Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge arrived on a wave of hype, promising to offer fans the opportunity to completely immerse themselves in a galaxy far, far away. Judging by the impressions of those who attended advance previews, they achieved this. In fact, for the first few weeks there were reports that Galaxy’s Edge was the hottest ticket in town. But now that it’s no longer the big new thing, it seems that it’s not proving to be the blockbusting smash that Disney had prepared for.
Arizona Today reported on the unexpected development this week, writing the following:
“Crowds have been lighter than anticipated since Galaxy’s Edge opened to all visitors on June 24.”
Now, we know that Disney put in a number of contingencies to deal with the anticipated deluge of visitors. For one, they designed a “virtual queue” to deal with high demand, but that’s only needed to be activated just a handful of times. Similarly, the most popular rides within Galaxy’s Edge aren’t pulling in the numbers they’d predicted.
The queue for the star attraction – Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run – has been described as “manageable,” with guests ‘only’ having to wait between 30 and 60 minutes (that still sounds like quite a long time to me). This slackening of demand has also affected the rest of the park, too, with other areas apparently seeing a fall in numbers.
So, what’s causing this? Well, awareness of Galaxy’s Edge was extremely high, advance notices were positive and the summer weather in California has been typically pleasant. Current theories are that potential visitors are just being put off by the idea of it being busy, so may have decided to stay away to beat the crowds (a tactic which has apparently backfired).
Then there’s the fact that one of the most-hyped attractions – Rise of the Resistance – is yet to open. Given that Galaxy’s Edge is an expensive proposition, many visitors may consider it a once-in-a-lifetime trip and so want to attend only when the entire thing is up and running.
Or maybe they just really hated The Last Jedi. Whatever the case, with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opening on August 29th in Florida, Disney execs will be hoping that the park eventually proves more of a wildly successful Rogue One than a dismal Solo.
