Disney Playing catch up with Universal... Potter Disney's biggest mistake in 20 years...

mickeysbrother

mickeysbrother

Well-Known Member
ParentsOf4 said:
All theme parks, even WDW, survive on frequent updates to their offerings. Nostalgia carries you only so far.

The problem with today's corporate Disney is that failure to invest properly in WDW has hurt company profitability.

Back in WDW's glory days, Disney used to invest ~25% of Parks & Resorts (P&R) revenue back into the product. As a result of that investment, margins typically were in the 18%-24% range. Disney invested a lot of money and made a lot of money in return.

Last year, Disney's P&R investments were down to 15% while margins were under 16%, lower than at any point during WDW's first 30 years of operation.

P&R used to be money-in-the-bank for Disney. Now, P&R's margins are actually lower than the rest of the company. WDW is dragging the company down.

Meanwhile, last year Universal invested 26% of its Theme Parks segment revenue back into its parks. Their margin was over 31%. Universal Orlando pulled Comcast's earnings up.

The old adage "It takes money to make money" is true.

Disney needs to invest intelligently in WDW in order to see the strong returns it once did, in order to see the strong returns Universal is experiencing today.

Instead, Disney spent more than $7B over the last two years buying back company stock. Besides helping boost the stock price so executives can collect bigger bonuses & exercise their stock options, buying stock that's already trading at a PE ratio of 21 isn't a particularly good idea.

Disney has money available to invest in WDW right now. They simply choose not to because it's not in the best interest of their senior executive management.

Things will change. Disney will invest in WDW once again, sooner rather than later. But the low rate of investment over the last 10 years or so really hurt the profitability of WDW.
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I do see your point. Todays world everything is about cutting cost's and making the most money to inverstors and senior vp's directors ceo's. And its always the small guys that get gyped on salary or the guests not always having the best experience because higher ups want all the money. Disney's stocks are the highest they have ever been. So if your an investor your happy. If your a guest well not always happy, because we know how it used to be.

Hopefully they will start to invest back into the parks while keeping stocks high and make everyone happy.
 
BiffyClyro

BiffyClyro

Well-Known Member
Avatar! That film that no one talks about anymore and when they did talk about it, it was about how good the effects were and not the actual movie.


I can't believe they are waisting their money on that film. No doubt it will look beautiful and be enjoyable, but I can't help feel like they are buying into something that's already had it's day.

And I love Disney, but I don't think they could have made the Harry Potter world as brilliantly as Universal have.
 
N

nor'easter

Well-Known Member
Fast_Eddie said:
What no one is saying here is that disney doesn't need Harry potter at all. Wdw alone had nearly 19mil visit the one park alone. And the rest were all top 5 in attendance. Universal with potter went up 40 percent and the combined total was 15 mil. (8 mil at ioa). Take 40 percent away and universal was a ghost town compaired to disney, and they didn't have to add one attraction. They consistently avg 17mil, without spending a dime at times. So say what you want disney will always be a better draw, and Harry potter will fade fast.
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Yes, just like the American car industry in the '7os. Who would have predicted that their complacency, lack of innovation and cheap product would open the door to Japanese imports? The mighty GM even verged on bankruptcy.

Disney is a more diversified company but it's parks divisions will eventually suffer if they continue in their current direction.
 
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seascape

Well-Known Member
nor'easter said:
Yes, just like the American car industry in the '7os. Who would have predicted that their complacency, lack of innovation and cheap product would open the door to Japanese imports? The mighty GM even verged on bankruptcy.

Disney is a more diversified company but it's parks divisions will eventually suffer if they continue in their current direction.
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The Disney Parks Division is doing great. They are about to open what will become the number 1 theme park in the World in Shanghai. Disney land is doing fine. The only park anyone can complain about from a business standpoint is Paris but the economy stinks there. As for Orlando I am sure everyone here agrees we would have liked to have seen more investment in rides and attractions but as long as the build star wars at DHS, and finish Pandora, River of Lights and the night time safari at AK and of course some improvements at Epcot all will be fine at WDW. Remember though Disney Parks is not just WDW.
 
WildcatDen

WildcatDen

Well-Known Member
dadddio said:
My take on it was that Maverick screwed up by tucking in too tight behind Iceman to try to take the shot, rather than waiting a few more seconds for Iceman to either take it or give up his line.
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No, no, no. If Iceman would have lived up to his 'lofty' reputation, he would have been in the correct position and taken the shot, thus making Maverick's actions unnecessary. I guess, you could say Slider was a bit at fault as well since instead of supporting Iceman and telling Maverick to back off, he pretty much raised tension with his comments.

To see Goose die and then later to see Dr. Mark Green perish, you really have to wonder about Anthony Edwards choice in scripts. At least, as a nerd, he got the girl?
 
PrincessNelly_NJ

PrincessNelly_NJ

Well-Known Member
Cesar R M said:
The Mask? Vampire Chronicles?

There arent many good movies in that year other than Forrest Gump and Lion King.

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls000165033/



How do you call them anyway? are they specific? you have to order them, they run in intervals?
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They have a number you call and reserve your spot. Then, they give you a set time frame to pick you up at the front of your resort, sometimes they stop at other resorts before heading to UNI.
They you call them an hour or two before you are ready to go and they will pick you up for about $20pp.
 
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dadddio

Well-Known Member
nor'easter said:
Didn't say they weren't. GM was also doing great in the 60s.

If they do everything you mentioned, within a reasonable time, fine. Right now WDW, their supposed showcase of the parks division, is stagnant.
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It is unfair to say that they are stagnant. They just built NFL. They are continuing the MM+ rollout. They are building Avatar. Things are happening there. People might disagree on whether they love those things, but it's unfair to ignore that they are doing things.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
dadddio said:
It is unfair to say that they are stagnant. They just built NFL. They are continuing the MM+ rollout. They are building Avatar. Things are happening there. People might disagree on whether they love those things, but it's unfair to ignore that they are doing things.
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If you only love your wife 2 days a week... do you have a right to tell your wife she's wrong when she complains about you ignoring her?

Doing 'something' does not excuse your inadequacies in addressing all your responsibilities.
 
TubaGeek

TubaGeek

God bless the "Ignore" button.
BiffyClyro said:
And I love Disney, but I don't think they could have made the Harry Potter world as brilliantly as Universal have.
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They COULD have. Heck, they COULD have blown it out of the water and prevented this amazing resurgence Universal has seen as a result. However, you're right that they WOULDN'T have. What they are capable of and what they are actually WILLING to do are tragically different.
dadddio said:
It is unfair to say that they are stagnant. They just built NFL. They are continuing the MM+ rollout. They are building Avatar.
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This just brings us back to the timeline of all these projects. From the time that FLE started to the time that Avatar premiers, Uni has done Minions, Springfield, Transformers, Diagon, and probably Kong, Kid Zone, and another major project or two.
One underwhelming expansion and one that is already looking rocky vs a major facelift for half of the resort... There's no competition.
 
DinoInstitute

DinoInstitute

Well-Known Member
TubaGeek said:
They COULD have. Heck, they COULD have blown it out of the water and prevented this amazing resurgence Universal has seen as a result. However, you're right that they WOULDN'T have. What they are capable of and what they are actually WILLING to do are tragically different.

This just brings us back to the timeline of all these projects. From the time that FLE started to the time that Avatar premiers, Uni has done Minions, Springfield, Transformers, Diagon, and probably Kong, Kid Zone, and another major project or two.
One underwhelming expansion and one that is already looking rocky vs a major facelift for half of the resort... There's no competition.
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It is unfair to compare though what Uni is rumored/hoped to do vs what Disney confirmed they were going to do
 
FutureCEO

FutureCEO

Well-Known Member
TubaGeek said:
One underwhelming expansion and one that is already looking rocky vs a major facelift for half of the resort... There's no competition.
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Disney needs a facelift of everything. At least half the parks should be updated or new rides should take their place
 

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