Walt Disney Co. faced an online drubbing Wednesday after it unveiled perhaps the most controversial aspect of its new theme park in Shanghai – the pricing.

Standard tickets for Shanghai Disneyland will cost 370 yuan, or $56, with online ticket sales set to begin late next month ahead of June's planned opening, the company said. Weekends, summertime and other periods designated as peak times, including the grand opening period starting June 16, will cost 499 yuan, around $76.

The standard ticket cost is lower than the adult ticket price of $69 for Hong Kong Disneyland and $105 for basic entry to Florida’s Walt Disney World, according to prices published online by those parks and current exchange rates.

But according to many microbloggers on China’s Weibo social network, it’s still far too expensive.

One user on Wednesday called the price “robbery.” Others said the pricing appears inflexible, for example with no discounts for students.

Perhaps anticipating the backlash, the Shanghai park operator said in a statement that pricing “is based on in-depth market research and analysis conducted with a wide range of Chinese consumers, industry experts and local regulators.”

The two-tiered pricing and date-specific tickets aim to “allow the park to manage the extraordinary anticipated demand” for its attractions, it added.

The park – which is set to open in June after more than a decade of planning and five years of construction -- is a joint venture of the California entertainment giant Disney and a group of companies owned by Shanghai’s government.

In addition to themed areas that combine classic Disney brands with new ones, the park is also expected to feature some attractions with Chinese characteristics. They include “The Garden of the Twelve Friends,” themed on the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. A Mandarin-language “Lion King” production will be ticketed separately, Wednesday's announcement said.

Tickets for theme parks and similar attractions in China generally tend to be cheaper than those in the U.S. While many consumer prices in China are higher than elsewhere in the world, Chinese authorities have leaned on entertainment companies to cap prices while at times ordering museums to open their doors for free.

The 2010 Shanghai World Expo charged 100 yuan ($15). A 220 yuan tour in Beijing includes the Water Cube and other sites of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, while the minimum price to attend the Games’ Opening Ceremony was set at 200 yuan.

The average movie ticket in China last year was 35 yuan according to Focus Media Group’s Focus Film unit, while it costs up to 63 yuan in Beijing and Shanghai to take in the 3-D version of the Hollywood film Kung Fu Panda 3. Adults pay 220 yuan to enter a roller coaster park in Shanghai called Happy Valley.

At Shanghai Disneyland, regular admission will be charged for anyone above 1.4 meters (about 4-foot-6-inches) tall. In Hong Kong regular admission applies to those aged 12 to 64, while in the U.S. it refers to guests aged 10 or over. In Shanghai, seniors and small children will be charged 280 yuan on a standard day, about $42.

While the reaction to Wednesday’s announcement was sharp, few users suggested that the high prices would be enough to hold back demand by the world’s largest population to visit the first Disney park in mainland China.

“Just thinking of the crowds, I would not want to go even if the tickets were free,” said one Weibo user. But for a guarantee the park won’t be too crowded, the person added, “I would accept 800 yuan for one ticket."

--James T. Areddy, with contributions by Lilian Lin. Follow James on Twitter @jamestareddy.