for a turkey leg in Florida. They exported that skill to Shanghai. Turns out Chinese families will also pay obscene amounts of money to stand in line for three hours in humid weather to see a guy in a Goofy costume who definitely hates his life.
The headline says the park "defies the Chinese pullback." That means other companies looked at the geopolitical situation and ran. Disney doubled down on convincing Shanghai residents that spending a week's salary on foam Mickey ears represents sound financial planning.
Iger reflects on ten years. He probably reflects on how they managed to keep the Communist Party happy while also selling them the most American product imaginable: corporate-mandated fun. That takes skill. Or it takes not caring. Hard to tell which.
A hundred million visitors sounds impressive until you remember China has 1.4 billion people. That's seven percent penetration over a decade. Your retail portfolio has better numbers than that and it's still down sixty percent from its 2021 peak.
The park represents an important foothold in Disney's history. Important because it proves people everywhere will pay premium prices to take photos in front of a fake castle while their kids have meltdowns about not getting another stuffed animal. Disney doesn't sell movies anymore. They sell the chance for parents to ruin their credit cards in Mandarin.
Photo by Capricorn song on Unsplash
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