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Disney's Parks Power Fuels Profit, Yet Risks Stagnation

Over the past decade, Disney’s Parks & Cruises division has jumped from 18% to 57% of DIS operating profit. The combined TV, Sports and Film Studio operating profit fell from 70% to 25% (32% if include streaming). Parks & Cruises still only ~1/3rd of total $94B revenue (and hit a record operating profit of $10B in 225). That’s why Parks Chief Josh D’Amaro is next Disney CEO, and he’s expected to spend $60B on theme parks and cruise ships over the next decade. Two issues with Parks dominance: ▫️PRICE GOUGING: Disney theme parks just squeezing guests ($1000 for family of 4 to enter for privilege of paying $78 for a hot dog, Dasani water and a Mickey misting fan)…people can skip lines with Genie+, but then Genie+ just becomes table stakes. ▫️IP STAGNATION: Parks & Cruises are in the brand management business. They milk existing IP, don’t create new. Disney is milking its IP portfolio as hard as it can be milked. It’s top films last year was Zootopia 2, Avatar 3 and Lilo & Stich live action. Upcoming releases for 2026 are Toy Story 5, Mandalorian & Grogu, Avengers: Doomsday and Moana live action. On the second point, Disney just announced its remaking the Star Wars section of Disneyland to focus on the original Luke Skywalker trilogy (it spent $1B to build the section around the latest Rey-focussed trilogy and its getting downgraded because already stale and didn’t have cultural impact expected). Film & TV declining as part of business but needs to pull weight with new IP.