Picking up where we left off yesterday …
The real problems for Disney began to emerge in the fall of 1987. Though the Disney-MGM Studio Backlot had originally been budgeted at $150 million to $300 million, in September Disney received new estimates from architecture and construction firms that placed the price tag at $611 million. To add to the bad news, Disney’s original plan to lease out part of the Backlot to traditional retailers wasn’t working out so well, as most retailers were unwilling to invest in such an unusual new retail venture. Taken together, these two reports forced Disney to scale back its plans for the Backlot. In October, executives at MGM added to Disney’s problems by demanding that the MGM name be removed from the California park. MGM-UA Chairman Lee Rich claimed that the agreement to partner with Disney for a park in Florida did not give Disney the right to build a second MGM park in California. “We were very upset about it,” Rich told the press. “We’re going to do anything we can to get them not to use it.” The only good news came from the courts. On Jan 20, 1988, a judge dismissed one of the MCA lawsuits. Because Disney was only developing preliminary plans, the judge concluded, no environmental impact report was yet required. After the ruling, Burbank Mayor Michael Hastings said to a group of reporters: “We were challenged with a bogus lawsuit, but we won. I hope now we can bury the hatchet with MCA.”
Rumors soon spread that the Disney project in Burbank was dead. City Manager Bud Ovrom recalls: “I had an intuitive feeling that things were not going well. Whenever I went over to Disney to meet with Alan Epstein, there were no renderings of the project on the walls, no models on the tables.” Mayor Hastings vividly remembers the day when Disney representatives came to City Hall with plans for a new corporate office building. When the mayor inquired about progress on the Burbank park, one Disney representative responded, “I wish you wouldn’t ask me that question.” On Friday, April 8, Disney publicly announced what most everyone in Burbank already knew, that it was dropping plans to develop the Disney-MGM Studio Backlot. The official reason, money. To complete the park as originally designed would cost over $600 million. To build a scaled-back version would reduce the total number of guests—and therefore lower the park’s overall gross. “When we started playing around with the concept,” Eisner explained, “and eliminating things like the Burbank Ocean, it started becoming a project that it would not take Disney to do. With Disney, we have to exceed our guests’ expectations, they expect a lot.”
But there were other possible reasons: Disney had recently purchased the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose in Long Beach, California (about 35 miles from Burbank) where they were now pursuing plans to build a much larger theme park—a park that would include a festival shopping district similar to the one proposed in Burbank. They had also entered into an agreement to build a European Disney park in Paris, which would drain money and creative resources from the company. It is also possible the Disney execs finally came to their senses, realizing that a longstanding rivalry with MCA might have lured them into an extremely expensive park proposal for Burbank. Hours after the Disney announcement, one Burbank Councilman bitterly quipped, “Let’s see if MCA will come running over now with their checkbook.” In a news release, MCA claimed that they hadn’t yet come to a decision “regarding its future actions in Burbank,” nor had they decided on a date for “concluding its consideration of the site.” Needless to say, MCA never made an offer on the Burbank property. From their actions, it was clear that their only interest in the site was to prevent Disney from opening its own studio-based park near the Universal Studios Tour. With Disney deal dead, the City of Burbank solicited bids from developers for a retail entertainment complex. They received many. Most proposed traditional mall-type developments, though one did propose to build a marine park complete with a giant aquarium and a dolphin show. The city would eventually approve plans for a modern mall with national chain stores and a multi-screen movie theater. Years later, Mayor Hastings would express his disappointment over Disney’s decision to abandon the project. “They promised us the world and then they pulled the rug. It was a very cold shower for the community and the community government.”
In 1989, the Walt Disney Company opened the Disney-MGM Studios in Florida (now called Disney’s Hollywood Studios) to mostly tepid reviews. The park included many attractions also slated for the proposed Burbank park, including a working animation studio, “The Great Movie Ride,” and back-lot dining and retail establishments. Many guests noted that the park seemed incomplete and did not yet offer enough for a full day’s entertainment. In 1990, MCA opened Universal Studios Florida in Orlando to mostly positive reviews. Also in 1990, MCA developed plans to create new free-standing rides for its park in California to better compete with Disneyland. In 1999, Universal Studios added a second park to its Florida property, Islands of Adventure, to make its property into a resort destination, similar in style to the Walt Disney World complex. Nine years after the failure of the Disney-MGM Studio Backlot, Disney again set out to conquer regional retail space. This time they were armed with a new product called DisneyQuest—which was an indoor video theme park. Each DisneyQuest would feature cutting-edge games and interactive ride simulators. The first DisneyQuest opened in a five-story, windowless industrial building at Walt Disney World in 1998. The second opened in Chicago in 1999. Disney broke ground for a Philadelphia location but abandoned the project before it was completed. Another was planned for the Disneyland Resort but never built. Disney sought out sites in large American cities—including sites in Times Square and Rockefeller Center—as the company believed these regional video parks would offer guests far from California and Florida a way to enjoy a Disney themed experience without a lengthy vacation. But the DisneyQuest parks did not meet company profit expectations. The final remnants of the Disney-MGM Studio Backlot can be found in Anaheim. When designing Disney’s California Adventure, Imagineers revisited the plans for the Burbank Backlot and absorbed the California Boardwalk and giant Ferris wheel concepts into the plans for the new Anaheim park. Toward the back of Disney’s California Adventure, in an area called Paradise Pier, guests can ride a giant Ferris wheel that dips down into a manmade lake—just like the one originally planned for the Disney-MGM Studio Backlot. From the top of the Ferris wheel, guests can enjoy a panoramic view of both Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure—the only two parks Disney has ever completed in California.