The marketing success of "Frozen"

Raise your hand if you've seen "Frozen." (I'm sure 95% of you who read this blog will raise their hands). Raise your hand if you've seen the movie more than once (some hands drop but quite a few stay up, including mine).

It's no secret: Disney's "Frozen" is a smash hit for the box office and the company. In it's 6th week in wide release, the movie yet again won the box office with an astounding $20.6 million weekend intake. IN IT'S SIXTH WEEK, IT DID THIS.

For an animated film to have this kind of success in the winter is not common. Sure, it's the holidays and it's quite cold outside, but animated films have more success in the summer. "Frozen" has already reached $300 million domestically and will continue to climb with no family movies in sight.

Here's the crazier thing: the audience isn't mainly kids. There are people my age and more importantly, BOYS. Yes, many of those families had just boys and they loved the movie.

Let me take you back a few years to 2009. "Princess and the Frog" was Disney's newest animated film and it was going back to the hand-drawn style we had all seen as kids. The movie was well-received critically and made $104 million domestically. But, the movie cost $105 million to make. Although the worldwide total deemed it a success and it is one of the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated movies of all-time, it could have done better.

Disney's marketing team realized that most of the audience was comprised of girls rather than boys. So, when it came time for the Rapunzel movie to be released the following year, they changed the name to "Tangled" and this was the first theatrical spot.

The trailer heavily features Flynn Rider rather than Rapunzel. Many critics scoffed at this change but it worked. The movie had strong word-of-mouth proved worked well after it opened in second in the box office. The following weeks, it was number one and made nearly $600 million worldwide. Rapunzel has also become one of the most popular Disney princesses to meet in its parks, even getting a guaranteed meet and greet in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

The trick was used again for "Brave" and most recently, "Frozen." "Frozen" took the same approach to their marketing as "Tangled," featuring Olaf the snowman and Sven the reindeer.

The smash success of "Frozen," which may even surpass "The Lion King" and become the highest grossing Disney animated film of all-time, has been seen in the parks. Anna and Elsa's meet and greet in the Norway pavilion in Epcot was extended until the end of January (originally they were to appear until the beginning of January). And, there have been rumors of a "Frozen" attraction heading into Disney Parks.

According to Disney historian Jim Hill, the Maelstrom ride may be replaced by a Frozen attraction and the company is looking at possible late 2014 or 2015. Hill says that the company "doesn't want to make the same mistake they did with Little Mermaid [waiting 20 years to have an attraction]."

Right now, these are just rumors so don't start getting excited just yet. But, it would not be a bad idea. Magic Kingdom even has a rest area in Fantasyland devoted to "Tangled" which opened last spring. And, after just being in the parks, I can say that the "Frozen" merchandise is flying off the shelves and they are sold out of a lot of the merchandise.

Disney's marketing may have been a risk, but it paid off for them. More animated movies like "Tangled" and "Frozen" have been announced for the coming years.

Now, if you excuse me, I am going to listen to "Let it Go" for the 100th time this week. I cannot get enough of the soundtrack

(Box office figures from Wikipedia)

Hiatus is off- the blog is back!

I apologize for the long delay but I'm restarting up "It's a Disney World After All!" Prepare for some exciting posts from a true Disney girl!

The addition of the "Disney Parks Blog"

Hello again.

So I decided to add the Disney Parks Blog feed to my blog here on the right. The Disney Parks blog is updated multiple times a day with the latest news about what's happening in the Disney Parks. It's my go-to source for what's going on around the world (and land)!

I am planning on adding additional widgets to the page to make it more interactive. I hope you enjoy.

The Success & Failure of "Limited Time Magic"

The year is just about over and now it's time for Disney to admit something:

They dropped the ball on "Limited Time Magic."


I didn't hate Limited Time Magic and I know there will be some people who totally disagree with me on this. When I say "dropped the ball," I mean that it could have been much better. 

It started off really well. Here at Walt Disney World, they forgot about the first week (I think they did some online poll) and decided to do "Canada Winter Wonderland" the second week of January. It was cute, though you could tell it was a rushed operation. Here is a picture of me with some of our favorite friends in Canada.

It was cute and a different meet and greet option. I definitely liked the picture! The following week was probably one of the best of "Limited Time Magic" and one of the events everyone looked forward to: Long-Lost Friends week.

I met so many wonderful characters I had never met before, such as Robin Hood and Ludwig Von Drake. It was worth waiting in the lines to see them (and it was such a big hit, it came back in August!).

A couple weeks later, we had "True Love Week," bringing many photo opportunities with some of Disney's greatest couples. You can tell that I was a huge fan of the character "Limited Time Magic" events. 

And I understand that not everything had to be a character-driven event. There was a "Boy-Band Dapper Dans" week where the Dapper Dans sang popular tunes from boy bands. Last week there was a special Flag Retreat (one of my favorite Main Street traditions) to honor Veteran's Day. Some of the merchandise events weren't bad either- such as introducing the "Glow With the Show" ears.

But overall, I couldn't help but feel that Disney could have just done a better job. There could have been more special "character meet and greets." There are so many characters at Disney that many guests don't get to see often (Huey, Duey and Louie! Roger Rabbit! The Dwarves!) that would have been a huge hit to see again. And although merchandise is always fun, if it's being sold in the stores for more than a week, is it truly "Limited Time Magic?" Take for example the "Glow With the Show" ears. I don't think that's really Limited if it's sticking around for a while. Same goes for when Beautifully Disney makeup came out. The special seasonal Trolley shows may be somewhat limited but they go on for more than a week (so if it's part of Limited Time Magic, something else should have accompanied it). 

And then there was the failure that was "Friday the 13th" at Hollywood Studios. From what I heard, the event was a complete disaster that Disney was unprepared for. Studios was overcrowded, the lines for characters were 3+ hours long, the park hit capacity hours before the event was to happen and people had to park in other parks to get bused over (which took more than an hour with traffic). In Disney's defense, this was the first time they had ever done the event so how could they have known? But, they should have had a plan in case that would have happened.

So, was "Limited Time Magic" a complete bust? I will still say no. I don't think it made people try to go to the parks especially for this year like other celebrations had done in the past but I think it was a real eye-opener for Disney. Such as- people love the characters! Hopefully this event will bring back some of the characters we don't see in the parks too often. Even for non-locals, the character events were a huge hit (especially when the villains came out to play). Those events did give a different kind of Disney experience, which is nice for guests whether it's their first time or their 500th time. It's called Limited Time Magic, which means there is some extra magic there (even if that magic isn't going to be there for long). And a few of those events were truly magical for me and many other people.

I don't know how the new "Show Your Disney Side" campaign will go. There's still not too much information out about it, but I like what I see. I think I also like that it's not about the young kids but even the big kids too (like myself).


So, "Limited Time Magic"- I'm glad you're over because I'm ready to embrace my Disney side. But I hope that my friends I met during this past year will come back to play soon (hint hint Disney)!

Welcome to It's a Disney World After All!

In 1964, the world would be introduced to Walt Disney's "It's A Small World After All."

Nearly 50 years later, that song is still stuck in our heads. Welcome to "It's A Disney World After All," which is filled with plenty Disney posts.

This blog will mainly focus on the Disney Theme Parks (primarily Walt Disney World in Florida) but there will be plenty of Disney to go around. 

I will be soon having pages devoted to the different types of articles I will write about and I will try to keep this as up to date as I can. With the holidays coming around, Disney is expanding and there will be plenty of excitement in here.

The Walt Disney Company has expanded greatly in the past few years and this blog is dedicated to all things Disney. I also invite you to comment and let me know what you like and don't like. 

Walt Disney himself said that "Disneyland will never be completed- it will continue to grow;" and I want the same for this blog. 

So enjoy!!