Hong Kong Disney pins hopes on rise in Marvel attractions

Hong Kong Disneyland opened its newest Marvel-themed attraction on Sunday, as part of its efforts to increase its fortunes and expand its Marvel Comics offerings at the resort.

The long-anticipated launch is the second Marvel-themed attraction at the park and forms part of a multiyear expansion, which has a strong focus on Marvel superhero-themed attractions.

The move comes as an added bonus after it was announced the next Avengers movies, Avengers: Endgame will premiere in theaters in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong on April 24.

The Avengers is one of the world's most popular superhero movie franchises, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Hong Kong Disneyland's latest attraction, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle! comes as Hong Kong Disneyland ups its efforts to maintain its competitiveness in intellectual property concerning Marvel characters.

The park has faced reduced mainland visitor flows in recent years after another Disneyland park opened in Shanghai in June 2016.

Industry insiders said that the new attraction will make Hong Kong Disneyland a pioneer of Marvel-related projects and facilities for Disney parks in Asia, as well as making good use of Marvel IP, including that of Avengers: Endgame.

Marvel, one of the original comic publishers, has created almost 8,000 characters since 1939, including Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Hulk and the X-Men.

Marvel's robust IP assets have enabled it to reap enormous benefits from licensing activities. Its low-risk movie-licensing strategy has meant that film studios carry all the financial risk in developing the film, while creating multiple marketing opportunities for Marvel, WIPO magazine reported.

In the past, Hong Kong has often showed Marvel films ahead of other regions, so fans had to fly to Hong Kong to see the movies, a filmgoer told Beijing Business Today.

"But simultaneous release and premiere in both places will make fans go to Shanghai instead, because of the more convenient transportation," the filmgoer said.

Wang Xingbin, a travel expert, told Beijing Business Today that the opening of Shanghai Disneyland undoubtedly created greater competition for Hong Kong Disneyland.

Though the two resorts have begun to vary in their market positioning - the Shanghai park targets children and family travelers more, while the Hong Kong one focuses more on adult visitors - they have to utilize some identical IP assets to develop more programs since they both belong to the Disneyland family, he said.

In the long run, the two parks need to develop different strategies to attract visitors, and they will hopefully become more complementary than competitive with each other, Wang noted.

liangkaiyan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/04/2019 page17)