Disney says 50% of planned $60 billion investment will go to theme parks

The $60 billion commitment toward Disney Experiences (formerly Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products) is allocated by percentages:

• 50% ($30 billion): Parks and resorts
• 30% ($18 billion): Tech & maintenance
• 20% ($12 billion): Cruise/other

Disney also said the $60 billion investment (one aspect of its larger goal of “Experiences growth”) will focus on:

• “Accelerating storytelling by utilizing our wealth of intellectual property, untapped stories, and unmatched creativity”
• “Expanding our footprint … we have over 1,000 acres of available development across our six existing resorts in North America, Europe, and Asia”
• “Investing in innovative technology to improve the guest experience”
• “Reaching new fans around the world … for every park guest today, we believe there are >10 consumers with Disney affinity who don’t visit the parks in a given year”

Disney cited recent examples of its IP-driven parks expansion strategy — including World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland and Zootopia at Shanghai Disneyland — but did not specifically identify which franchises the $60 billion will focus upon.

“Experiences Growth”

Disney relayed the numbers to investors as part a presentation publicly accessible through a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The presentation seeks investors’ support as Disney faces a proxy battle ahead of its annual shareholders meeting on April 3, 2024.

Disney’s public vision board comes as inventment management firm Trian Partners nominates businesspeople Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo (the latter of whom, in the 2000s, held the title of Disney Experiences Chairman, which now belongs to Josh D’Amaro) to join Disney’s board of directors.

Instead, Disney is asking investors to vote to retain its own 12 nominees, and have committed multiple canvasing efforts to communicate that. One of those campaigns features voting instructions orated by Professor Ludwig Von Drake using recycled animation of the character’s archival appearances.

Also listed as a goal of “Experiences growth,” but seemingly not included in the $60 billion amount, is Disney’s $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games to build a new online gaming universe.

Disney’s response to Epic Universe should be ‘urgent,’ Trian says

In an alternate presentation earlier this month that reads as a counterargument of sorts, Trian singled out Universal Epic Universe as a threat to Disney’s future. The new theme park, set to open in 2025 at Universal Orlando Resort, “requires a more urgent and targeted response from Disney,” Trian said. The firm’s presentation continued, “Given the new, serious competitive threat Epic Universe presents, Disney needs to fortify its leadership position with new investment.”

Trian also stated that, “prioritizing guest experience improvements is seemingly missing from [Disney’s] parks investment strategy.” The firm claimed Disney’s current actions “negatively impact the guest experience and risk alienating future guests,” as well as “create a burden” for front-line Disney cast members tasked with appeasing guests.

Turbo-tastic

In the March 2024 presentation to investors, Disney referred collectively to its Disney Experiences mindset as “strategically investing in turbocharge growth,” again invoking a word Disney CEO Bob Iger first mentioned last September. At an investor summit, Iger and Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro announced the $60 billion statistic, noting the number was double the division’s usual expenditures, in an effort to “turbocharge” growth.

Just a few months earlier, at 2023’s shareholders meeting, Iger said the company had specifically reserved $17 billion for Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. in the coming 10 years, an investment Disney expects will yield 13,000 new jobs.

DisneylandForward

While not specifically mentioned in Disney’s presentation, it’s worth noting the $1.9 billion multi-year DisneylandForward expansion project in California is still very much in play. On March 11, 2024, the Anaheim City Planning Committee voted to advance the project to the full Anaheim City Council for approval.

In his presentation to the six-commissioner panel, Disneyland President Ken Potrock also listed World of Frozen in Hong Kong and Zootopia in Shanghai as examples of ways DisneylandForward will “continue Walt’s legacy of bringing stories to life in Anaheim.”

Disney’s (and Trian’s) Other Priorities

Disney’s focus on “Experiences growth” is one of four “key priorities” to achieve “strategic transformation,” as laid out in the company’s presentation to investors. The other four priorities are “studio creativity,” “streaming profitability,” and the “future of ESPN.”

Phrased another way elsewhere in the presentation, Disney’s current focuses fall under the three categories of “film and TV studios,” “content distribution,” and “products and experiences,” each of which, the company says, fuels the others in a symbiotic relationship across the conglomerate.

In contrast, Trian’s “initiatives to restore the magic” are to “enhance corporate governance & accountability,” “accelerate media profitability,” conduct a “review of creative engine,” and “clarify strategic focus,” the last of which includes the firm’s Epic Universe comments above.

Looking Ahead with All Eyes on D23

Here’s what’s already announced (and under construction) for Disney Experiences in the coming years:

• Fantasy Springs — featuring attractions based on “Peter Pan,” “Tangled,” and “Frozen” — opening in Tokyo on June 6, 2024
• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure — based on “The Princess and the Frog” — opening in Florida in summer 2024 and in California later in 2024
• Three additional Disney Cruise Line ships, starting with the Disney Treasure setting sail on Dec. 21, 2024
• Kingdom of Arendelle — based on “Frozen” — opening in Paris

While Disney has yet to publicly reveal which stories and characters will be the focal point of the $60 billion investment in its worldwide attractions, March’s presentation listed previous examples as “Star Wars,” “Cars,” “Avengers,” “Frozen,” and “Zootopia,” all of which command their own lands in various Disney theme parks.

On three separate occasions — D23 Expo 2022, Destination D23 2023, and the September 2023 investor summit — D’Amaro teased which stories “could be” built at the parks in the future. Across those three events, D’Amaro named Disney villains, Indiana Jones, “Frozen,” “Zootopia,” “Moana,” “Coco,” “Black Panther,” and “Encanto” as potential sources of inspiration for possible attractions.

D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event (the convention formerly known as D23 Expo) will take place Aug. 9-11, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. Disney traditionally leverages the event as an opportunity to reveal its slate of upcoming projects. With so much Disney corporate communication recently bubbling on the verge of almost-announcements, fans anticipate what D’Amaro and company may unveil come August.

The past several years, theme park priorities seem to align with films that earn high views on streaming platforms. We analyzed this hypothesis in a recent story: