The Walt Disney Company just recently had their Q4 earnings call filling us all in on the financial state of the business.
During the call, we heard lots of information pertaining to each division of the company such as sports, Disney+, and entertainment. We learned what plans CEO Bob Iger has for the future of the company and the direction he’s hoping to take each sector. But there was a bit of information that we found quite interesting about the Disney parks.
Back in September, Disney announced plans to spend $60 billion on parks, experiences, and products in the next 10 years, double what was spent in the past decade. Iger acknowledged that over the last five years, the parks have nearly doubled the return on investment and stated that the sector “remains a growth story.”
In regards to their $60 billion announcement, Iger added “We are focused on driving profitable growth and value creation as we move from a period of fixing to a new era of building.” We kept hearing nothing but promising things from Iger such as “strengthen Disney’s position as the world entertainment company” and Kevin Lansberry, Interim CFO, added that there are plans for the “next 10 years to turbocharge growth.”
But then we noted something added at the end that we weren’t expecting. Lansberry added, “We expect those investments to ramp up towards the back half of that 10-year period with more gradual increases in the first few years.” So does that mean we won’t be seeing any real updates to the parks for at least 5 years?
The company plans to “turbocharge” its growth in Experiences but not until the end of the 10-year period they indicated. This came as a bit of a surprise to many as $60 billion is a lot of money to mostly spend on the back half of the period.
We may be waiting a while before we start seeing significant additions coming to the parks. In the meantime, Disney made another announcement recently that they have officially named their official CFO after Lansberry has been acting Interim CFO.
We’ll see how this change affects the company coming up in the future. While wait, keep checking back to AllEars for more Disney news!
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What are your thoughts on this new development? Let us know in the comments!
I think Disney is very wrong about this. Universal Studios is going full steam ahead with Epic Universe and when it opens, its going to put a hurt on Disney World. Disney should be pouring the money into its parks right at the beginning since the parks generate so much money.
Disney needs to get moving quicker on improvements and expansions. Universals epic universe is not messing around. Beautifully themed with some wonderful attractions. Epic universe will be a problem for Disney come 2025. Not to mention the other improvements Universal is making. Walt Disney World currently provides no significant Thrill Ride attractions for the younger Generations. And they’re demand is higher for more thrill rides.
Universal is coming
Disney plans to spend $60B on parks expansion…what’s $50B for executive management and $1B for the parks!
Dig deeper, most of that money will not be spent on Disney World or Disneyland here.