Is Disney’s Three-Pronged Strategy Working?

On September 19^th, 2023, The Walt Disney Company made a promise to its investors and loyal fans.

The publicly traded company put in writing its intention to spend $60 billion to improve the Disney Experiences division.

You and I call this division by another name. It’s Disney’s theme park empire, the one we love.

Once Disney legally committed to this endeavor, it began a three-pronged strategy to dominate the industry.

Now that we’re about a year and a half down the line, it’s time to check Disney’s progress.

Today, we’re re-evaluating Disney’s three-pronged strategy for theme park supremacy.

I. Go Big to Expand Empire

Part of what I’m doing here is looking back at my own writing from September 2023. Here’s the article in question.

At the time, I laid out the blueprint for Disney’s next decade of theme park expansion, pointing out the company’s goals.

Depending on your perspective, one of them has already been rendered irrelevant, or Disney already succeeded in that goal.

I tend toward the latter, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Disney’s first part of its three-pronged strategy centers on expanding its empire. That’s the straightforward part here.

Disney officials know that every dollar invested in the parks is sure to provide a sizable return.

In execution, Disney will get tens of dollars back for every one spent, but the process will be gradual over countless years.

With each investment, Disney’s expansion projects must reach a breakeven point.

Once that happens, all future revenue is pure profit. That’s the backbone of Disney’s business.

As an example, Disney’s first feature-length animated film was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Soon, the company will monetize that brand again with the live-action remake due in a matter of weeks.

Similarly, Magic Kingdom quickly paid off its investment in Space Mountain. For decades now, the attraction has been pure profit.

So, Disney aspires to add as much as possible, knowing full well that there’s more than enough demand to justify all of it.

How Has Disney Done So Far?

As I referenced in 2023, Disney Cruise Line will benefit from this expansion.

At the time, I stated: “(Disney) will start with the Disney Treasure in 2024, followed by the Disney Adventure (formerly the Global Dream) in 2025, and a Disney Wish clone in 2026.

“With Disney Cruise Line exploding in popularity, the possibility remains that it’ll build more ships as well.”

If anything, I undersold Disney’s ambition. As we later learned, Disney Cruise Line will have a fleet of 13 ships by 2031.

There were only five vessels when I wrote that article. That statement alone drives home the point about this expansion.

We’re talking about 260 percent more ships in an eight-year period. It’s a dramatic example of scaling upward.

Of course, for theme park fans, that’s only a side issue. The big story is actual theme park expansion.

Eleven months after I wrote that article, the 2024 D23 Expo laid out Disney’s grand ambitions at its parks.

The company announced tons of new expansions. As executives later explained, every Disney-owned theme park will benefit.

This isn’t a single expansion project at a theme park. It’s a sweeping global initiative that will improve every park.

We’re still in the early stages of this expansion, as some soon-to-be-defunct attractions remain open.

Disney has informed us which ones must die so that new stuff can live, but only a few experiences have officially closed.

Thus, we cannot say with certainty that Disney will successfully expand its empire, but the early results appear quite promising.

II. Establish Dominance over the Competition

Here’s where the conversation grows quite a bit more arcane, argumentative, and inconclusive.

One of Disney’s clear-cut goals with its expansion plans involves keeping Universal Studios in check.

Currently, Disney holds a seemingly insurmountable lead in the theme park industry, no matter what anyone tries to tell you.

In terms of market share supremacy, Disney is a de facto monopoly.

As proof, Disney theme parks hosted an estimated 142.1 million guests in 2023.

The second and third most successful companies in the industry combined for 147.8 million guests. That’s absolute dominance.

Notably, neither of those other two companies was Universal Studios, which finished fourth with 60.8 million.

Comcast, Universal’s corporate owner, hopes and expects to change that with the arrival of Universal Epic Universe.

In fact, I can go ahead and predict a future headline in 2026.

Universal should enter the top three thanks to the new park.

And let’s just say that Disney has noticed. The company takes tremendous pride in its home-field advantage in Florida.

Disney should feel good about its presence in the Sunshine State as well.

After all, tourism fundamentally changed in Florida once Disney arrived. Before then, the central appeal was the beaches.

Walt Disney World elevated the middle part of the state into a tourism mecca.

Florida hosted 140 million vacationers in 2023, and while we’re awaiting the final numbers, it was pacing for 145 million in 2024.

Critics don’t like to admit it, but that’s because of Disney. In fact, Universal Studios wouldn’t even be in Orlando if not for Disney.

The thought of a new park stealing Disney’s thunder is wholly unacceptable.

So, we should never ignore this truth. Part of the reason for massive expansion is to assert Disney’s dominance.

Has Disney Done That?

No. But how could Disney do that already?

Epic Universe hasn’t even opened yet. The threat remains entirely theoretical at this point.

Also, we shouldn’t overlook the obvious. There are already Universal theme parks in Hollywood and Japan.

They reside relatively close to Disney – Universal Studios Japan in Osaka is about 325 miles from Tokyo Disney – yet have little impact.

Even if we cede that Epic Universe should be different, and I’m perfectly agreeable to that, it’s still a bug on Disney’s windshield.

For whatever reason, that’s not a popular thing to say, but that’s what the financials suggest.

Disney isn’t expanding due to any tangible financial setback. If anything, park officials have sounded almost overconfident.

But Disney doesn’t like the perception of a threat to its theme park empire.

Part of the reason Disney will expand three parks at Walt Disney World is to remind people that the company is always plussing.

We’re far too early in the Theme Park War to know whether Disney’s re-assertion of its dominance works or if Epic Universe changes the calculus.

III. Pressure the Local Government

Finally, we have the one that resolved itself peacefully, and we’re all thrilled about the dismissal of arms.

Disney wanted to pressure the local government after a recent political dispute.

The goal was to secure the future of Walt Disney World development.

When I wrote the original article, Disney CEO Bob Iger had just done something purposeful.

He had started using precise legal terms in listing the damages he felt Disney had suffered due to the Florida Feud.

Nobody wants to relitigate that nonsense, but Florida’s governor took control of Reedy Creek as punishment to Disney.

The matter went to court, and most legal experts felt confident in Disney’s side of the dispute. Here’s Legal Eagle’s evaluation:

However, Florida won the first battle when a judge surprisingly ruled in favor of the Central Florida Tourist District on a matter.

Disney immediately appealed the decision, with many analysts noting that the CFTOD had shamelessly gone judge-shopping.

Since the dispute included multiple lawsuits and countersuits, it appeared likely to take years circling the court system.

Then, the matter unexpectedly resolved itself the day before a CFTOD official was about to testify during discovery.

Read into that what you will, but Disney wound up getting basically everything it wanted.

While the company no longer holds control of the renamed Reedy Creek Improvement District, the person in charge of the CFTOD is a former Disney lobbyist.

Walt Disney World gained a 15-year development agreement that protects its right to build a fifth theme park.

Mission Accomplished?

So, depending on your perspective, you could argue that Disney already accomplished one of its three goals.

One of the three prongs targeted the local Florida government, hoping to apply enough legal pressure to give Disney what it wanted.

Coincidentally or not, that’s exactly what happened. For those who believe it’s coincidence, the matter has been rendered moot.

To the rest of the observers in this dispute, Disney emerged victorious by getting that new development plan.

Realistically, the individual perceptions don’t matter, though. All that does is that Disney has the legal wherewithal to expand.

Ergo, the company has already achieved one of its three target goals, possibly by accident.

The explanation for how/why really doesn’t matter in the greater scheme.

Now, Walt Disney World can expand, and we’re already witnessing that at the former DinoLand USA.

Construction is already underway on the future site of the Tropical Americas.

Soon, Monstropolis at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the Cars section of Frontierland at Magic Kingdom will follow.

So, we’ll circle back during the latter half of 2026 to determine how well Disney is doing with its other two currently incomplete goals.

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