Disney Experiences 2026 Revenue Hits Q2 Record as Guest Spending Rises 5%

13 days ago in "The Walt Disney Company"

Gallery / 1 Photo
Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California

Posted: Wednesday May 6, 2026 6:59am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney World fans and Disney investors got a look at the company's financial performance for Q2 fiscal 2026 today, May 6, 2026 — and it marks a notable milestone: the first earnings call under new CEO Josh D'Amaro.

The results beat prior guidance, with stronger-than-expected revenue growth driving the outperformance across all three business segments.

Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California

D'Amaro, who previously led Disney Experiences, now heads the Walt Disney Company alongside Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston.

Disney reported revenues of $25.2 billion for the quarter, up 7% from $23.6 billion in Q2 fiscal 2025. Income before income taxes rose 9% to $3.4 billion. Total segment operating income increased 4% to $4.6 billion.

Diluted earnings per share came in at $1.27, down from $1.81 in Q2 fiscal 2025. Adjusted EPS, however, increased to $1.57 from $1.45 in the prior-year quarter.

Disney Experiences: Another Record Quarter

The Experiences segment continues to perform. Q2 revenues and operating income were both fiscal second-quarter records, growing 7% and 5% respectively compared to Q2 fiscal 2025.

Segment operating income came in at $2.615 billion.

Per capita guest spending at domestic parks was up 5% in the quarter, driven by growth in admissions, food and beverage, and merchandise.

On the attendance side, global guests — which combines domestic and international park attendance with passenger cruise days — grew 2% compared to the prior-year quarter.

Domestic park attendance dipped 1% year-over-year, partly reflecting continued softness in international visitation. However, Disney noted it is now beginning to lap the attendance headwinds faced over the past year and expects year-over-year attendance at domestic parks in Q3 to show improvement compared to Q2.

Current demand at domestic parks and resorts is described as healthy, though the company acknowledged macroeconomic uncertainty consumers are facing.

New Ships, New Lands, Global Expansion

The Disney Adventure, Disney's newest cruise ship based in Singapore, launched in March. Bookings have been very strong, and Disney expects the ship to attract fans from markets throughout the Asia-Pacific region that have historically not had close proximity to Disney attractions.

Also in March, the World of Frozen opened at Disneyland Paris. Guest response has been positive. Disney describes the land as its most recent example of translating franchise IP into immersive physical experiences.

Additional expansion projects include working with established local operators to bring a new cruise ship to Japan and a theme park resort to Abu Dhabi. Disney confirmed the strategic logic of the Abu Dhabi plans is unchanged.

Entertainment and Streaming

The Entertainment segment posted operating income of $1.335 billion, up 6% year-over-year. Entertainment SVOD (Disney+, Hulu) operating income was $582 million, up 88% from the prior-year quarter.

Disney+ subscription and affiliate revenues grew 14% compared to the prior-year quarter. Advertising revenues grew nearly 5%. The company delivered its first double-digit Entertainment SVOD operating margin in Q2 and remains on track to deliver at least 10% for the full fiscal year 2026.

In March, Disney launched Verts on Disney+ to improve content discoverability and drive more daily interaction.

ESPN and Sports

ESPN generated $562 million in segment operating income, down 5% year-over-year. The decline was driven primarily by higher rights fees, including the timing of new rights agreements, and higher marketing costs.

ESPN did claim the largest share of linear sports consumption among total viewers in Q2, despite competition from the Super Bowl and the Olympics. ESPN's Men's Tournament Challenge saw 27 million completed brackets — an all-time high, up 7% over 2025.

Disney closed its NFL transaction in January, broadening its sports rights portfolio. ESPN subscription and affiliate revenues grew 6% in the quarter compared to the prior-year quarter.

For Q3, Disney expects Sports segment operating income to decline approximately 14% compared to the prior-year quarter, driven by a double-digit increase in programming expenses.

Disney is already seeing strong advertiser demand for inventory around ESPN's first Super Bowl — Super Bowl LXI — in February 2027.

Full Year Outlook

Disney provided the following guidance for fiscal 2026 and beyond:

Adjusted EPS growth of approximately 12% in fiscal 2026, excluding the impact of the 53rd week
Adjusted EPS growth of approximately 16% including the 53rd week impact
At least $8 billion in share repurchases targeted in fiscal 2026
Q3 total segment operating income of approximately $5.3 billion
Double-digit adjusted EPS growth expected to continue in fiscal 2027

You can read the full report here, and we will here more from Disney during the earnings call this morning.

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

And dropped 319 in 2025 🤓

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

What worries me (and dusters should be scared stupid when that happens)…is not That they didn’t get back to the 2019 crowds quickly. That could have just meant the capacity wasn’t comfortable…in addition to the prices being reckless (which they are)… It’s that there has been no real traction on upward volume the last 4 years when spending has been rising beyond record levels. If you look at the history of parks - especially wdw - they have had steady rise when economics are strong…only dipping when there are global disruptions across the whole system. They’ve gone nowhere…which brings up a couple of possibilities: 1. The system is not strong 2. They’re being managed poorly 3. Both I bet you can guess where I’m leaning?…

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

Capital expansion into a mass model without a growing mass clientele sounds kinda Enron

HauntedPirate6 days ago

Hey, MK averaged 318 more people per day in 2024 than 2023! 🥳

HauntedPirate6 days ago

Ok, thanks. I read the little footnote on that but didn't connect the dots between room nights and rooms not occupied by DVC members. Not that they could really sell those rooms in DVC inventory for cash at a moment's notice...

BrianLo6 days ago

That’s really where consistent capital expansion fills its role. We’ll of course get our next look at it again this summer. I’m not sure if they are entirely there yet and it’s not going to be even (ie DCL will for sure take on an outside portion of growth). But at least they are saying the right things.

Dranth6 days ago

True, they never did get those back. It is also true attendance has increased every year post covid. At least so far. I believe it is safe to say it was a combination of policies and pricing that prevented a full rebound. We can argue all day about if it was intentional or not, but in the end it really doesn't matter. It is what happened and if they weren't happy with it, they could have changed direction by now. End of the day, they are making a lot more money on less people which I am sure they love but I think most of us also recognize it is going to hurt them long-term.

BrianLo6 days ago

Not entirely. Their hotel business is quite healthy in its own right. I mentioned earlier that I liked this new change in their reporting that better shows us how the sub-segments are doing. Hotels fall under resorts and vacations and obviously the rest is self explanatory. It’s a pretty big chunk nowadays.

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

Now…never regaining what we think to be between 5 and 8 million sets of feet back…not to mention what should have been a natural increase in the “greatest YUGE economy ever”…can’t be labeled growth. And we’ve been getting along pretty well…I’ll remind 🤓

Dranth6 days ago

They have both. Attendance has been going up (slowly for the most part) since everything was reset in 2020 and they have been getting increased guest spending. The issue I think most of us agree on is that you can't continue to do both forever and whatever breaking point exists out there is going to be easier to hit if the economy in general gets moving in the wrong direction.

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

Disney rooms are solely to feed secondary spending outside the room, but with the property. Which really is the scenario no where else. So “industry standard” never really applied

MisterPenguin6 days ago

Since 2020, WDW's attendance has gone up every year according to TEA. Stop using disgruntled forum users as your source of information.

Mr. Sullivan6 days ago

SeaWorld is going to either be out of business or get broken apart and sold for scraps in a decade or less, mark my words on it. The signs are at this point giant blinking neon.

BrianLo6 days ago

For clarity their occupancy does not include DVC rooms booked by members. It includes only rooms not booked by members that can be then sold for cash. Or undeclared rooms. Which fluctuates quarter to quarter. 97% occupancy in the hotel industry is also a bad thing. Ideal for Disney does seem to be a bit ahead of the standard industry, but is at most ideally high 80’s. Otherwise they should add more revenue rooms when it approaches 90. Cruises on the other hand are a different beast and want 100 + 5% or so.