It is a good time to be a Disney fan. Final September, throughout an investor summit in Orlando, Disney introduced plans to “speed up and increase funding” in its theme parks, cruise line and different trip experiences — to the tune of $60 billion over the following decade.
“We now have an bold development story that’s supported by a confirmed observe report and a daring imaginative and prescient for the way forward for our Parks enterprise,” Disney Parks, Experiences and Merchandise Chairman Josh D’Amaro mentioned in a press release.
Throughout Wednesday’s first-quarter earnings name, Disney dropped a couple of extra hints on what’s to return for its theme parks throughout the globe, after reporting that all of its parks was worthwhile throughout the first quarter of Disney’s 2024 fiscal yr.
Disney’s new Chief Monetary Officer Hugh Johnston revealed the corporate is earmarking roughly 70% of that $60 billion — or round $42 billion — for “incremental capacity-expanding investments across the globe.”
The corporate is “already exhausting at work figuring out the place we’ll place our new investments and what they are going to be,” Disney CEO Lavatory Iger additional defined. “You possibly can just about conclude that they will be throughout — which means each single certainly one of our places would be the beneficiary of elevated funding and thus elevated capability, together with on the excessive seas, the place we’re at the moment constructing three extra ships,” he continued.
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By way of timing, Iger mentioned, “I am not going to essentially provide you with far more of a way of timing besides that, you already know, we’re exhausting at work at getting this stuff mainly conceived and constructed. We have got a menu of issues that can mainly begin opening in 2025, and there will be a cadence yearly of extra funding and elevated capability.”
Although particulars are scarce, up till a couple of years in the past, Disney was much more tight-lipped about upcoming initiatives in its theme parks. Solely since D’Amaro stepped into the position of chairman of Disney Experiences has Disney given visitors a peek backstage at what it’s dreaming up subsequent.
“I am as a lot of a fan as I’m the chief of Disney Experiences. I get an opportunity to be with the Imagineers each single day and see what they’re engaged on, whether or not it is a mannequin or a sketch or simply somebody discussing an thought. And it is fabulous; if I might spend each waking second there, I might,” D’Amaro informed TPG throughout a panel interview on the grand opening of Hong Kong Disneyland’s World of Frozen. “In my first yr on this position, I mentioned, ‘We needs to be sharing this with the world,'” he added.
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Throughout 2022’s annual D23 Expo fan conference in Anaheim, California, D’Amaro, together with Chris Beatty, senior artistic government at Walt Disney Imagineering, and Jennifer Lee, chief artistic officer of Disney Animation, shared a treasure trove of “blue sky” concepts for the Disney parks.
Throughout a presentation referred to as “A Boundless Future,” Beatty shared idea artwork and concepts that answered the query, “What in case you might journey to the opposite aspect of Huge Thunder Mountain?” The workforce then unveiled idea artwork for lands themed to “Coco,” “Encanto” and Disney villains.
Disney shared extra blue sky ideas throughout 2023’s Vacation spot D23 occasion held at Walt Disney World, this time revealing prospects for a “reimagined” Dinoland U.S.A. at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The proposed land could be set within the “tropical Americas” area of South and Central America, with experiences impressed by “Encanto” and the “Indiana Jones” franchise.
These concepts, which can or could not come to fruition within the iterations Disney shared, acknowledge what Disney is able to, however, extra importantly, they exhibit Disney’s dedication to bringing fan-favorite tales to life in new and thrilling methods.
Disney is already demonstrating this with the current openings of World of Frozen in Hong Kong and Zootopia at Shanghai Disney Resort. With the worldwide recognition of “Frozen” — and the third and fourth installments of the franchise confirmed — we additionally know Disney is not accomplished bringing Anna, Elsa and Olaf to its theme parks simply but.
“Whereas I am not going to offer you any new data at this time, what I’m gonna inform you is that I like “Frozen” within the property … You understand we’ve plenty of area and really excessive ambitions … all I can say is, ‘Keep tuned, there’s much more coming,'” D’Amaro mentioned within the interview at Hong Kong Disneyland.
Along with “Frozen”- and “Zootopia”-themed lands, Disney parks have fairly a couple of initiatives within the works. There is a new “Zootopia” attraction changing “It is Robust to be a Bug!” at Animal Kingdom later this yr, Tiana’s Bayou Journey will open at Disney World and Disneyland someday this yr, and a brand new attraction is being deliberate for Avengers Campus in Disneyland, to call a couple of.
This will likely sound like quite a bit, however Disney has loads of room to develop in its current parks. “We stand alone in terms of scale,” D’Amaro mentioned in 2023’s enlargement announcement. “And whereas our scale is spectacular, we’ve no scarcity of area or areas of the world by which to inform new tales.”
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In reality, Disney has greater than 1,000 acres of land — concerning the measurement of seven Disneyland parks — for potential future improvement to increase capability throughout its current theme parks.
In the event you’ve all the time needed to step into the world of your favourite Disney movie, it’s possible you’ll simply have your likelihood throughout the subsequent few years. “Over the following decade, we’ll have extra initiatives underway than at any level in our historical past,” D’Amaro mentioned. “Our sole goal is to offer you an increasing number of of what you’re keen on a few Disney expertise. After which shock and delight you with belongings you by no means dreamed potential.”
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