Shanghai Disney to welcome 10m visitor

Zhao Huanyan, an economist at Huamei Hotel Consulting, said the 10 million mark is a number that signifies the growing importance of theme parks in the tourism industry in China at a time when tourists in China are growing more interested in theme parks than natural tourism sites.

Shanghai Disney Resort is a joint venture between Walt Disney and Shanghai Shendi Group.

In fiscal year 2017, Disney already had two releases that topped $1 billion in global box office revenue - Rogue One and Beauty and the Beast.

Beauty and the Beast has had a box office of 590 million yuan ($85.4 million) in China. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man Tell No Tales is going to have its global premiere in Shanghai on Thursday.

In the next 14 months, there will be four releases of Marvel movies, including Thor Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers Infinity War and Antman and Wasp. After Beauty and the Beast, Disney is producing a series of live action films, including Lion King, Dumbo, Aladdin and Mulan.

In terms of animated films, Cars 3 opens in June and Incredibles 2 in the summer of 2018 and the 2019 release of Toy Story 4.