Disneyland Shanghai is scheduled to reopen on Monday after a three-month shutdown due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Tickets were made available and sold out almost immediately on the same day. However, the park will only open at 30 percent capacity (approximately 24,000 visitors), as per requests by the Chinese government. The goal is to allow the park to adjust to new health and safety measures, which include accepting or dismissing guests based on a Health QR code-- a system China has implemented to designate which citizens are healthy enough to have access to public spaces such as Disneyland. Other health measures include requiring guests to wear masks at all times (except when dining), frequent cleaning of the park and established distancing measures.
Shanghai Disneyland is the first of the Disney parks to reopen, following attempts in China to reopen other entertainment venues. If the reopening goes well, it could serve as the model for other Disney parks that aim to reopen in the coming months. Disney had originally planned to reopen most of the parks in mid-April, but closed them indefinitely when the global situation worsened.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek delivered the news of the plans to reopen in an earnings call and emphasized that no park would be reopened if it was expected to lose money. He went on to express his belief that there is plenty of "pent up demand." He elaborated on his specific expectations, stating that "if we open up [at] 50 percent or less, we won't have trouble selling that." He then added that Disney would "staff accordingly for whatever that level would be."
The House of Mouse has been greatly impacted by the pandemic, suffering an estimated $1.4 billion impact on its earnings due to the closing of its various properties. In addition, it has had to shutter its various production studios and furlough thousands of employees.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)