Walt Disney Company is the most successful at monetizing human nostalgia [audio] (opens in new tab)

I have a coworker/friend who is a "Disney Adult" - she has an entire room in their 4br house that is designated to Disney paraphernalia, including a $16,000 swarovski crystal Cinderella purse and $3k jeweled mini mouse ears. They are members of Club 33 which is $33,000 a year to join and have a timeshare that was integral to a wider family drama fighting over the usage rights for. She will go on global vacations to visit Disney parks but not see any of the local sites.

I feel like this used to be more true, and is getting less true each year. With covid they really did a lot of negative things related to the parks. They cancelled a lot of things ( magical express, free magic bands for resort guests, etc) raised prices and overall began to focus on “shareholder value” over guest experiences. They also really messed up the Star Wars IP and seemed like anything for a quick buck, and became unable to make original stories. In 30 years they should revisit this and they will probably find they took a nose dive. The people who made the nostalgia are long gone, and the new guard is slowly burning it all away.

They truly are.

Star Wars is perfect example of it. Star Wars is now repetitive genre like police procedural or western except Disney owns it.

With few exceptions they have successfully frozen the franchise and just do the same things over and over again. Why change it as long as it makes money.The postures, scenes, phrases, characters, are done with constant repeat and minimal variation. "I've got a bad feeling about this" appears in every single Star Wars movie in some form. live action and animation series have it. They are not shy about it, they even make "I have a really good feeling about this!" jest once.

There's an ice cream shop around here that cashes in on nostalgia.

40 years ago, there was a dairy that made ice cream, and sold it in the summers on the side of the building. We'd go there as kids, line around the block, everyone loved it and it was a very popular and loved place.

It eventually burned down, the company stopped production, you know how it goes.

About ten years ago, someone built a clone of the old dairy's neon sign, rented a new building, and served generic hand-dipped ice cream (blue bunny brand?)

It's just regular ice cream. But they have the sign. And they can charge $8 an ice cream cone, and people line up just like they used to. Ridiculous.

It's a podcast so I can't skim it for sources, but I wonder if Oldschool Runescape by Jagex is a competitor for the title. They've made hundreds of millions off rebooting an old game

Nintendo is a close 2nd. They can keep selling the same damn game every 5 years and people will keep buying while complaining about it. Their consumers just can't help themselves. They think if they just buy Ocarina of Time one more time with newer graphics that they'll be able to fill the void in their life. But for Nintendo it's all gravy.

Nostalgia is also powerful way to trick yourself to think things were better when they were not.

I feel if they really were, they'd revisit the 2D animation style that all the classics were in and release new movies in it.

Instead, they seem to have largely settled on the Pixar style for "new" IPs, while mechanically producing live-action remakes for every classic.

I don't really get the strategy.

You won't convince me that this title doesn't belong to Activision Blizzard.

>Walt Disney Company is the most successful at monetizing human nostalgia.

Coca-Cola has a much larger market cap than Disney, and the Coca-Cola brand is very intentionally a nostalgia-driven, golden age, remember the good times brand.

Who's the best at monetizing non-human nostalgia?

The Critical Drinker would beg to differ (look him up on YouTube).