What We Just Learned About Disney’s 2025 Plans
Well, this doesn’t happen often.
For the first time in recent memory, The Walt Disney Company pulled back the curtain and offered a glimpse of its future.
Photo: Disney
Disney executives revealed the company’s projections for 2025, 2026, and 2027, demonstrating a rare amount of confidence in the company’s future.
Here’s everything we just learned about Disney’s plans for 2025 and beyond.
The Growth Phase Occurs Soon
Photo: Disney
In 2023, Disney filed the paperwork to perform theme park expansion.
Those of you reading MickeyBlog are acutely aware of the fact that the parks represent only a small part of Disney’s plans.
Photo: Washington Post
Disney will direct $42 billion toward improving its Experiences division, which includes the theme parks.
However, some of those funds will go toward other ventures such as hotel construction.
Disney
We’re already getting a glimpse of that on the grounds formerly (?) known as Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge.
Disney is currently building a hotel on this site, which may or may not honor the original plans.
Photo: Disney
We don’t know because Disney hasn’t said anything. But we do know that adding more hotel inventory is a key part of the growth.
Friends, Disney isn’t expanding just to please fans. Its primary goal here is to make money.
Photo: Disney
Not coincidentally, our Disney Treasure coverage shows that Disney Cruise Line (DCL) will expand in weeks.
Then, the fleet will add two more ships in calendar 2025, increasing the current total from five to eight.
Photo: skillastics.com
The numbers crunchers are counting down the moments here, as Disney Experiences projects double-digit growth in fiscal 2026 and 2027.
Not coincidentally, that’s a time after the new ships will be sailing around the world, and Reflections will have opened to the public.
So, while you and I focus on new attractions and themed lands, Disney is laser-focused on improving its profit margins.
All the expansions under discussion, including the cruise ships and hotels, circle back to this goal of increasing profits.
Photo: Getty
Disney has always worked this way, with park improvements paying for themselves many times over.
So, when you hear that Disney is spending $60 billion, you should interpret that as Disney paving the road to a more profitable future.
Bob Iger Is Already Taking a Victory Lap
As hard as the statement is to believe, Iger only returned to Disney two years ago on November 20th, 2022.
So, Disney’s recovery during his second tenure is truly remarkable, highlighted by the saving of Disney streaming.
Photo: PepsiCo
Disney has cut its losses by more than half already and now projects to turn a $1 billion profit in fiscal 2025.
Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston opened the books to provide rare insights into the company’s financial strength right now.
Photo: CBR.com
In a way, Iger is taking a victory lap for cleaning up former CEO Bob Chapek’s mess.
However, some cynics have pointed out a second aspect to this story.
Photo: Disney
James Gorman will become Disney’s Chairman of the Board in January, ostensibly making him Iger’s boss.
Relationships and power balances between CEOs and Chairmen of the Board are often challenging to determine.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Still, let’s take everything at surface value for now. Iger has fixed everything, but Gorman will determine Disney’s next CEO.
In a way, Iger’s showing the books through 2027 protects his legacy. He’s telling Wall Street, “See? I got everything set up right!”
Photo: AdWeek
Now, should someone else come up and pull a Chapek, Iger claims plausible deniability.
He showed Wall Street how fiscal 2027 should have played out if he’d been in charge, thereby absolving himself of future criticism.
Photo: History.com
This aspect of Disney’s move toward transparency shouldn’t be overlooked. At its core, it is a bit self-serving, coincidentally or not.
Disney Expects 13 Months of Blockbusters
Photo: Disney CEO Bob Iger (Getty Images)
During his opening remarks for the earnings call, Iger noted that Disney has revitalized its entertainment division.
We shouldn’t sleep on the significance of this achievement, as Disney’s 2023 film year was lackluster at best.
(Charley Gallay / Getty Images for Disney)
For the most recent quarter, Disney Entertainment quadrupled its profit year-over-year, and that’s just the start.
Disney’s SEC filings suggest that profits will increase by another ten percent (or more) in fiscal 2025.
Photo: Disney
The cause for this optimism is obvious. Moana 2 is tracking to be one of the biggest hits of the year, and Mufasa: The Lion King is waiting on deck.
In calendar 2025, Disney will release Captain America: Brave New World, Lilo & Stitch, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Zootopia 2, and Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Photo: Billboard
Even if one or two of those films disappoint, it’s an astoundingly strong lineup on paper, with Avatar: Fire and Ash the early favorite to win the year.
In 2024, Disney got its house in order by giving each of its major titles time to breathe and gain a sustained marketing push.
IMDB
Even less significant films like Alien: Romulus and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes benefited, with those two films earning $750 million.
That’s on top of Disney’s claiming the current number one and number two films of 2024, Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine.
This Inside Out concept art features Shame standing next to Anxiety. Photo: Reddit
By employing the same strategy with an even stronger 2025 schedule, Disney expects even more profits.
Even better, the parks will benefit as the Disney flywheel spins and brings these brands to Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Disney Projects the Parks
Photo: measureupgroup.com
Two years ago, Disney learned the hard way that even when it warns Wall Street about something, it doesn’t matter to anybody.
Once a negative mark appears on a spreadsheet, investors freak out and sell/short Disney stock.
Photo: Bank rate
I suspect that recent memory played a factor in Disney’s decision to provide three years of guidance for the parks.
Even so, Wall Street won’t remember any of it in 11 weeks when Disney announces its fiscal earnings report for the first quarter of 2025.
Photo: National Weather Service
That’s when Disney Experiences will take a hit because of hurricane season, which park officials indicate will cost $130 million.
Also, Disney will pay something called the “pre-launch cost” for the Disney Treasure.
Photo: Disney Parks Blog
You can think of that as the fees you pay to drive your new car off the lot. Disney must do something similar for a $1 billion ship.
DCL has made gradual payments along the way, but the first quarter payment will cover the remaining balance. It’s a lot.
So, Disney Experiences will experience a financial shortfall of sorts due to circumstances entirely beyond Disney’s control.
This is a temporary setback, though. Disney’s numbers, which I wouldn’t describe as overly optimistic, paint a picture of a strong future.
Photo: Disney
And Disney made these projections before Lightning Lane Premier Pass started selling out, something I’ll confess I didn’t expect to happen this soon.
By my calculations, that’s a single-day windfall of $360,000 at Magic Kingdom. You can imagine how quickly that adds up.
Photo: Disney
We’re talking about Premier Pass’s availability in six American theme parks, too.
As such, I expect the projections for Disney Experiences only to improve from here.
Partner’s Statue at Magic Kingdom
Disney’s in stunningly good shape just four years after the pandemic shut down the parks everywhere.
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