Disney CEO Bob Iger says the company could build seven new full lands at its theme parks

Mar 05, 2024 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Bob Iger

Posted: Tuesday March 5, 2024 1:51pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

At today's Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Disney's CEO Bob Iger spoke at length about the company's reorganization and positioning for future growth.

Bob Iger at Walt Disney World

Much of the conversation was dominated by Disney+ and ESPN, but Iger spoke enthusiastically about the parks. "Parks and resorts is a wonderful story," Iger said. Trends for this quarter show that domestic and international parks and experiences business will probably deliver in the neighborhood of low to mid-teens in terms of operating income."

Continuing with the parks, Iger said the company has "entered into a phase where we can start building." He continued, "We have 1000s of acres of lands to develop, we could actually build seven new full lands if we wanted to around the world, including the ability to increase the size of Disneyland in California, which everybody thinks is kind of landlocked by 50%."

Disney has already presented concepts for new lands at Disney's Animal Kingdom

"You can look at every single location that we've got and there's land, opportunity, but most importantly, we have so much IP to mine that there's opportunity there to create experiences that we know people will love to have in our parks. So you look at our IP, you look at the land that we have, you look at the math, the demand that exists in the marketplace, and you look at the return on invested capital. It's a no-brainer to invest that way."

Beyond Big Thunder Mountain Blue Sky concept art

Disney has already presented "blue sky" concepts for new lands at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and Disney's Animal Kingdom, and we expect to hear more about those projects soon.

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Indy_UK12 hours ago

I hope they are on course for the Parks to no longer be funding the Box office and Disney+ losses by Q3

mrflo13 hours ago

Thank you everyone for confirming. From that perspective, re-investing half of their profits into maintenance and adding more capacity for growth to that actual business no longer sounds that turbocharged to me. Not saying that it is not a good thing overall or not desperately needed. Though shouldn't this be/have been more standard practise for Disney parks after all? At least that seems to be standard in tech companies or other businesses relying on innovations. Any thoughts if each Resort will then also exclusively fund their own expansion plans - e.g. WDW profits not funding a major expansions in an overseas park?

doctornick16 hours ago

Well, I think that is exactly what the company is suggesting. The money from those items contribute to the profitability of the parks division and they are using that profit to fund the planned $60B over 10 years.

Ayla16 hours ago

Oh my lord, can you imagine what a cluster it would be if they allowed strollers? Thank god they don't.

imagineer9717 hours ago

I think the money from ILL and Genie+ should be returned to the guests' pockets so it can be spent elsewhere and those two things can cease to exist.

celluloid17 hours ago

This means box office losing billions, Disney plus and target store merch sales could not earn it.

Indy_UK17 hours ago

Slightly different but I think the money from ILL and Genie+ should be used to renovate and build new attractions.

doctornick17 hours ago

Right, I think that comment was basically directly at investors saying "we plan to invest a lot of money in the parks division, but this is money the division already generates and is available"

MisterPenguin18 hours ago

Ummm, are you forgetting that WDW will have to close down for a few years after EU opens?!?!

peter1143518 hours ago

And remember that $3 billion was itself after that quarters own cap ex expenses, not to mention revenue and profit should increase over the next 10 years.

MisterPenguin18 hours ago

Last quarter, parks and experiences had a $3.B net profit. Over the 4 quarters of a year, that's $12B net profit per year. Over 10 years, that's $120B. So... I think parks and experiences can not only cough up $60B to fund TurboLand, but provide the company with another $60B to pay off debt and other miscellaneous expenses.

mrflo19 hours ago

"Thus far, the parks chief says Disney is on track with its allocation of the $60 billion, calling the strategy “incredibly disciplined.” D’Amaro notes, “Every single investment that we make has to be justified unto itself.” The $60 billion is expected to be self-funded from the parks, a proclamation that helped counter some initial Wall Street reluctance on the spending. Iger has also said the company is not going to allocate all of the $60 billion initially, and wants to leave “flexibility” in the budget for new attractions or hotels if a new hit movie comes along." Source: Article in HW Reporter What is your interpretation of the $60 billion "to be self-funded from the parks"? Does that mean they are only using the income / cashflow within the Parks devision to fund the investments and not from the overall TWDC? I guess with the current performance it should not be an issue. Just wondering if that also means that each park/resort has to fund expansion plans itself as well - e.g. DLP would not get a budget transfer from the NA Parks business.

Sirwalterraleigh1 day ago

It’s a rather brief walkthrough…unlikely to bottleneck as such Somebody must have Hurled

Disstevefan11 day ago

I was there Feb 7th. This would have been the first time seeing it in person. There was a queue, folks sitting in the queue that appeared to wrap around (maybe it was down?) Anyway, knowing it was not worth the wait, I did not bother. I hope its not totally broken and shut down before I get to see it once.