Bob Iger says there are 'untapped stories just waiting to be brought to life' at Disney Parks with $42 billion going to expand capacity

Feb 07, 2024 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Bob Iger

Posted: Wednesday February 7, 2024 5:20pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Speaking at today's Q1 2024 earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger commented on the future of the company's theme park business.

Iger said, "Every one of our parks was profitable in Q1, giving us an incredibly solid foundation to build upon as we invest significantly to turbocharge growth in this business."

He continued, "As I've said before, we also have so many untapped stories just waiting to be brought to life in our parks across the globe as we continue to invest in this extraordinary business."

Bob Iger says there are 'untapped stories just waiting to be brought to life' at Disney Parks

New Disney CFO Hugh Johnston expanded on future investments, saying, "We plan to invest approximately $60 billion into the business over the next 10 years, of which approximately 70% is earmarked for incremental capacity expanding investments around the globe, which we expect to attractive returns."

Disney announced last year its plans to accelerate and expand investment in its Parks, Experiences and Products segment to nearly double capital expenditures over the course of approximately 10 years to roughly $60 billion, including by investing in expanding and enhancing domestic and international parks and cruise line capacity.

Speaking in April 2023 at the Walt Disney Company Annual shareholder meeting, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that Disney plans to spend $17 billion over the next ten years, specifically at Walt Disney World, bringing 13,000 new jobs to the area.

In terms of timing, Iger said that the company is already hard at work at determining where new investments will be placed and what they will be. New additions will start opening in 2025, and there will be a cadence of additional investment and increased capacity every year.

In response to an analyst question about where and when we will see new investments, Iger said, "You can pretty much conclude that they will be all over, meaning every single one of our locations will be the beneficiary of increased investment and thus, increased capacity, including on the high seas where we're currently building three more ships and a business that is obviously extremely positive to us. We may look expansively in that direction. I'm not going to give you more of a sense of timing except that we're hard at work at getting these things basically conceived and built."

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flyerjab2 days ago

Could not have answered this better. Spending money, and spending money wisely, are two…different…topics.

MisterPenguin2 days ago

You're conflating two things. 1. "whatever amount people would like to believe is going to be spent" shows a skepticism that money won't be spent either in part or in whole. Insiders have told us that in some cases they know of, in which it seems money was cut, the fact is that the money was spent in full, only that some of the things had cost overruns leaving not enough money to do all the things they had hoped to do. All the money was spent, but we got less than than we hoped for from it. Which leads to your second point... 2. "...is going to be spent wisely" goes to your point that there are indeed cost overruns. Was the scope of the build too big? Were the estimates the result of gross incompetence? Was the supervision of the construction grossly incompetent? I certainly don't know what the cause of the systemic cost overruns are. But I acknowledge they exist. So, when people moan that they doubt the full $60B will be spent -- despite showing up in a plenitude of SEC filings and mentioned by many execs over and over doubling down on it really happening -- by implying that Disney will secretly not spend that much... that's just uncalled for. It's point-scoring against Disney for whatever reason they have for point-scoring. Billions have been spent over the past decade, and so that kind of skepticism rings hollow. Very, very, very hollow. However, if they want to make the point that the $60B isn't going to buy us all the stuff they say (which, by the way, is very little so far... we have a bunch of insiders relaying a lot of wishes and hopes, but that's not official Disney); then that is indeed borne out by history of cost overruns. Which is a worthy critique to lob at Disney.

Disstevefan12 days ago

This will be interesting to watch. Disney can talk about investment in the parks but will just have to see what happens in reality. In my opinion, the investment talk was mostly for the proxy fight which Iger easily won anyway, never a doubt. I am selfish so I want everything for my favorite, WDW. As many have said, there are a lot of variables, a lot of external factors that may change the course Disney will go. We have seen Disney change/modify, even completely stop things they where well into or completed, like then Play pavilion and the Galactic Starcruiser. Who knows what and who knows how long we will be waiting for whatever we get. On the bright side, I am loving to watch the break neck speed Universal is working on EPIC. At least I will have a great park to go to and have fun while I am waiting for Disney to do whatever they are planning to do after the cut/change/eliminate things.

LSLS2 days ago

I will point to the words "Can Be"

imagineer972 days ago

Some on these boards haven't gotten wise to it, or maybe they've just got blinders on.

fgmnt2 days ago

There is something to be said for the prices of Disney products increasing and apparently zero efficiencies being successfully wrung out in developing the products. Every $150 million movie or D2C project needs $50 million of reshoots to still be a dud. Every ride needs to cost $100 million even if it’s built inside of an existing building and a painted warehouse. Really stunning lack of improved inputs on the upper management end over the last decade. Luckily the board has gotten wise to this and turned over a lot of the upper management staff 😉

HauntedPirate2 days ago

If anyone can point out the posts where people have stated, "Disney hasn't spent money on the parks", I'm all eyes. If you want to discuss how the money has been spent in the parks, that's been done ad naseum and no one is changing anyone's mind. I'm of the opinion that the spending has been grossly mismanaged and misguided. As such, I have little-to-no faith that whatever amount people would like to believe is going to be spent over the next decade (knowing plans can and do change, not to mention economic climates and financial situations) is going to be spent wisely.

flyerjab2 days ago

Agreed. Prior to Covid, we watched major additions happen at all 4 parks - NFL, Pandora plus park wide enhancements at DAK, DTD evolve into DS, TSL and SW:GE, new DVC, Gran Destino, Skyliner, Rat and the France Pavilion expansion with both Guardians, Moana and Tron having started before the world shut down for a bit. FoF parade, HEA fireworks, Frozen fireworks, Star Wars night time show, Disney Enchantment, Harmonious (a definite miss) and Luminous, as well as the Festival the Arts all started during this time as well. People can argue regarding fonts, how dirty or not dirty Tiana’s car should be (honestly, I can’t even believe I typed that) and whatever other minutia is tied into theming. That is everyone’s right. But please, to say that we are doomed is silly. This company does spend money on parks. The last decade proved that. And the fact that they admitted that this part of the company makes money and that they want to inject more money into it this decade is a good thing. And with Bruce Vaughn leading Imagineering and Rohde helping a bit, I am confident that he will push back in a good way to allow for some thematic cohesion with some of these projects in the next ten years.

MisterPenguin2 days ago

Yeah definitely. Considering how WDW never got around to adding any new rides or attractions in any of the WDW parks for over a decade, we can conclude that nothing else will get done. Good point you make!!

Disstevefan12 days ago

Translation - WDW is screwed.

JoeCamel2 days ago

Fast?

LSLS2 days ago

Honestly I think a lot of the haters on this board have been screaming the same thing. Feels like a win/win. It can be done pretty cheap and fast, but will absolutely help with the crowds all over the park while giving people other things to do.