Defunctland: The Failure of Hong Kong Disneyland

Wow, that castle was lame. Glad they fixed it in 2020.

Compared to the executive hordes on the horizon, Michael Eisner is a regular Walt Disney!

Please do a video on the upcoming closure and the history of "Wild Waves" in Washington state. This place has been the only accessible park for my entire life here, and now it's proposed replacement is a single story warehouse (better than a data center I guess). Its not a good park, revolving door of management, horrible operations, and no new rides for nearly a decade. But it was ours. Soon it won't even be that.

Every Disney $1 billion movie after Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005 in 2026 dollars Adjusted for Inflation

Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Box Office: $3.647 billion

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Box Office: $2.906 billion

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Box Office: $2.717 billion

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Box Office: $2.656 billion

The Avengers (2012)
Box Office: $2.203 billion

The Lion King (2019)
Box Office: $2.158 billion

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Box Office: $1.971 billion

Zootopia 2 (2025)
Box Office: $1.935 billion

Frozen 2 (2019)
Box Office: $1.889 billion

Frozen (2013)
Box Office: $1.831 billion

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Box Office: $1.810 billion

Inside Out 2 (2024)
Box Office: $1.804 billion

Black Panther (2018)
Box Office: $1.787 billion

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men's Chest (2006)
Box Office: $1.761 billion

Iron Man 3 (2013)
Box Office: $1.737 billion

Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Box Office: $1.717 billion

Incredibles 2 (2018)
Box Office: $1.648 billion

Toy Story 3 (2010)
Box Office: $1.630 billion

Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Box Office: $1.600 billion

Alice In Wonderland (2010)
Box Office: $1.566 billion

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
Box Office: $1.550 billion

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Box Office: $1.547 billion

Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)
Box Office: $1.542 billion

Captain Marvel (2019)
Box Office: $1.470 billion

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Box Office: $1.465 billion

Finding Dory (2016)
Box Office: $1.427 billion

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Box Office: $1.421 billion

Zootopia (2016)
Box Office: $1.421 billion

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Box Office: $1.399 billion

Toy Story 4 (2019)
Box Office: $1.399 billion

Aladdin (2019)
Box Office: $1.369 billion

The Jungle Book (2016)
Box Office: $1.341 billion

Inside Out (2015)
Box Office: $1.207 billion

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Box Office: $1.181 billion

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Box Office: $1.160 billion

Up (2009)
Box Office: $1.141 billion

Moana 2 (2024)
Box Office: $1.125 billion

Coco (2017)
Box Office: $1.119 billion

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Box Office: $1.093 billion

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Box Office: $1.087 billion

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
Box Office: $1.081 billion

Lilo and Stitch (2025)
Box Office: $1.074 billion

Maleficent (2014)
Box Office: $1.067 billion

Monsters University (2013)
Box Office: $1.063 billion

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Box Office: $1.005 billion

Ratatouille (2007)
Box Office: $1.002 billion

4:24 Picking footage of the Hong Kong question for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was a nice touch.

Love this video! Glad I got to watch it. Thanks, Kevin!

Well Hong Kong Disney is doing very well now as they have made big profits recently. The rides there are also very good, and I think overall in a experience it is better than Shanghai because the wait times were short, there were solid attractions and shows.

Live acoustic had me dying

I’ve lived in HK since this video came out and can say that our Disney is very good and you should go lmao

One of the requirements to be given the CEO position is to present a plan to upgrade existing parks by expansion, big renovations, or a new park. Risk is what walt disney took when he was alive. That should be a given all the time for disney CEOs

16:15 imagine how different the world would be right now if comcast bought Disney? Now instead Disney owns basically everything outside of like 3 other massive media corporations’ holdings. Wow

Roy E Disney had no idea how bad it would get. Poor guy.

Iger still lacks creative skills.

that ending was so good man

Still, to this day, my favorite episode of Defunctland. Part in thanks to you, Kevin, I became obsessed with theme park history. This is the best I've seen yet.

all i remember was reports of CCP nationals trashing the park and pooping on the street. the visitors to HK were too 3rd-world for a vision of USA. inb5 banned for "racism" against communists.

27:18
Update:
Ocean park is expensive as hell now and is basically empty and overflowing with debt

I adore this send off to Eisner. I think about his speech about the Pointillist Painting included in this all the time.

28:35 Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme
Hey! I know those guys! Are they gonna flirt with me?

31:31 Since this video was published 6 years ago, I was curious was the profit update is now. The park did reduce its deficit in '18 and '19 but took a huge hit from '20 for obvious reasons (covid). It only turned a profit in '24.

20 years later, everybody who is trying to say that Eisner was bad had no idea, how bad it was gonna get