SHANGHAI — Walt Disney Co. opened Shanghai Disneyland, its first theme park in mainland China, with a lavish celebration Thursday featuring Communist Party leaders, a children's choir, Sleeping Beauty and other Disney characters.
A vice premier joined Disney CEO Bob Iger in cutting the grand opening's red ribbon, showing the ruling party's support for the $5.5 billion investment in promoting tourism at a time of slowing economic growth. They read letters of congratulations from the Chinese and American presidents, Xi Jinping and Barack Obama.
"This is one of the proudest and most exciting moments in the history of the Walt Disney Co.," Iger said after the choir sang. Later, actors dressed as Sleeping Beauty, Donald Duck and other Disney characters danced on stage.
This is an aeriel view of Shanghai Disney Resort with a Magic Kingdom-style theme parkhttps://t.co/8VdULcLmYn
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) June 16, 2016
The festive sentiment was tempered by news from Florida that an alligator killed a 2-year-old boy at Disney's flagship Walt Disney World. The boy drowned after the animal dragged him into a lagoon on Tuesday.
The company hopes Shanghai Disneyland will burnish the brand behind "Frozen" in the world's most populous film market and help revive Disney's struggling international theme park business.
Analysts expect Shanghai Disneyland to become the world's most-visited theme park, attracting at least 15 million and as many as 50 million guests a year. By contrast, Walt Disney World drew 19.3 million people in 2014. — Associated Press; With by Xinhua