Could Disney Go Regional?

A while ago, I openly wondered whether The Walt Disney Company might follow Comcast’s lead.

If you didn’t know, Comcast is the corporate owner of Universal Studios.

Since it’s Comcast, money drives all their theme park decision-making, but that’s not all bad.

Comcast has had a good idea to expand the Universal Studios brand into other markets.

We’re getting smaller versions of Universal Studios at four new locations, with more possible.

The public’s excitement for these expansions raises a logical question. Could Disney go regional?

The Comcast Playbook

When Comcast acquired NBCUniversal in 2011, the accountants quickly took note.

They identified theme parks as a “high-margin business,” the three most desirable words for corporations.

Not coincidentally, Comcast purchased the entirety of NBCUniversal two years later in 2013.

Since then, Comcast has committed to theme park expansion to a legitimately impressive degree.

Three different theme parks have added a Super Nintendo World, with a fourth opening in Singapore in ~2028.

Of course, Super Nintendo World also represents a significant portion of Universal Epic Universe.

That’s the most telling demonstration to date of Comcast’s commitment to theme park expansion.

Depending on who you believe, Epic Universe cost as much as $7 billion to build.

Remarkably, Comcast isn’t stopping there, either, as construction is already underway elsewhere.

Universal Studios will create a family-friendly (read: inexpensive) theme park in Frisco, Texas.

The theme park will also expand with a new full-sized theme park near London, England.

Those are the “true” theme park expansions, but two other locations factor into the conversation.

Universal may have opened Horror Unleashed at AREA15 in Las Vegas, Nevada, by the time you read this.

This permanent installation provides a year-round version of Halloween Horror Nights, the beloved after-hours event.

Even before Horror Unleashed had completed construction, Universal had already announced its twin.

Chicago will also add a version of Horror Unleashed in the historic Chicago Tribune building in 2027.

So, we’re discussing four versions of theme park expansion that Comcast has committed to doing.

And that raises the logical question. Could Disney go regional as well?

The new Comcast playbook calls for a kind of Six Flags-esque strategy to blanket the world with Universal Studios.

Thus far in its history, Disney has largely avoided that…with one glaring exception.

Remember DisneyQuest?

In 2017, Disney closed its Disney Springs arcade and, in the process, ended an odd bit of theme park history.

The company had launched DisneyQuest to much fanfare in 1998, with the Orlando arcade allegedly heralding the future.

Disney fully intended to expand its presence to several large regional markets beyond Central Florida and Southern California.

Alas, those plans didn’t work as intended. At all. Disney had expected to make several.

In a span of a few years, the company announced DisneyQuest locations in Chicago and Philadelphia.

How well did the project go? Well, Philadelphia’s DisneyQuest never even opened.

That wasn’t even the worst part, as Disney canceled it mid-build, leaving a literal hole there.

There’s now a parking lot in Philadelphia where a Disney experience had been planned.

As far as misfires go, that’s a biggie. And Chicago didn’t go much better, surviving only 27 months.

 Only the Disney Springs version of DisneyQuest lasted for a significant amount of time, closing after 19 years.

By that point, virtually nobody was visiting, which is probably why I loved it so much.

Guests could accomplish a LOT in a few hours at DisneyQuest during those final few years.

But what’s good for tourists is terrible for Disney’s business model. DisneyQuest was a financial loser.

It wasn’t the only one, either, as something similar happened with ESPN Zone, which should have been a bigger deal.

On the day Michael Eisner confirmed the ABC/Capital Cities acquisition, he listed potential projects.

One of them was a restaurant and sports bar franchise based on ESPN.

While the then-CEO had grand ambitions, the idea proved popular with only a few diehards…like me.

I’m apparently the outlier on both of these businesses, as I was still eating at ESPN Club on Disney’s BoardWalk at the end.

Could Disney Go Regional?

Whenever we discuss the history of DisneyQuest and ESPN Zone, there’s an undertone of failure.

That’s unlike Disney, especially in the hospitality industry. Disney dominates these sorts of businesses.

Look no further than what Disney has accomplished on Broadway or on the music charts.

MickeyBlog just ran a story about how one out of every five toy merchandise sales goes to Disney.

So, adding regional Disney experiences SHOULD have been a grand slam.

Instead, it was more like an Atlanta Braves hitter in 2025: impotent and apathetic.

Meanwhile, Disney has expanded in a way that Comcast has mimicked. I’m referencing international theme parks.

Technically, the idea belongs to the Oriental Land Company, which literally offered Disney a deal it couldn’t refuse.

Disney executives legitimately tried to say no, but the OLC just kept coming.

Since then, Disney has added two more parks in Asia and another in Europe.

Now, we’re getting Disneyland Abu Dhabi as well, and that’s the fascinating wrinkle in this discussion.

With Disney already planning another theme park, it could easily duplicate some of the ideas elsewhere.

Do I expect that to happen? Absolutely not. Miral is paying Disney a LOT of money.

That funding comes with implied exclusivity, although you never know for sure about these things.

The current hot rumor is that Disneyland Abu Dhabi will include Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

So, if they’re copying from others, maybe they’d be okay with Disney doing the same.

Why I Think Not

Then, we have the elephant in the room, which is that Disney only claims a ten percent reach.

That’s a relatively new stat indicating that there is ten times as much demand as Disney can satisfy.

Thus, the idea of expansion makes sense…just not in America. The folks in the continental United States are a short flight from Disney.

That’s the same logic CEO Bob Iger applied when agreeing to Disneyland Abu Dhabi.

The new park will be a four-hour flight for billions of people. Americans already have that.

So, if Disney does go local, I expect it to happen in other parts of the world.

A Disney mini-theme park dilutes the brand too much, although Iger must feel some temptation.

Given what we witnessed during the Amazon headquarters bidding, Disney could get anything it wants for a new theme park.

Any American state would give up everything for Disney, which at least keeps the possibility alive.

Still, Disney would make a ton more revenue using the same dollars to build at international parks.

There’s a real chance they could get a Disneyland Abu Dhabi-esque deal elsewhere, too.

And that’s the real difference between Disney and Universal Studios right there.

Nobody’s paying Universal to license its theme parks as they don’t have that sort of status.

So, Comcast deserves credit for monetizing Halloween Horror Nights this way (twice).

But I doubt Disney follows suit due to the difference in the two companies’ industry reputations.

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Feature Photo: Disney