Disney In The Desert

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Happy Thursday, Future Party. The conclave to pick the new pope is officially going down at The Vatican right now, but there’s one interesting wrinkle… not many cardinals really know how a conclave works, especially since it’s a process that only happens once or twice a generation. So, they’re turning to the movie Conclave for guidance — further proof that it was a divine coincidence that the film came out last year.

The Walt Disney Company announced that it’s building a seventh flagship theme park in Abu Dhabi — the first of its destinations to be built in the Middle East.

Why It Hits: The United Arab Emirates has been aggressively trying to court tourists in a bid to make the country — especially its marquee cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai — the hot travel spots of the region (24 million people visited just Abu Dhabi in 2023). Meanwhile, Disney is doubling down on its theme parks as a growth engine while its linear TV business declines… and the terms for the Emirates park are as good a financial play as you could dream.

Behind the Attractions: The Middle East is getting its own Mouse House.

The Future: Disney will face several challenges partnering with Abu Dhabi on a park, including issues around climate (the desert is hot hot) and politics (personal freedoms are limited), but the company doesn’t want to pass up the ability to be at the center of a new market — “a third of the world’s population is within a four-hour flight from our our site,” says CEO Bob Iger.

With theme parks acting as the gateway to the entire Disney ecosystem, the destination could supercharge signups for Disney+, make it easier for movies to play theatrically in the region, and maybe even launch a Disney cruise line that has port of calls throughout the Middle East and Eastern Africa.

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Netflix announced that it’s updating its homepage on its TV app to better surface content from its growing number of new formats and to integrate AI into the discovery process. 

The Big Picture: Where Netflix goes, much of the industry also follows. By redesigning the homepage, Netflix may be kicking off a new era of streaming UX that’s all about harnessing cutting-edge technology to boost engagement.

Behind the Tiles: The most valuable real estate in the streaming industry is getting refreshed over the next few months.

What To Watch: Netflix chief product officer Eunice Kim says that the design overhaul is meant to give the streamer “a more flexible canvas now and in the future” that’s focused on “driving discovery and engagement.” With viewers inundated with thousands of options to watch on streamers, features that minimize the scourge of “endless scroll” are what could help people actually find something to watch instead of giving up and doing something else.

Considering that Skydance’s big streaming pitch in its Paramount takeover was to overhaul Paramount+ with AI from Oracle, whichever platform has the better technology under the hood could win over flaky subscribers.

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Who’s behind this insider briefing? Tom Chavez, a Silicon Valley survivor, ex-NASA brainiac, and Stanford PhD who calls BS on the mainstream hype (yes, even the AI arms race).

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78.2% of you voted Not my jam in yesterday’s poll: Do you use nicotine?

“I’ve had a cigar or two to celebrate with friends, but with asthma, I’m not super interested in knowingly making my lungs worse.”

“I am 15 years smoke-free, and my only regret is that I started in the first place.”

“Only when traveling in Europe.”

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