It's All About the IP

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 It's All About the IP

One fun experience I had in the college program was being able to watch a cast member only livestream of Disney's D23 Parks and Resorts panel last month. Disney posted a summary of some of the big announcements on their website. Here in Orlando at the Magic Kingdom, the expansions include two new themed lands at the Magic Kingdom, Cars and Villains (1). Over at Animal Kingdom, there will be a new Tropical Americas land with an Indiana Jones ride and an attraction based on the movie Encanto. Hollywood Studios will get a new land based on Monsters Inc. 

At Disneyland in California, Avengers and Avatar will be the theme of two new attractions. Over in Paris, a new Lion King area will be built. In Shanghai and Hong Kong, new Spider-Man attractions will be built (2). All of these investments are part of the $60 billion dollars Disney plans to spend over the next 10 years on theme park and cruise line expansion (3).

While some of this investment is certainly to keep the parks fresh and bring repeat guests back to the parks, some of it is a competitive response to neighbor Universal opening Epic Universe in 2025 (4). Only 10 miles away, Epic Universe is an entire new "gate" which will feature intellectual property (IP) giants like Harry Potter, How to Train your Dragon, and Super Mario (Nintendo). I have some family members who work at Universal theme parks, and they say it is also a great company to work for. In fact, one of them split part time roles between Universal and Disney before deciding to work full-time for Universal. She is part of the ramp-up team that is getting Epic Universe ready for opening.

So it's not at all surprising that Disney is making a big investment in its most-popular IP including Cars, Encanto, Monster's Inc, and Marvel. It is hoping to maintain its lead over Universal as the premier theme park destination in the entire world. It will be really interesting to see the attendance numbers by the end of 2025. I suspect Disney will retain its top spot, but the margin will shrink significantly.

Topic: Leveraging Intellectual Property, Quickly-Evolving Media Landscape

References

(1) https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-experiences-unprecedented-expansions-parks-resorts-d23/

(2) https://www.travelandleisure.com/disneys-d23-park-announcements-villians-coco-avengers-8693799

(3) https://www.wsj.com/business/media/disney-to-invest-60-billion-in-theme-parks-cruises-over-next-decade-6fc87426?st=yXym1f&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink 

(4) https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/universal-disney-theme-park-dominance-a71ba4c6?st=ds25gW&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink 




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