Motley Fool reports lots and lots spent on My Magic+ in 2013

[marni1971]

It has been a source of discussion on these boards for a few years now, so I felt it prudent to report an actual figure not given by someone here.

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...ey-is-investing-32-billion-in-its-future.aspx

 

[danlb_2000]

It has been a source of discussion on these boards for a few years now, so I felt it prudent to report an actual figure not given by someone here.

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...ey-is-investing-32-billion-in-its-future.aspx

I think you are mis-reading that, it says $2.8 billion total capex in 2013.

This table from the article is confusing since it makes it look like these project cost those dollars, but I think it's trying to show what the major capitol expenditure is for each year. Cars Land and FLE didn't cost that much.

Capex Theme Park Project
2011 $3.6 billion Cars Land in California
2012 $3.8 billion New Fantasyland in Florida
2013 $2.8 billion MyMagic+
2014 $3.8 billion (est.) Shanghai Disney

 

[Rteetz]

The article is also from 2014

 

[marni1971]

I think you are mis-reading that, it says $2.8 billion total capex in 2013.

I read it as "theme park project" in 2013 "my magic +“ which would equate to what has been mentioned several times here.

 

[danlb_2000]

I read it as "theme park project" in 2013 "my magic +“ which would equate to what has been mentioned several times here.

Did FLE cost $3.8 billion?

 

[marni1971]

Did FLE cost $3.8 billion?

You'd hope not.

 

[marni1971]

Still won't quench the desperate thirst from the conspiracy crowd that lurks on this forum.

Considering we've been told over two to nearly four billion it's hardly conspiracy.

 

[danlb_2000]

Just checked, the numbers in that table are the Capex for the entire company for each year.

 

[Sonconato]

$2.8 billion and every week I still can't get into the park. When it doesn't work, the cast members often times mumble "bio" to each other. Since they have a term for it, I'm obviously not the only one.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

"$2.1 billion went to its domestic and international theme parks and resorts". That is the total capital expenditure, for all its parks and resorts, worldwide. MM+ is named as the flagship expenditure. How much was spend, and over which years Disney spread out its costs remains unsaid.

Interesting to me is that Shanghai barely makes a spike. It doesn't look like the big moloch that dragged down the entire division. Every year has a spike of a few billion. Maybe 2015 or 2016 will be higher.

 

[marni1971]

Bowing to @danlb_2000 's superior decimation of the figures I've just altered the thread title. Before I'm accusing of being a sensationalist. Or sneaky. Or an idiot...

 

[danlb_2000]

"$2.1 billion went to its domestic and international theme parks and resorts". That is the total capital expenditure, for all its parks and resorts, worldwide. MM+ is named as the flagship expenditure. How much was spend, and over which years Disney spread out its costs remains unsaid.

Interesting to me is that Shanghai barely makes a spike. It doesn't look like the big moloch that dragged down the entire division. Every year has a spike of a few billion. Maybe 2015 or 2016 will be higher.

The Shanghai cost was spread out over a lot of years. It tool 5 years to build, and some of those expenditures would have happened in the years before construction started. I am also not clear what percentage of the cost came from Disney and how much from their Chinese partner.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

The Shanghai cost was spread out over a lot of years. It tool 5 years to build, and some of those expenditures would have happened in the years before construction started. I am also not clear what percentage of the cost came from Disney and how much from their Chinese partner.

I believe that magic number is 43 and 57 percent. Which then begs the next question, what are costs of the resort, and what are general, mostly infrastructural costs? One needs highways, train and metro stations, electricity, waste disposal.

 

[danlb_2000]

"$2.1 billion went to its domestic and international theme parks and resorts". That is the total capital expenditure, for all its parks and resorts, worldwide. MM+ is named as the flagship expenditure. How much was spend, and over which years Disney spread out its costs remains unsaid.

Interesting to me is that Shanghai barely makes a spike. It doesn't look like the big moloch that dragged down the entire division. Every year has a spike of a few billion. Maybe 2015 or 2016 will be higher.

The lack of spikes in the expenditures would indicate that if Shanghai was over budget, then the extra was coming from cuts in others areas as rumored.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

MM+ is a winner for Disney. We may not like it...but Disney sure does. They may have gone over budget but the long term benefits made this a no brainer. It also cut costs for things we don't even think about....like no more paper tickets (i.e. the old FP system, eventually no more plastic room keys, on and on - things we don't really give a second thought to - but just the paper costs to print out the old FP and the system upkeep of those kiosks was substantial)...now start throwing in the Data Mining and Marketing aspect to it.......and what it will evolve into.

 

[WondersOfLife]

MM+ was the best thing ever during my senior trip to Disney July 22-25... The benefits gained from it, from FP+, to dining reservations, to wait times, to not having to walk to the attraction entrance for performance times, to letting us know which attractions were shut down due to refurb/storms...... It is the best convenience WDW has ever gotten!

 

[ParentsOf4]

Please keep in mind that capex can be lumped into two broad categories, maintenance and investment (or growth).

Disney replacing an existing bus can be thought of as maintenance capex. Disney adding a bus to increase the size of its fleet can be thought of as growth capex.

Without detailed disclosures, a good rule-of-thumb is to estimate maintenance capex as equal to depreciation. Amounts spent above that are for growth.

Below is the amount that Disney has spent on domestic Parks & Resorts capex since Iger's first year as CEO, less depreciation.

The 2 big years are when Disney took delivery of their latest cruise ships, which each cost over $900M.

Most capex projects are spread out over several years. In addition to capex, Disney spent a lot on "selling, general, administrative & other" (SG&A) for MyMagic+, which won't appear in this chart.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Please keep in mind that capex can be lumped into two broad categories, maintenance and investment (or growth).

Disney replacing an existing bus can be thought of as maintenance capex. Disney adding a bus to increase the size of its fleet can be thought of as growth capex.

Without detailed disclosures, a good rule-of-thumb is to estimate maintenance capex as equal to depreciation. Amounts spent above that are for growth.

Below is the amount that Disney has spent on domestic Parks & Resorts capex since Iger's first year as CEO, less depreciation.

View attachment 154132

The 2 big years are when Disney took delivery of their latest cruise ships, which each cost over $900M.

Most capex projects are spread out over several years. In addition to capex, Disney spent a lot on "selling, general, administrative & other" (SG&A) for MyMagic+, which won't appear in this chart.

That chart would indicate Shanghai had a pricetag of like, two early MK entrance tickets.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Still won't quench the desperate thirst from the conspiracy crowd that lurks on this forum.

Its not a conspiracy. Upgrading every hotel room door, every Point of Sale, every attraction, and installing WiFi through the entire resort simply isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination. The simple hardware costs are mind boggling when you look at the scope, before you get into the software & code side of things.

 

[breakin2]

MM+ was the best thing ever during my senior trip to Disney July 22-25... The benefits gained from it, from FP+, to dining reservations, to wait times, to not having to walk to the attraction entrance for performance times, to letting us know which attractions were shut down due to refurb/storms...... It is the best convenience WDW has ever gotten!

Do you think the Magic Bands are free for Disney to make? I doubt they're saving much on making hotel keys when every guest is given a band that has to cost a lot more. Plus, they're mailed out to everyone - another cost. It's actually quite wasteful. My family of 4 now has about 30 bands or so.