Credit: Edited by Inside the MagicDuring the Morgan Stanley Conference Call, Disney CEO Bob Iger hinted at a major expansion, an entirely new theme park in Europe and a new home for Mickey Mouse.
At the moment, Disneyland Paris is the only presence that Disney parks have in Europe, and while it is pretty popular, there are still many guests who would rather save up their money to visit the Walt Disney World theme parks for their big Disney vacation, making Disneyland Paris a lot more locally-filled, much like California’s Disneyland.
With Universal coming out and acknowledging that they bought land in the U.K. in hopes of developing it into Universal’s Great Britain, a new theme park, it seems that Disney is looking to compete.
Bob Iger mentioned that Disney is looking to expand, he said, “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%.” This led to the confirmation of Pandora – World of Avatar coming to Disneyland Resort as an entire land, and not just a ride or small experience.
With this idea of expansion in mind, and knowing that Disney is planning on investing $60 billion into the theme park and Disney Cruise Line side of the business to increase capacity, the CEO’s next quote struck a chord.
Bob Iger said, “We have one Avatar-based land, Pandora, in Florida, we’re going to put a second one in California. That doesn’t mean we can’t put one somewhere in Asia or somewhere in Europe, for instance”. Disney already has a theme park in Europe as well as Asia with Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland, but Iger specifically said, “somewhere in Asia or somewhere in Europe”. If he was thinking of one of Disney’s pre-existing parks, he would have likely listed their names, and not the continent that they live in.
So let’s look at the possibility of why this could mean a new theme park for Disney.
As per a security filing, the company revealed its intention to allocate approximately $60 billion to expand its domestic and international parks and further develop the Disney Cruise Line over the next decade. This sum represents a twofold increase compared to Disney’s expenditure on parks and the cruise line during the preceding decade, which already witnessed a significant surge in investment.
Over the past decade, Disney has embarked on a series of ambitious expansions and developments, significantly enhancing its entertainment offerings.
This includes the inauguration of the Shanghai Disney Resort, a substantial expansion of its cruise line capacity, and the introduction of numerous rides inspired by iconic intellectual properties such as Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, Tron, Spider-Man, Avatar, and Toy Story at its domestic parks. Additionally, Disney has allocated substantial investments toward its Paris and Hong Kong parks, with themed expansions centered around popular Disney films like Frozen set to debut soon (in Paris, as Hong Kong has already opened World of Frozen).
Plans for three new ocean liners are underway, including the Disney Treasure this December, which is set to expand the Disney fleet to eight ships, and Disney is nearing completion of a new port on a Bahamian island, complementing its existing private island port.
With $30 billion fueling these endeavors, the potential impact is substantial, prompting speculation on what $60 billion could achieve.
“There are far fewer limits to our parks business than people think,” Mr. Iger said.
“The growth trajectory is very compelling if we do nothing beyond what we have already committed,” he continued, referring to attractions and ships that have been announced but are not yet operational. “By dramatically increasing our investment — building big, being ambitious, maintaining quality and high standards and using our most popular I.P. — it will be turbocharged.”
The idea of a new park is not something Iger has ever turned down; he, in fact, refuses to.
During the Walt Disney Company’s First Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call question and answer portion of the call, Disney CEO Bob Iger faced the question of a fifth gate in Walt Disney World Resort, as well as what will come of the $60 billion. Bob stated that he did not want to give out a timeline for the next 10 years as to how the $6o billion would be spent just yet, but he also did not reject the idea of a fifth gate.
With Universal’s theme park sector starting to compete heavily with Disney, especially with its soon-to-be-unveiled Orlando expansion Epic Universe, it would not be a bad idea for Disney to compete with them for the U.K. market, instead of just letting them have it. We already know that 1 million guests who visit Walt Disney World Resort each year are from the U.K., with Disney offering special discounts to residents traveling in from the country.
If a new Universal theme park is built in the U.K., it is likely that some of those theme park enthusiasts will choose to vacation in their own country to save money while still getting the lux theme park experience. If Disney had a park there, not only could they keep the U.K. market, but they could also use that (likely smaller) resort to convince guests to also visit Disney World in the future. All of that said, this is solely speculative and based on Iger’s comment of a European expansion and not a Disneyland Paris expansion.
Do you think that Disney will build a theme park in the U.K.?