The Magical-Market World of Disney

Monthly Review, April, 2001 by Janet Wasko

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood was the site of another Forum of Fun, another Chey Venture give-away, plus live stage shows prior to screenings of the film.

The Manhattan premiere party and parade was covered live on cable channel E!, as well as receiving extensive coverage by other media outlets. On June 20, the film began an exclusive seven-day run at the historic Chicago Theatre. Before each performance, a live stage production of "Disney's Magical Moments" celebrated Disney animation with singing and dancing performers, a full orchestra, and many of the studio's costume characters.

Disney also repeated its sneak preview weekend strategy (used for Hunchback and 101 Dalmatians) to promote the June 27th opening through the Disney Stores, Disney On-Line and the Disney Catalog. The on-line site allowed "guests" to purchase special preview tickets for the Hercules Sneak Preview Weekend (June 21 and 22), plus to locate participating theaters closest to them. By ordering tickets, consumers would receive special character collector pins and special offer coupons valued at over $50. Tickets were also available at the Disney Stores, through the Disney Catalog, or through a special hotline. For one penny more, shoppers could also purchase the (already) hit single from the film, "Go the Distance," performed by Grammy Award winner Michael Bolton, however, the cassette single was available only at the Disney Store.

Not too surprisingly, Disney aired a special prime time television program introducing the Hercules characters and cast, on the ABC network, of course. Media coverage of the film's opening also included two specials on the Disney Channel. "Movie Surfers Go Inside Disney's Hercules" (Sunday at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.) explored the movie set and provided facts about the film. Disney's "Hercules Strikes Manhattan" (Sunday at 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.) featured the "Hercules Electrical Parade" as it moved through the streets of New York. The promotion on Disney's cable channel prompted one Gannett reporter to monitor the "around-the-clock promotion, clocking Disney's out-of-control commercialism." He found the following:

* Disney crammed a three-minute Hercules-related promotion in a half-hour "Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers" cartoon at 8 a.m. Friday.

* Three thirty-second spots, liberally laced with Hercules scenes, hyped "Hero to Zero Weekend."

* Two thirty-second spots, and a sixty-second one, urged kids to watch a half-hour infomercial, "Movie Surfers Go Inside Disney's 'Hercules.'"

On yet another Disney-owned cable channel, A&E featured Hercules on their Biography series, introducing the program with footage from the Disney film. The Village Voice's comment: "and he's not even a real person!" (July 15, 1997)

Meanwhile, the only movie theater in Celebration, Florida, was showing Disney's Hercules and the Hercules Victory Parade opened at Walt Disney World.

Perhaps now one can understand why one financial analyst cited in the Los Angeles Times (July 21, 1998) concluded that "Walt Disney is one of the most efficiently integrated entertainment companies on the planet. All the other entertainment conglomerates talk about 'synergy,' but Disney is the only company that actually does it. They know how to squeeze 'synergy' until it screams for mercy."