Listen Up, Bob Iger: Disney Parks are the Solution to This HUGE Problem

Recently, an outlet asserted that the solution to the Mouse House’s “shared universe” problem lies with The Walt Disney Company’s theme parks.

Disney’s problems have become so well-known and so widespread that many are jumping in to give their two cents about how the company should handle its business. During one of last year’s earnings calls, an analyst proposed what many agreed was a “shocking” solution to save the company.

Recently, another outlet proposed a solution to Disney’s apparent failure to launch new cinematic franchises based on its theme parks and its general struggle at the box office.

Related: Bob Iger Promises to Step Down as Disney CEO

Disney Dips its Toes into the Shared Universe Concept with Marvel and Star Wars 

Over the last couple of decades, The Walt Disney Company has majorly diversified its content production. From having a certain flavor of animated and live-action features, the company—through acquiring Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm—then began offering different kinds of entertainment, including content more geared towards an older audience. This only doubled down with the acquisition of 20th Century Fox.

What sets apart the acquisition of Marvel and Star Wars i.e., Lucasfilm, is the fact that both are home to a “shared universe.”

So, what is a Shared Universe?

As any Disney Fanatic can confirm, a shared universe is a fictional universe where multiple stories take place. The universe usually stems from a set of creative works to which one or more writers (or artists) contribute. Each volume/contribution works in favor of the joint development of the storyline, characters, or world of the overall project itself.

However, while Disney has bought and continued to develop Marvel and Star Wars, what it hasn’t really done in the meanwhile is lean into this concept to the same extent in its own brand.

Related: Here’s What Disney Should Do With Its Abandoned Starcruiser

Critics Suggest Disney Should Lean Into Shared Universe Concept with Theme Park Movie Adaptations

Considering that Disney has been having such a tough time cracking the code to have a successful box office hit in 2023. In addition, many of its cinematic adaptations based on these Disney park attractions have missed the mark. Now, CBR proposed that Disney can solve this problem with the simple solution of integrating the theme parks with a shared Disney universe within which all these movies could take place.

The article argues, “From Big Thunder Mountain to Pirates, from the Enchanted Tiki Room to Phantom Manor, and “it’s a small world”, there are so many great stories that could actually be connected together in an unexpected way.”

Related: Is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad About to Undergo an ‘Encanto’ Retheme?

CBR posits, “What Disney would be doing is not just adapting single stories or rides but rather creating an on-screen version of the Disney Parks themselves.”

Through this, guests can enter a world that is “just as immersive as it is interactive,” and this translation from a Disney theme park attraction to the silver screen, or vice versa, might actually help Disney play to its strengths, and create a franchise people will be more willing to pay big bucks for.

This might also help their problem of rising prices at the parks—not that it would reduce those prices, but more that people might be more willing to pay for them because of the way in which they now get to interact with those stories and attractions.

Related: Too Big To Succeed: Disney’s Future Will Be As Three Separate Companies

It does bear mentioning that this is a suggestion from an outlet, and is not a strategy that Disney has officially explained it will be taking on. But perhaps this Disney theme park-Disney cinematic shared universe proposal is exactly the solution Disney has been looking for these past few years.

If for nothing else, it will certainly find a willing audience—one that’s exhausted with live-action remakes of classic animated movies!

What do you think about this idea? Let us know in the comments below!