Last week we posted that Disneyland’s iconic Main Street Cinema has begun selling merchandise, dropping a bunch of Americana apparel, Minnie ears, plush, and more into the storied space.

Main Street Cinema

We heard from lots of readers and followers who simply were. not. having. it. But now we have Disney’s side of the story.This morning, the OC Register has gone to the source to clarify Disney’s position on this controversial move. So what’s the deal?

Turns out Disney is “looking at a variety of ways to drive interest in this beloved location”, says an official statement from Disneyland Resort.

The Register notes that Disney will be considering several ideas for the cinema location. “We’re looking at a lot of different options for what we could do,” said Disneyland spokesperson Suzi Brown, “We continue to operate Main Street Cinema as a theater, and there have been no changes to film showings.”

Main Street Cinema

So basically, Disney is saying they’d like to inspire more guests to visit the cinema and are looking for ways to make that happen. Including merchandise promotion.

For now, the cinema will still be showing the classic clips, but you’ll have to push past a lot of merch…and potentially more…to get to them.

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What do you think about Disney’s choice to use merchandise to draw guests into Main Street Cinema? Necessary? Tacky? Meh? Let us know in the comments!