Pandora, also commonly known as Avatar Land, is all set to open in just a few months and
one of the most common questions I’ve seen is: Why?
It doesn’t make any sense!
I’m here to tell you why it did make sense, at least at the time.
That’s the key part there, isn’t it?
At least at the time.
To get a better understanding of why Disney is opening a themed area dedicated to James
Cameron’s sci-fi epic, you have to look at the context of the time.
Let’s start in the summer of 2007.
If you don’t remember that summer, or perhaps were too young, Harry Potter was immensely popular.
Not only was the fifth film in the popular franchise set to release that year, but the
world would also be getting the final book in the series.
The films in the series at that point were grossing nearly a billion dollars each, and
there were still three more planned for the future.
Most importantly, that would be the summer that Universal would announce their plans
for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a themed land in one of their parks dedicated
to the franchise.
For context, in 2007 Bob Iger was just two years into his role as Disney CEO, and
had just spent a whopping $7.4 billion dollars on Pixar the year before.
It’s also important to note that in 2007 Disney did not own Marvel or Star Wars.
Now let’s jump ahead to December of 2009.
James Cameron and 20th Century Fox releases Avatar.
The film is a massive success that blends science fiction with a tale of preserving nature.
It goes on to gross a total of $2.7 billion dollars, making it the highest grossing film
to this day.
Furthermore, it would only be a matter of weeks after the premiere before Cameron would
announce his intention on making more Avatar films.
The following year in 2010, Universal opened the first portion of the Wizarding World of
Harry Potter.
It is not only met with critical praise by guests and the media, but it would help Universal
boost their revenue that following year.
Disney, meanwhile, would be just a year into their ownership of Marvel.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe would still be in its infancy as an untested concept.
That said, even if it was a wild success it wouldn’t matter, thanks to a carried-over
contract between Marvel and Universal that gave Universal theme park rights east of the
Mississippi for Marvel properties.
That brings us to 2011.
Disney announces that it is working in partnership with James Cameron to bring the Animal Kingdom.
The original planned date for its opening is 2016.
The original release for Avatar 2 was two years before that in 2014.
So there’s the context: When Disney penned this deal to bring Avatar to the parks they
didn’t own Star Wars, a series that had seemingly ended with Episode 3 six years earlier.
They owned Marvel but couldn’t use it thanks to contract still in effect, and they owned
Pixar, but were busy working it into the parks already over in California with Cars Land.
They’re feeling the pressure to step up the game after The Wizarding World shows them
that guest want themed worlds based on franchises they love, and along comes Avatar, a well
received sci-fi space opera with a heavy focus on nature that just became the largest grossing
film of all time, with a sequel just a few years away and more films planned after that.
To Hollywood, the world was potentially about to experience the next Star Wars phenomenon with Avatar.
With all of that said, the question becomes: Why wouldn't Disney put Avatar in the Animal Kingdom?
It was a gamble that offered a massive payoff for Disney.
Now of course, that gamble is at risk of being a big loss.
As we know, the Avatar films faced numerous delays, to the point where Avatar 2 hasn’t
even begun filming yet over seven years later.
Pandora itself faced setbacks, missing it’s 2016 opening by a year, and as a result of
the combination of the two, people are starting to ask what appeal still exists for a themed
land based on that world.
So why didn’t Disney cancel it?
Well, by the time Avatar missed its first release window Disney had already broken ground
on construction of Pandora.
Forgetting the possibility that contractual obligations might have made it too expensive
for them to pull out of the deal, it’s likely that they had already spent a significant
amount of money on the planning and development of Pandora to just cancel it.
And really, what else would they have done with it?
Star Wars was in the works, but is Disney really going to put their new prized jewel
in the Animal Kingdom?
Marvel was still a no-go and while today Zootopia sounds like it would be a nice fit, it was
still in it’s pre-production infancy and a far ways from being proven as worthy of
a project that large.
The truth is for better or worse, sticking with Pandora and Avatar was probably the best
choice for them at the time.
So the real question becomes: Will it pay off them in the long run?
The answer?