D23: Inside the wild, feverish fan convention of diehard Disney fans

Leilani was a Disney fan before she was born. While she was still in utero, her parents threw a Disney-themed baby shower in anticipation.

She’s the eldest of three sisters, and they were dressed in coordinated Star Wars costumes on the third day of D23, Disney’s bi-annual fan convention in Anaheim, California, just across the road from the company’s famed theme parks.

For them, their fandom is a family affair. They were born into it. Their parents were, at that same convention, sitting in one of the many panels sprinkled across the program, while they took in the activations and the atmosphere.

“We just saw Dopey, Grumpy and the Evil Queen walk by, and it was super detailed,” middle sister, Ariana, said excitedly. “I just love seeing how much effort people put into the costumes.”

More than 90,000 people streamed through the doors of the Anaheim Convention Centre and almost everyone had donned something on-theme. Those ranged from Mickey Mouse ears or a printed T-shirt to full, elaborate costumes planned months in advance.

One couple was dressed as a cross between Jedi knights and Monsters Inc characters Boo and Sully, complete with furry blue beard and a polka-dotted tail.

Everyone here is among the most diehard Disney devotees — happy to fork out the $135 for a one-day ticket, or in some cases the thousands of dollars for premium access and front-row seats during the glitzy evening showcases at the 12,000-seat capacity Honda Centre.

On the third night, Jamie Lee Curtis was among the inductees into Disney Legends (its version of a Hall of Fame). And in closing out her rousing, teleprompter-free speech on stage she asked the audience to sing along to the song from Carousel of Progress, a revolving theatre theme park ride that has few thrills but plenty of nostalgia.

Without missing a beat, Curtis and the fans started to sing, “There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day . . .”

They all knew the lyrics.

To an outsider, it has a whiff of a cult.

At the first showcase, in which the company revealed exclusive footage and news titbits across its entertainment divisions including Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Disney animation, it rolled out a string of celebrities including Dwayne Johnson, Jude Law and Gal Gadot.

But the loudest standing ovations were reserved for Disney’s executives, including chief executive Bob Iger, Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter, Frozen director Jennifer Lee, Marvel boss Kevin Feige and Star Wars writer Dave Filoni.

To Disney superfans, they were the real superheroes. They’re the ones calling the shots at the Happiest Place on Earth.

There’s particular reverence for Mr Iger, who first started working for Disney in 1974 and was its chief executive from 2005 until he retired in 2020, handing over the reins to Bob Chapek, his chosen successor.

Mr Chapek issued a mandate to supercharge the company’s then-fledgling streaming platform at the expense of its cinema business, which had been crippled by COVID shutdowns.

But the shift to streaming for Disney’s brands including Pixar and Marvel undervalued its theatrical output once cinemas re-opened. Mr Chapek’s tenure was short-lived and in late-2022, Mr Iger returned, dragged out of retirement by the board.

It was meant to be a two-year transitional appointment until another chief executive could be found but Mr Iger’s contract has since been extended to at least 2026. In 2023, according to Disney’s financial disclosures, Mr Iger’s total pay was $47 million.

In his acceptance speech during the Legends ceremony, James L. Brooks said having The Simpsons on Disney+ has been, “a godsend, or more accurately, a Bob-send, which around here is pretty much the same thing.”

The company is on an upswing. Its two most recent cinema releases were box office barnstormers. Inside Out 2 has grossed more than $2.2 billion and became the most commercially successful animated feature of all time. Deadpool & Wolverine just crossed the billion-dollar mark after less than two weeks in release.

The company also revealed its streaming business turned a profit for the first time, albeit buoyed by its US sports brand ESPN.

It’s a relief after a string of underwhelming results including Marvel movies Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels, and a contracting streaming landscape across the industry.

Mr Feige admitted at a D23 media panel that, “When we had, last year, some disappointments for the first time . . . I don’t want to say it was to try to find the good in everything . . . (but) you take the successes now, you don’t take that for granted and you understand what you earn.”

So, the mood at D23 was jubilant — from the executives down to the fans, they’re back on the winning team.

No matter what you may think of Disney’s reliance on sequels, franchises and intellectual property (which is endemic across the industry, while Disney releases originals through 20th Century Fox and its arthouse arm Searchlight), it’s hard to deny its pop-cultural dominance.

All six movies that have crossed a global box office mark of $US2 billion — Avatar 1 and 2, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Titanic, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens — belong to Disney.

And its cash flow doesn’t stop at cinema ticket sales.

The company knows how to turn these moviegoers into consumers spending across theme parks, cruise ships, merchandise and other brand extensions.

The Honda Centre, the venue for the evening showcases, is the home stadium of the Anaheim Ducks, a National Hockey League team founded by Disney the year after it released The Mighty Ducks movie. The team won the Stanley Cup in 2007, and the banner hangs high from the rafters at the arena.

It’s an all-encompassing brand that deploys its familiar IP across revenue streams beyond screen entertainment.

And one of the key parts of D23 is the shopping. Figurines, backpacks, pins, soft toys, dolls, costumes and more. But the real action is the D23 exclusives which are only released at the convention and made in limited quantities. For serious collectors, that’s the big prize.

One such collector, Erik, grew up close to Disneyland and visited the park with his annual pass at least once a week.

At the convention, he bought five bags of merch on the first day. Among his haul is a Hot Toys version of Iron Man, a figure that is made to the scale of 1:6. He will keep that one.

But he also picked up goods to sell on the lucrative secondary market. At the previous D23 two years ago, he bought a special edition pack of Locarno trading cards which was available in very limited quantities at the event.

He lined up at 6am, queued for three hours and grabbed a pack for $75. That same weekend, he resold it for $3000 and covered the cost of his D23 spending, including tickets and merch.

But he regrets not holding onto it — the same pack is now worth $15,000.

Erik came with three friends and despite their clear passion for Disney, they rate their fandom as only a five on a scale of one to 10. For them, a Disney fan who’s a 10 are the ones who have whole rooms at their homes devoted to merchandise.

According to them, serious pin collectors could easily drop $1500 at D23.

Megan and Braden Lipnick live in San Diego, an hour-and-a-half drive from Disneyland, and they try to go to various Disney events and parks as much as they can because they think they will ultimately be priced out.

Braden told The Nightly, “We are just in that tier where we can barely afford these things as it is. And we are not in the ‘let’s go into debt’ for these sorts of things. We can pay for them but some day there are going to be D23s and park passes and such where we’re just going to have to say, ‘Nope, we can’t do it this year’.

“We’re lucky to be here now, but I think in the future, the way pricing is going, it’s a little dark up ahead, so we’re just celebrating in the here and now.”

Megan was dressed in a creative combination of Jane from Tarzan and an homage to the Tiki Room — an attraction at Disneyland. She was holding Gigi, a white macaw she spent a week crafting from foam, fake fur, toothpicks and rubber bands. A little rope pulley makes Gigi’s mouth move.

After D23, Gigi will sit on the mantle in the Lipnicks’ home, which they have started decorating to resemble the parks’ Adventureland. They’ve forked out for some authentic stuff for their interior ambitions but have also handmade pieces like Gigi. At the convention, they bought some retro Disney items from the marketplace.

The Lipnicks have Magic Key annual passes and go at least once a month. “It’s a way for us to de-stress from the craziness of regular life,” Megan added.

Braden is a civics and ethics teacher and he said he tells his students what his parents told him, “they always said stay in school so I can someday go to Disney whenever I want. I tell the kids, ‘If you want to have money for your passions or hobbies, stay in school, get a good job and you can go do the things that you always wanted to do as a kid’”.

For Cassandra, from the east coast State of Maryland, this is her second D23. Her friend Samantha from Wisconsin is attending her third. They’re dressed up as the cards from Alice in Wonderland.

Cassandra said she came for the fandom, “because I love Disney, I have friends that are always coming here as well so it’s a great place to meet up with everyone. It’s also amazing to see all of the talent and the creativity people have with costumes.” She was born the week before The Little Mermaid’s release in 1989.

Asked if they thought Disney devotees can be a little cultish, Cassandra and Samantha were reluctant to agree while their friend off to the side nods and said without hesitation, “yes”.

Cassandra elaborates, “Definitely once you’re in it, you kind of get some of the Kool-Aid, and you stay there. So, it can be cultish. Sometimes you have to pull yourself away from it, be like, ‘I love Disney, but let me give myself an arm’s reach for a minute”.

Samantha added, “But I’m sure you can say that for any type of fandom”.

But there is something specific about the Disney fandom. It taps into childhood memories and nostalgia so comprehensively because it’s experiential, because it’s 360, and because it owns such a large slate of brands with which people have an unbreakable bond.

And because for so many fans it’s about the shared experience and a feverish and intense passion that outsiders can’t quite fathom.

For Cassandra and Samantha, who live in different States, it’s an opportunity for friends to connect.

Leilani, the oldest of those three sisters donned in Star Wars-costumes, adds, “Whenever I think of Disney, I think of my family because it’s something we’ve shared together.

“We always love to go on Disney trips with each other rather than friends. There isn’t really anyone else I’d rather go with other than my family, it pretty much means family to me.”

Wenlei Ma travelled to Los Angeles as a guest of Disney