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"

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."

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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BrianLo8 hours ago

You are both a little right and a little wrong. The bulk of the spend is actually just the year of delivery. Order spend is really quite minor; until the blocks start prefab it’s almost inconsequential. See NCL’s debt tables. Leonardo 1 was delivered Oct 2022. Leonardo 2 was well under construction by the end of 2022. You can still see 75% of the spend on Prima (Leonardo 1) hits the books in the delivery year, despite the vessel having its float out in August 2021. But I side with Monothingies original comment that a big boost of the capital spend is because there are two DCL ship deliveries next year instead of one. Or really exclusively being driven by DCL Adventure since Destiny is cancelled out YoY by Treasure.

eddie1046 days ago

I find it funny how people are like “Disney is this big evil greedy corporation” but have no problem supporting billionaires who they personally agree with. For instance I saw some complaints about Iger’s pay but at the same time I know if his politics leaned a little to the right it would be radio silence regarding that. Not saying you’re like that but I do question all the preaching I see on these forums when it concerns big business or the economy.

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

Let me make it less subtle: not interested… You want to put up some points…all day long I’ll entertain… But i’m getting too old for “snits”

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

Where’d you here this one? 😁 Where’d you hear the truth? 😡

monothingie6 days ago

The bulk of payments for Cruise ships are at the order phase and the delivery phase. Disney announced that it was ordering 4 cruise ships in August 2024. With their 2025 Fiscal year starting in October, it is likely that the deposit for these ships would come due in FY2025.

eddie1046 days ago

You didn’t answer the question but nice deflection though. 🙃🤔

JD806 days ago

Cruise ships coming online will not be a heavy spend since the spend would have been outlaid already.

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

That investor and corporate mentality has changed over the last 50 years? Yes…even some smart people have written about it… Just hit the “I” button, Dusty…we won’t miss each other 😎

eddie1046 days ago

Do you actually believe all things you type on here or is it just a facade ?

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

…milk the floating cows harder

monothingie6 days ago

Having two cruise ships come online in 2025 will do that.

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

They were still publicly traded…but the mentality was: “build then profit” Now it’s - sadly - “🐂💩to profit now”

Jrb19796 days ago

Back then they didn't have to spread costs of construction over multiple quarters to appease Wall Street

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

Another good point… They built the roads, the infrastructure, and notably the water management, plus drained a lake…built a lake…refill the old lake…and opened 3 hotels…with a train…and the magic kingdom …From 1965-1971