Disney Q3 FY2026 Earnings Call Scheduled for August 5

SamusAranX3 days ago

It also pains me that modern day TDO fails to realize just how iconic certain attractions / original lands (if well done) became to the point they became their own IP. Pirates most notably. They take a life of their own and while I don’t have access to numbers, I am sure they move merch. Heck they spawn films more than just PoTC. Jungle cruise had the unfortunate fate and timing of the pandemic, but there obviously was something that Disney saw that got it green lighted. I’m not against it completely; I love attractions like TSMM, GoTG:CR, and more; I just miss the mix of diversity they used to give us. Unfortunately the bottle was uncorked and synergy will continue to rule the day

Sir_Cliff3 days ago

This is very much my impression and makes me throw up my hands a little at the IP invasion. I've mentioned this before, but being at Disneyland with someone who seemed perplexed at the end of Great Moments with Mr Lincoln because they were expecting something more "Disney" was a bit of a watershed for me. I think particularly not respecting or trusting their audience a little more is part of what is going on with the lack of attractions not based around existing IPs. For example, I'm sure a marketing push similar to the one they did for Expedition Everest would still work today for a strong original concept and I think Disney is a company with enough resources and ability to do that and the parks will ultimately be more appealing. As with endless sequels and remakes, though, sometimes I look at what audiences seem to respond to and find it hard to blame the company for leaning into the easy money.

Chi843 days ago

They better hurry up and figure it out before we run out of patience - or time.

HauntedPirate3 days ago

Aka. Management that does not understand and has not understood theme parks or themed entertainment for the better part of 2 decades.

Animaniac93-984 days ago

This would also explain why those adults who only recently started visiting the parks and participating in their creative process were so perplexed by what was actually in them. Those who did visit the parks with any regularity as children pre-2000 were probably a relatively small group restricted by family finances and geography. Now these Disney adults are in lockstep with the company's philosophy about reshaping everything in the parks and resorts to just be about the IP they are immediately familiar with. But this is also Disney's fault for creating an expectation gap in their marketing, failing to educate their fans about why the parks were built that way and not respecting or trusting their audience to enjoy themed entertainment on its merits.

Chi844 days ago

Thanks for posting this. I hope everyone watches these and makes their own judgment. There’s a well-known saying that familiarity breeds contempt. Maybe some people need to take a step back so they can look at Disney from a fresh perspective. There’s nothing like Disney.

BrianLo4 days ago

Definitely this. Josh presented D+ as the front door on the call and I think that’s accurate. There’s a whole Generation Alpha raised on Bluey, Frozen and Moana on repeat. I don’t think the kids of millennials are anything we need to worry about. If anything, today’s kids are better connected to the brand than Gen Z were. As long as the parks stay fresh and are not seen as a stagnant, rotting product, Experiences should still be safe for another generation. Opinions will delineate on that, but I’d argue whether ‘we’ like what they are doing or not, the product has at least been less stagnant from ~2016 onward than it was for the childhood of Gen Z. I see that in the investment numbers, too.

Sir_Cliff5 days ago

That is a very good point; with attendance gains, it at least seems likely that there are more children in raw numbers visiting the parks now than were visiting in the generations that created the "Disney adults". It would indeed be nice to know how or if the guest mix has actually changed over time, though. Indeed. My understanding of the adults of today who have nostalgia for Disney and the specific phenomenon of the "Disney adult" is that this nostalgia is connected more to growing up with "Disney" than with the theme parks themselves. That's at least why I thought a lot of people connected the phenomenon to an attachment to IPs and "the brand." If that is the case, as mentioned before, Disney seems as present in the lives of today's children as it likely ever was, if not more so. I think Disney+ by itself is probably playing the role of the old VHS titles but turbocharged in bringing their content into family homes.

BrianLo5 days ago

For this to also be true, I’d expect some evidence on the ground. I wish we had proper demographic parks data. While I’m sure there is less kids in the attendance mix due to smaller family sizes, I’m not sure if there are less children in raw numbers than the 90’s (when today’s disney adults first visited) due to broad based attendance gains. This seems more of a theoretical issue that might impact generation Charlie or Delta when they shift into adulthood, than something currently underway. The last factor is there is a whole slew of “Disney adults” whom never visited the parks as children. Particularly so in Shanghai, but it’s in the states. As you say, it’s all the more debatable when the competitor has been reluctant to ever appeal to this demo for the last 25 years anyways. If anyone knows how to build a theme park product for all, Disney isn’t the problem.

monothingie5 days ago

I thought it was fantastic, since it’s not just strictly a firework show I didn’t compare it to HEA or Wishes. But I feel it is much better than Luminous. The pyro and the water effects objectively are much better. While it’s not as long in length, Luminous just tends to drag while this moves on at a good pace.

Touchdown5 days ago

Celestial Goodnight is a very nice show, and extremely welcome at Epic, but it’s not HEA, or Luminous, heck it’s not Cinesational either. CG uses a slightly extended soundtrack the fountain show uses, it doesn’t stir your emotions or really have much of a plot, it’s just a big boom (not that there’s anything wrong with that.) It’s better than Mickeys Mix Magic, Believe in Holiday Magic, and Ignite. It needs more emotion to get into the upper echelons.

Sir_Cliff5 days ago

I'm kind of curious to know in what way you think Celestial Goodnight "kicks the crap out of any Disney night time entertainment past or present." Is it in storytelling, spectacle, or some other level? To refresh your memory and to give context to your opinions on what constitutes top quality theme park entertainment, here are Celestial Goodnight and two nighttime offerings currently running at WDW that you are suggesting it kicks the crap out of:

Sir_Cliff5 days ago

We may be talking at cross purposes here, but the one thing I would say is that this seems like a structural issue beyond Disney's control (if it indeed turns out to be true) rather than one of their own making. My main point here is that, if any theme park company looks well placed to ride out such structural changes in the economy and society, it's Disney. I am not a fan of a lot of changes in recent decades, including the IP invasion and uncharges. I look at results like this last quarter's, though, and feel like I have to hand it to them in that no company seems as able to ride through turbulence and come out relatively unscathed in the theme park industry as well as Disney. In terms of all of things you're mentioning, I also don't really see why they wouldn't be able to adapt to capture the theme park market that still exists better than anyone else in the industry.

Mr. Sullivan5 days ago

I don’t disagree with you to be clear. I love Universal, love their parks, and have been so happy to see their successes. But as a fan I also think their issues are quite visible. And to their utmost credit they ARE figuring them out and closing that gap. I just think that gap is still a bit larger than some would like to think it is. Universal has had amazing growth and created amazing offerings. They are in my eyes a perfectly doable alternative to a week at Disney. I just don’t think most guests are totally sold on all of that yet, and that’s something Universal has to figure out. They haven’t successfully put the bug in enough people’s ear that they are a true Disney alternative, even if they have a lot of amazing things to show for it. The cannibalization argument some have made I think rings true. Universal and Disney have both gotten big enough that it’s becoming a one or the other situation rather than a dabble of both. They’re both sucking up so much air that people can’t really do both in totality like they could have awhile ago. And right now I think Universal’s kind of losing that battle. Universal’s consistent issue, at least in my eyes, is not their offerings but rather how they sell them. They have done a great job of selling why Universal is fun to visit, but have not done a good job of selling why someone should just visit them instead of doing a Universal segment of their Disney vacation. And as such, now that Universal is a bigger bite to chew, people are gonna be a bit more selective with how they do their Universal segment. I’d love to see some hard data on how much or little growth Universal has seen in the on property vacation package sector but I’d have to imagine the guest percentage (as in the amount of guests in the park each day there on a vacation package vs a day ticket) is still smaller than Disney’s. I’m also just generally concerned about what happens from here (as in once all in progress projects are complete) given the recent news that Comcast-Universal is splitting and the parks are gonna be on the less favorable side of it.