Even though Disney is a creative company at its core, it’s also a business.
Fans are often reminded of this when Disney makes decisions to increase prices in the parks or announce changes that might not be popular. But perhaps the most obvious time that we get a glimpse into the business side of things for The Walt Disney Company is during the earnings calls. And now, it’s time to report for Q1 of 2023!
Disney is sharing all the financial details from the media division, the parks division, and more. For those who are theme park junkies, you might be curious to know just HOW MUCH money Disney parks made last quarter — and we’ve got the answer!
In Q1 of 2023, the Disney Parks, Experiences, & Products division of the company had a revenue of $8.736 billion. That’s a 21% increase from the same quarter in 2022. However, if you subtract the cost of operations from that revenue, you’ll get the operating income for the quarter, which was $3.053 billion. That’s an increase of a whopping 25% from Q1 in 2022.
But that’s the entire division of the company — what happens when we break it down into just the theme parks? Well, the domestic parks made $6.072 billion in revenue and $2.113 billion in income, which were huge increases year-over-year. Disney attributes this partially to more guests purchasing Genie+, which launched in Q1 2022, as well as higher guest spending. During the earnings call, Disney noted that they achieved these goals despite purposely reducing park capacity during the quarter.
Basically, from the looks of it, Genie+ and paid Lightning Lanes are making Disney some BIG money so they could be sticking around for a while. For those who aren’t a fan of the paid services, this is probably not the news you wanted to hear, but it is the reality of Disney’s business at the moment.
The international parks also had a significantly improved performance. The revenue for the quarter was $1.094 billion while the income was $79 million. That income increase is more than 100% higher than last year’s Q1, when the income was $21 million.
We’re interested to see how things change going forward as well. During that Q1 window, many guests were visiting the parks for the holiday season. The change in Disney CEO came partway through the quarter, but no major park changes from Bob Iger were really announced or put into effect until the quarter was over.
We’ll keep monitoring the numbers and keep you updated as we learn more, so stay tuned to AllEars!
10 Ways Disney World is Changing in 2023 — Click Here!
Join the AllEars.net Newsletter to stay on top of ALL the breaking Disney News! You'll also get access to AllEars tips, reviews, trivia, and MORE! Click here to Subscribe!
What do you think of these numbers? Tell us in the comments!
Lets not forget to mention that Genie + is selling because Disney does not control the standby lines like they use to. Driving up wait times, make people buy Genie +. Where is the Magic, Quality, and Value in the parks? Gone forever it seems.
How did you do last year? Your income after taxes go up 20% (or 100% in the international parks)? Profit is after all expenses are figured in. That would also include labor costs. So if your inclination is to get angry at the workers for refusing to settle with Disney for what Disney is offering,think twice. They see these numbers too and when Disney says they can’t afford any more, they are lying. They can afford to do more. They will say no to their workers and guests so they don’t have to say no to their shareholders. And so Iger can make more.