Bob Iger Thinks Disney Has Already Done Enough to Compete with Universal’s Epic Universe
So, we just listened to a pretty lackluster shareholders meeting from Disney. During these meetings, we usually will get some decently big announcements, like opening dates, future plans for the theme parks, movie news, and more.
Photo: Disney
However, we basically got none of that today. There was another sneak peek at Inside Out 2 (with no new information), one photo of concept art for Moana 2, and concept art of *possible* plans for an Avatar area in Disneyland.
Photo: Disney
It’s safe to say we were all a little disappointed during the initial presentation portion of the call. Then, we got our hopes up again for the question and answer portion, but alas, still no real news or info.
Photo: Disney
However, Disney CEO Bob Iger did make some interesting comments about Universal’s upcoming Orlando theme park, Epic Universe. Let’s talk about it.
Bob Iger on Universal’s Epic Universe
In case you missed it, Universal is currently building a brand new theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe, which is scheduled to open next year. We’ve seen some big plans from them, like the 5 different lands themed after some of their very popular properties (How to Train Your Dragon, Harry Potter, Nintendo) along with details of their upcoming attractions.
Photo: Universal
Disney and Universal are very obvious rivals when it comes to the entertainment game, and that includes theme parks. Their respective resorts are basically just down the road from each other in Orlando.
Photo: Disney/Universal
So, with Universal opening an entire new park, people started to wonder what Disney had in store to stay competitive with them. Some may argue that Disney is already ahead of Universal and doesn’t need to worry about it, and it sounds like that’s what Bob Iger thinks, too.
Photo: Universal
Iger was asked about Epic Universe during the shareholders meeting today, with the question being, “With Epic Universe opening up in 2025, why hasn’t Disney prepared anything or placed more than just a handful of attractions in the pipeline to be ready in 2025 at Walt Disney World?”
Photo: Universal
Iger’s response was definitely a perspective most fans probably aren’t considering. He said, “That couldn’t be further from the truth. We’ve been aware of Universal’s plans for a new park for more than a decade, and we have a sophisticated approach to analyzing the needs of all of our businesses and strategically deploying capital.”
He then went on to list a bunch of things they’ve opened at Disney World during the past decade. “We opened Pandora – The World of Avatar at Animal Kindgom (opened in 2017), Toy Story Land (2018), Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (2019), and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (2020) at Hollywood Studios.”
Galaxy’s Edge
Hmm. Okay, so Iger is claiming that because they’ve known about Universal’s plans for a new park for over a decade, they have countered by planning their own new attractions that are now already open. I am totally speculating here, but I would think that Disney would have already been planning some of these things before they knew about Universal’s plans, even just from a logistical standpoint.
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
“We also completed a multi-year, multi-billion transformation of EPCOT which included adding Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure (2021), Journey of Water — Inspired by Moana (2023), and the great attraction Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (2022). And we opened TRON Lightcycle / Run at Magic Kingdom (2023),” Iger said.
This is the part where I need to remind everyone that Disney’s initial announced plans for the EPCOT Transformation has not been seen through in its entirety. Several attractions and buildings were put on pause, completely canned, or never mentioned again.
Photo: Disney || Play Pavilion Concept Art
I’d also like to remind you that it took Disney over 5 YEARS to build and open TRON, which is almost an exact copy of the one already in Shanghai Disneyland. Universal will have completed a completely new, huge theme park in about the same amount of time.
And I know, there was a pandemic, and that delayed a lot of plans, but Universal was dealing with that very same pandemic, too.
Iger went on to say, “By staggering these major launches, we have been able to commercially and operationally optimize our new offerings over time rather than having to do it all at once.”
This honestly could be interpreted as Disney saying they aren’t planing on creating a 5th theme park right now because these other new things they’ve been adding are enough to stay competitive. Interesting.
Magic Kingdom
It’s also important to note that in the same timeframe of a decade that Iger is referring to, Universal has also added a lot of new things to their resort — The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Diagon Alley (opened in 2014), their third official park, Volcano Bay (2017), Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (2019), VelociCoaster (2021), and Minion Land (2023), just to name a handful.
Iger also mentioned their recent agreement with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which he said will “actually enable us to pursue the kinds of investment in our Florida parks that you’re talking about. We achieved a win-win result with that deal in terms of our ability to pursue future development opportunities…So as we’ve discussed regarding our $60 billion capital expenditure plans, there’s much more coming to our parks around the world — including Florida.”
Okay, like WHAT, Bob?! It’s hard for fans like us to see your side of this when you’re not telling us anything! What are these billion dollar plans you speak of?!
No one is trying to downplay Disney’s accomplishments in Florida. They have opened some amazing attractions and lands over the past 10 years. However, I completely understand how fans of the parks are perceiving this situation.
People are looking ahead, they’re not looking at Universal opening a brand new park and thinking “well, Disney did open Galaxy’s Edge back in 2019.” Whether it’s fair or not, we have already experienced these things at Disney World, they are kind of old news.
Photo: Universal
We have not experienced an entirely new theme park. So yes, that obviously seems like a bigger accomplishment when you compare the two moving forward — especially when Disney has given us little to no concrete plans about what they’re doing next.
Stay tuned for more Disney news and updates.
