Walt Disney World has finally revealed information about its eagerly awaited expansion projects at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The news of Disney Theme Parks expansions follows the settlement of disputes with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. This is a noteworthy achievement for the massive entertainment giant.
Disney Parks. Josh D’Amaro’s division is now Disney’s best-performing segment, with its revenue increasing and offering stability in recent quarters. This is after Disney shuffled to adapt its entertainment business to match consumer habits that changed after the pandemic. D’Amaro, pledges $60 billion in investments in the segment over the next decade.
Disney theme park turnaround
When D’Amaro took over as lead in 2020, he spent much of those 12 months dealing with substantial operating losses from global park closures, a docked fleet of cruise ships and a plunge in hotel visits.
Disney Parks revenue fell 35% in 2020, a nearly $10 billion decrease from the $26.2 billion the experiences division had tallied in the year before the pandemic. Then Disney Parks revenue dropped an additional 3% in 2021.
But a lot has changed in three years. The Disney Parks experiences division posted record revenue of $32.5 billion in fiscal 2023, a 16% increase from the prior year. Operating income jumped 23% to $8.95 billion.
Disney’s investment in parks
While its parks were shuttered during pandemic, Disney continued with its investment. It started with construction of its Avengers Campus themed land in Disneyland and touched up old favorites such as the King Arthur Carousel. And it built new rides, and refurbished others, in the years that followed.
World of Frozen opened in Hong Kong Disneyland in November, and a Zootopia land opened in Shanghai Disneyland in December. The company also launched two new rides at Walt Disney World in Florida: a “Guardians of the Galaxy”-themed ride in its Epcot park in 2022, and a “Tron”-themed roller coaster in the Magic Kingdom in April 2023.
Additionally, the company has revamped attractions and themed park areas, turning the Pacific Wharf area of Disneyland’s California Adventure into San Fransokyo Square, based on the animated hit “Big Hero 6,” updating Mickey’s Toon Town at Disneyland and making major transformations at Epcot.
Disney investment in theme parks, coupled with new technology in mobile ordering and the ability for guests to pay to skip to the front of the line for certain rides, have kept guests coming and boosted Disney’s earnings at a time when the entertainment division is struggling to recapture its late-2010s boom.
Disney theme park profits
In 2023, experiences was the best-performing part of Disney’s business, accounting for 36% of the company’s total revenue but 70% of its operating income. Meanwhile, Disney’s entertainment division, which includes its theatrical and streaming businesses, represented 45% of revenue but just 11% of operating income.
The ability to get more out of the theme parks in recent years was crucial for CEO Bob Iger and Disney’s board as they tried to make the company more profitable and improve share performance. On Wednesday, Disney beat back activist investor Nelson Peltz’s proxy fight, reelecting its full board.
Spent on Disney theme park experiences
The division’s strength is why Disney has pledged to invest $60 billion in experiences over the next 10 years.
Amaro said about 70% of that money will go toward “new experiences” in domestic and international parks, along with cruise lines. The other 30% will go toward technology and infrastructure, including maintenance of existing attractions.
Innovation at theme parks has been a central goal since Walt Disney ran the company. Disney’s founder used to say that its theme parks would “never be finished” and would evolve to meet consumer demand and changing tastes, along with developments in technology.
Walt Disney Imagineering has long been on the cutting edge of development. Its innovations, from ride mechanics and animatronics to creature design and immersive architecture, have made Disney’s parks a standout in the industry.
Last year, guests caught a glimpse of one of these innovations, a trio of tottering bipedal robots from Star Wars called BDX droids. First spotted at California Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, they are just one iteration of a new technology Disney Imagineering is developing to bring walking robotic characters to life.
Hands-on innovations
Guests who visit Galaxy’s Edge in the next three months may stumble across this trio as part of Disney’s “Season of the Force.” They add to the regular roaming character meet-and-greets with the likes of Rey, Chewbacca, Kylo Ren and stormtroopers.
Disney hopes hands-on innovations such as the robots will keep guests coming.
Disney parks realistic approach
Disney’s ambitions to grow its experiences unit hinge in part on making its attractions feel more real.
Storytelling is at the heart of everything across Disney’s experiences division.
This extends to Disney’s cruise line and hotels, as well as its video game business. The company has a fleet of five cruise ships, and plans to add three more by fiscal 2026.
The Disney Wish, which made its maiden voyage in 2022, was the first addition to the fleet in a decade and bet big on its powerhouse franchises to entice travelers to the high seas.
Changing hand
Bob Iger won’t be head of the company in five years, if all goes according to plan. The CEO, who returned to the post in 2022, is set to step down at the end of 2026. Disney’s board is in the process of succession planning.
D’Amaro is on the short list.
His track record helming Disney experiences is part of a 26-year career with the Walt Disney Company, in which D’Amaro has held posts as chief financial officer for consumer products and global licensing and chief commercial officer for Walt Disney World Resort.
“I’m focused on Disney experiences,” he said when asked about potential succession plans. “And I’m focused on driving innovation and storytelling forward and paying tribute to our fans and continuing to grow this business.”
For now, however, D’Amaro said he is concentrating on his current post. He called it a “blessing” to have Iger back as CEO.
