"Increased Attendance and Guest Spending" Lead to BIG Revenue Increase for Universal Theme Parks

With reports that the age of “revenge travel” is coming to an end and a possible recession looming in the future, some may expect that the theme park business would begin to dip. However, a recent report shows that this may not be the case.

Universal Orlando Resort

Comcast — the parent company to Universal Studios — recently released its 3rd quarter earnings report for 2022. This report reveals the financial state of many aspects of the company, including the Universal theme parks. This quarter’s report indicates that Universal Studios theme parks are continuing to grow in popularity, albeit with smaller increases than we’ve seen at the Disney parks.

According to the 3rd quarter report, NBCUniversal’s theme parks revenue “increased 42.4% to $2.1 billion in the third quarter of 2022.” This statistic includes parks such as Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood.

Universal entrance

The growth is attributed to “increased attendance and guest spending” at the parks as well as “an increase from the operations of Universal Beijing Resort, which opened in September 2021.”

Universal Orlando City Walk

Looking at only 2022, the “revenue from the Theme Parks segment increased 71.6% to $5.4 billion.” This change shows that Universal theme parks have “improved operating conditions compared to 2021.”

Crowds in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Comparatively, The Walt Disney Company reported that revenue from Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products increased 70% in the third quarter of 2022. The Disney theme parks’ revenue jumped from $4,341 million to $7,394 million from July 2021 to July 2022.

Disney World entrance

Another important statistic that reflects the status of the company is adjusted EBITDA, which stands for “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.” The adjusted EBITDA for the Universal theme parks increased almost 90% in the third quarter, going from $434 million to $819 million.

Universal Orlando

These numbers are better than most analysts expected, showing that the Universal theme parks are performing beyond what most people previously anticipated.

Universal Orlando

In another recent study, it was shown that some Universal theme parks saw higher attendance in 2021 than the Disney parks did. The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and AECOM released a report with the 2021 attendance levels of theme parks. The theme park with the most attendance in 2021 was Magic Kingdom. However, Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure ranked higher in attendance than EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.