IIt was a Friday night and the Southern California stadium was packed with cheering fans wearing light-up wristbands and homemade costumes, screaming every time a new A-list celebrity made a surprise appearance.

This wasn’t a pop concert, nor was it a sporting event. It was a marketing event for Walt Disney, a company with a fan base so loyal that some 15,000 of them were willing to buy a ticket and come to Anaheim, California, to be the first to see the company’s latest film and television commercials.

“The most epic event for the most epic fans!” exclaimed James Cameron, director of Titanic and the Avatar films, as he announced the title of the third Avatar film, Fire and Ashes, and showed the audience some exclusive concept art.

The crowd screamed and applauded as Disney unveiled a lengthy, if predictable, slate of sequels: Moana 2, Frozen 3 and Toy Story 5, the story of an epic battle between toys and digital screens for a child’s attention. There’s even a sequel to Lindsay Lohan’s 2003 film Freaky Friday in the works, titled Freakier Friday.

Disney breathed flames, filled the stadium with fake snow and offered a medley of Broadway performances. Throughout the night, a number of Hollywood stars – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Zoe Saldana, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lin-Manuel Miranda and others appeared on stage to thank fans for their support and credit them with the success of the company’s recent films.

Jude Law showed the first clip of himself as a Jedi in the new Star Wars series “Skeleton Crew.” Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler presented a teaser trailer for Disney’s live-action film “Snow White.”

Being a Disney superfan isn’t cheap. Tickets for all three days of the D23 fan conference, held at a local convention center, start at nearly $300. The deluxe package with the best seats costs $2,599.

The price of an average family trip to Disney’s theme parks has also risen sharply in recent years. One outside analyst estimated that the price of a typical four-day trip to Disney World for two adults and two children in a “budget” hotel increased by nearly 25% between 2019 and 2024 – and that’s after adjusting for inflation.

For the superfans in Anaheim, the entrance fee is still worth it. On Friday morning, Andrea Dragone, a 32-year-old Disney fan from Long Island, New York, was waiting in line in front of a giant sculpture of a magic hat in front of the convention center., encrusted with Swarovski crystals. She and her husband, both teachers, work extra shifts after school to afford their Disney vacations as a “once a year treat.”

In past years, they’ve watched videos of the D23 conference announcements from home, but this year they wanted to be there in person. “We just wanted to feel the energy,” Dragone said. The couple woke up at 6:30 a.m. to get to the front of the line.

Further back, Shannon Richey, 51, and her mother Peggy Martin, 72, who flew in from Houston, Texas, were also visiting D23 for the first time. “This is overwhelming,” Martin said as they waited in the hot sun. But her family was loyal to Disney as a brand that always offered magical experiences “that made you feel safe,” Richey said. After two Disney cruises, they had tried another cruise and found the experience unsatisfying. “It’s hard to top Disney,” she said.

Founded in 2009, D23, Disney’s “Ultimate Fan Convention,” features no theme park rides — just panels with cast and staff from Disney franchises and a convention center space filled with elaborate photo opportunities and long lines to purchase Disney merchandise. Many fans show up in outfits ranging from Moana-print shirts and dresses to coordinated couples’ costumes: Peter Pan and Wendy, Mary Poppins and Bert, Tiana and Naveen. And, of course, a dizzying array of mouse ears.

Rachel Meyers, a Los Angeles-based stylist who works in the film industry, was dressed as Tinker Bell, complete with sparkly wings. It was her second visit to D23, and she was there with a group of more than 10 friends, all of whom had planned different costumes for each day of the convention.

Compared to a visit to Disneyland, the fan convention offers a more “intimate” experience, said Meyers and other fans – despite what feels like “12 billion attendees” and the location of the conference center. “You connect with the community in a way that you couldn’t achieve in the parks,” said Meyers. While Disney has not confirmed attendance numbers, US media estimates that the conference attracts well over 100,000 people.

Disney superfans use the convention to get to know each other, compliment each other on their costumes or offer constructive criticism, and share behind-the-scenes details of the filming of their favorite movie. Sometimes they even share their insights with viewers at home. “This is how Disney adults recharge. This is how we recharge our magic,” joked David Vaughn, a Southern California content creator who offers Disneyland tips to hundreds of thousands of social media followers.

“I’m extra and everyone here is extra too,” added his girlfriend Ashley Dingess, whose shared account RealMouseVibes has nearly half a million followers on TikTok.

A “cash cow”?

Disney kicked off its biannual fan weekend with a mix of good and bad company news. At the last D23 in September 2022, some fans booed the company’s CEO, Bob Chapek, when he took the stage to speak to them amid months of infighting and controversy.

This year, Disney was embroiled in an ugly political dispute with Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, over his “Don’t Say Gay” law, as right-wing commentators attacked “Woke Disney” for casting a black actor as a mermaid and occasionally featuring LGBTQ+ characters in its films. (This spring, the company settled a lawsuit that resulted from that political dispute.)

Less than two months after the 2022 event, Chapek was pushed out of the company and Disney brought back its longtime former CEO Bob Iger, who was greeted with loud applause and a standing ovation from fans at Anaheim’s Honda Center on Friday night. “Boy, did I miss you guys,” Iger told them.

Iger has faced his own challenges: In 2023, he faced heavy criticism for calling striking Hollywood artists’ demands for higher wages “simply not realistic,” and he oversaw sweeping layoffs to appease shareholders – but the company has had a number of recent successes.

Last year’s historic double strike by Hollywood screenwriters and actors has come to an end, and Disney also narrowly avoided a strike by tens of thousands of Disneyland theme park employees in July of this year by offering significant wage increases, including a $24-an-hour minimum wage.

After losing huge sums as it struggled to make its streaming platform Disney+ a successful competitor to Netflix, Disney announced last week that its broader The streaming business – which also includes Hulu and ESPN+ – was now profitable. A number of new Marvel films, once box office hits, have flopped in recent years, but this summer’s cheeky hit, Deadpool and Wolverine, just made $1 billion at the global box office. Pixar’s Inside Out 2 is now the highest-grossing animated film of all time, with $1.5 billion at the global box office to date.

Back at the sports stadium on Saturday night, Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro presented new details on the estimated $60 billion Disney plans to invest in its theme parks and cruise lines over the next decade. The company will expand its fleet to 13 Disney ships, build a major “Lion King” attraction at Disneyland Paris and a new Avatar area at Disneyland in California, and create a new “Villains Land” at the Magic Kingdom in Florida.

But amid all the celebrations, Disney officials didn’t want to address one thing: the impact of rising theme park prices on the very superfans that D23 is supposed to celebrate.

A four-day hotel vacation at Walt Disney World that cost an average of $3,230 in 2019 now costs nearly $4,300, said Len Testa, president of Touring Plans, a company that helps visitors strategically plan their theme park visits. A similar four-day family stay at a “deluxe” Disney resort costs nearly $7,300, he said.

Most of the increased average cost of vacations is due to Disney charging for things that used to be free, such as airport transfers and surcharges for shorter lines at popular rides, Testa said. Disney’s new “Lightning Lane” fees have been criticized as a “pay-to-play” system that undermines the populist nature of Disney’s theme parks. The additional fees also contribute to fans feeling like the parks are a “cash cow” that keeps the rest of Disney’s vast media empire afloat, Testa said.

Disney’s experience division, which includes theme parks, cruises and merchandise, currently generates far more value for the company than its entertainment or sports divisions.

The price increases appear to be impacting attendance at the parks. Operating revenues at U.S. parks and theme parks fell 6% last quarter and are expected to fall again next quarter. Disney attributed the decline to inflation-related cost increases and technology spending.

The company did not respond to requests for comment on Testa’s data. At a D23 panel on Sunday morning, top Disney Experiences executives, including D’Amaro, spoke for an hour to a room of 60 international journalists. The executives did not discuss the pricing debate or take questions in real time: Journalists were only allowed to submit questions that Disney could review in advance.

Today, “probably 40 percent of American households can’t afford a single day or night at Disney,” Testa said. “That’s more than they spend on vacations in a year.”

“I’m not saying Disney World should be free,” he said. But he added, “If a place we all know, like Disney, is only accessible to the top 20% of Americans, we should ask ourselves what that means for us as a society.”