If you’ve been following along with the announcements Disney made at Destination D23 in early September, then you know that the company has a lot planned for its parks.
©Disney | Walt Disney Company Headquarters
With updates to Dinoland, USA and an expansion to Magic Kingdom planned for the future, plus changes to several attractions, we know that Disney will probably be spending the big bucks on theme parks in the coming years. But just HOW much will they spend? We’ve got the answer.
In a recent security filing, Disney shared more information about intentions with the parks business. The statement started with the following:
“The Company is developing plans to accelerate and expand investment in its DPEP segment, to nearly double, as compared to the previous approximately 10-year period, consolidated capital expenditures for the segment over the course of an approximately 10-year period to approximately $60 billion in aggregate, including by investing in expanding and enhancing domestic and international parks and cruise line capacity, prioritizing projects anticipated to generate strong returns, consistent with the Company’s continuing approach to allocate capital in a disciplined and balanced manner.”
Cinderella Castle
This means that Disney is looking to invest $60 billion in the Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products segment of the company over the next 10 years. Compared to the previous 10 years, this is nearly double the amount of investment. And when you think about everything that was added to the parks in the past 10 years — Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Toy Story Land, Avengers Campus, Pandora, and countless rides — that’s a significant investment.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Disney also shared in a report on their website that they have more than 1000 acres of land available for future developments at the theme parks. It’s spread across various sites, but the land available is about the size equivalent of seven new Disneyland Parks.
©Disney
There is plenty of potential in terms of growth for the number of visitors as well. Disney noted, “Today, Disney has seven of the top ten most attended theme parks in the world, including Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Park, which has been the #1 attended theme park on earth for decades. Disney Parks welcome approximately 100 million guests each year.”
“According to Disney’s internal research, there is an addressable market of more than 700 million people with high Disney affinity it has yet to reach with its Parks. In fact, for every one guest who visits a Disney Park, there are more than ten people with Disney affinity who do not visit the Parks.”
©Disney
UPDATE: After Disney made this announcement about increased spending on the DPEP segment of the company, The Walt Disney Company stock dropped 3% to $82.75, according to Deadline. Investors have been focused heavily on the streaming side of Disney’s business in the past few months and years.
Spaceship Earth at night
We’re interested to see what Disney announces for the future of the theme parks and cruise line business. There’s a lot of room for growth still, and with $60 billion to invest, there’s significant potential.
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Just to understand what they’re talking about,
for $60 Billion they could give $1 million to every adult in Kissimmee… and likely have some left over.
Announcing plans is far from executing plans. Knowing how Disney works I won’t hold my breath in anticipation of anything to be completed in the next 10yrs.
and they can’t come to terms with the WGA and SAG and 700k employees out of work for the past 5 months? it would cost 100 million to settle…
I’m sure increasing hotel and other prices will entice those 700k+ plus people who have not yet visited the parks to pack their bags and run to Disney…NOT!!
Before they start on expansions why not first make sure that current Magic Kingdom is in better shape? Hire more maintenance cast members etc. Going by how long it has been taking them to complete Epcot transformation this could take a while…
It was my understanding that Disney was scheduled to spend 6 million per year over the next several years anyway. This announcement is nothing new. Smoke and mirrors.
Interesting the share price dropped after this announcement. Perhaps the investment analysts see something in these gee whiz numbers that you’re not seeing.
As nice as this sounds, one of the reasons we stopped going to Disney World, it’s ALWAYS under construction. Often the construction ruins the charm of what Disney was.
Walt said that Disney will NEVER be completed
Making more rides that you can’t get on won’t help. Fix the broken genie disaster and return the old fast pass.
A form of Spectromagic—a new night parade is what people want. Almost every park has one except Florida which is ridiculous. At least everyone could enjoy it and you wouldn’t have a high percentage of customers missing out such as mot being able to get on a new ride.
The parks are in major need of reform and refreshment. Hollywood studios is downright boring. The deserted Animation Courtyard is a disgrace. Why wasn’t Great Movie Ride refreshed and RE put in that wasted space in Animation Courtyard? It totally doesn’t fit in the GMR building! Besides Beauty and the Beast show, the other shows are stale at best. Even a new Mermaid show isn’t enough to redeem this park. It needs some serious TLC. And World Showcase is so lacking compared to the past, circa late 90’s, when there were impressive street performances in every country throughout the day, parades and lively music. It’s just sad now. Canada has so much wasted real estate, closed stores, etc. Morocco with its street markets and belly dancing performances used to be our favorite! Now it’s just in a sad pathetic state. It almost feels deserted!
My only question is, just like in California, why does Disney have to spend ten million dollars on low income housing? I just don’t get it…