We Know How Much the Star Wars Hotel Cost Disney
The Walt Disney Company just revealed that it’s cutting a nine-figure check to pay for the Star Wars Hotel. And it’ll write another check in three months.
Yes, we now know how much Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser cost Disney…and it’s a LOT!
About the Star Wars Hotel
In 2017, Disney surveyed fans about their interest in a hotel with a Star Wars theme.
Their passionate support for the idea proved so decisive that park officials announced the project at the 2017 D23 Expo.
Yes, the Star Wars Hotel changed from a theoretical possibility to a go project in just three months.
The immediate excitement for this announcement caused Disney to break ground quickly.
By the 2019 D23 Expo, Disney already knew many of the details about this project and revealed them to fans.
Four years ago, we were aware that the conceit of this experience would involve a two-night intergalactic “cruise.”
The surprise of that proclamation triggered an immediate schism, and a later decision to establish a firm timeline for the experience didn’t help any.
Guests expressed frustration that they couldn’t meet their favorites from the Holy Trilogy, such as Luke, Leia, and Darth Vader.
Disney was used to the complaint by that point, as it had made a similar determination with the timeline for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
To protect canon, Disney established a setting in the era of Rey and Kylo Ren.
Many of the experiences on the “cruise” intersect with concepts established in Disney’s most recent Star Wars trilogy.
Guests would encounter members of The Resistance and The First Order and no other creatures from prior Star Wars timelines during the cruise.
Meet the Halcyon
Disney executives held a strong vision for the Star Wars Hotel, one singularly unique in modern society.
During this “cruise” to the planet of Batuu, tourists would interact with new characters, each of whom provides a piece of an overriding story.
In the process, Disney sold guests on the idea of exploring their own Star Wars adventure.
Meanwhile, the Disney cast members working at the hotel must remain in character for the entire hotel experience, which proved to be a BIG ask.
Imagine if your job involved meeting an entirely new group of people every third day, developing a relationship with them based on a fictional version of yourself, saying goodbye, and doing it all again.
For the guests, this proposition proved too tantalizing to resist…at first.
After Disney announced the opening date for the hotel, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, cruise voyages sold out quickly.
Yes, Disney experienced some drama due to early marketing missteps, but the demand for the Star Wars Hotel matched those initial survey results, at least at first.
Disney still absorbed an online drubbing for the awkward part of this conversation.
Guests basically needed to have a number one single and/or play QB1 in the NFL to pay for this experience.
With a starting price of at least $1,200 per guest, Galactic Starcruiser lost a lot of potential customers right off the bat.
As other details emerged, some potential fans bailed on the concept.
For example, to maintain the central conceit of a cruise ship, Disney didn’t add windows to the hotel.
Do you know what we call places like that on Earth? Prisons.
Similarly, the hotel lacked a pool, which caused me to wonder whether the people planning the Star Wars cruise had ever taken a Disney cruise.
Honestly, some of Disney’s decisions here remain perplexing long after the fact. Did I mention it was a Bob Chapek project?
The High Cost of Failure
While early demand caused the Galactic Starcruiser to sell out for almost the entirety of 2022, the conversation changed almost overnight at the start of this year.
Whispers from inside Disney hinted that sales had plunged for 2023.
Since Disney listed available bookings on a public website, we could confirm it for ourselves.
Once Bob Iger returned, the support for the Star Wars Hotel waned in the executive suite.
Eventually, Disney killed the project. It was a fairly merciless and quick public execution.
At the time, then-CFO Christine McCarthy suggested that Disney would accelerate the charges for Galactic Starcruiser.
During the earnings call for Disney’s fiscal third quarter of 2023, acting CFO Kevin Lansberry explained the high cost of failure for this project.
While the estimate wasn’t as high as the billion-dollar guesstimates you may have read online, it’s still substantial.
Disney wrote down a $100 million loss during the most recent quarter. We’re currently in Disney’s fiscal fourth quarter as we speak.
For this timeframe, Disney will adjust its Galactic Starcruiser loss by another $150 million.
So, that’s a quarter-billion dollars down the drain because Disney got too cutesy on the concept and one-percenter with the cost of this experience.
Yes, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser has cost Disney $250 million in “acceleration depreciation charges.”
That’s an accounting term for “getting this fiasco off our books.”
We now know how much the Galactic Starcruiser missteps cost Disney, and it’s $250 million in financial losses.
Then, there’s also the opportunity cost of Disney NOT building the Star Wars Hotel that those surveyed guests wanted.
Do better, Disney. And good riddance, Chapek!
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