Do the Theme Parks Make Money?

[Conan the Librarian]

According to Reference USA, a business database that I use, the last reported annual sales from Walt Disney Co. was $34,285,000,000. That's $34 Billion. That's a lot of rides on the Jungle Cruise I can tell you.

But, that does cover: ABC, ESPN, the theme parks, movies, radio, and other various and sundry ventures.

What that breaks down into profit, I couldn't find, but, I'll keep nosing around.


AH! Here is the real inside stuff.

http://corporate.disney.go.com/investors/annual_reports/2007/index.html

Should answer all questions.

 

[lindakmonty]

sorry, all I ready was that your bf doesn't think Disney parks make money and had to laugh I agree with you and my first thought was, has he been there, and bought a coke...or anything? oh yes, they make a TON of $$$ or they wouldn't be in business

 

[Shir Kahn]

sorry, all I ready was that your bf doesn't think Disney parks make money and had to laugh I agree with you and my first thought was, has he been there, and bought a coke...or anything? oh yes, they make a TON of $$$ or they wouldn't be in business

Yeah, I'm still chuckling from reading this about a half an hour ago!

 

[elemusing]

"Disney makes a poopton of money every day."




I love the term poopton.

 

[merryweather20]

Based on their financials Income (Revenue less expenses in millions)
Media (including ABC & ESPN) 4,285
Parks & Resorts 1,710
Studio Entertainment 1,201
Consumer Products 631
--------
7,827

So income from studio movies (including non "disney" brand movies) is much smaller than what they rake in from the actual parks and resorts. Income from mostly "Disney" consumer products is much much smaller than that earned by the parks.

Media does include the Family channel but it also includes lots of BIG non-Disney brands, ESPN, ABC, Soap networks etc. so Disney parks don't really work to advertise them (Dancing with the stars, Football coverage etc.)

I'm pretty sure they didn't put together a loss leader with 1.7billion of net income.

 

[nicknamy1996]

Pretty easy to figure out really.

On the average day, there are 45,000 paying guests in the Magic Kingdom. The average guest to WDW had a 5 day pass, costing about $300. That averages out to $60 per guest, per admission. That alone, is $2.7 million dollars.

How much do you think each person is spending a day on food? If you want to figure low, you'd have to say $25 per person. That's an additional $1 million.

Souveniers and those that DO spend more than $25 a day on food - Forget it. If the Magic Kingdom made anything less than $5 million a day, I'd be shocked.

Think about how small their payroll is in comparison to that. How many people work in the Magic Kingdom at one time? 1,000? Maybe 2,000. Let's say it's 2,000. 2,000 employees times, what, $10 an hour, tops, equals $20,000 per hour. If they had that many employees in the park for 24 hours, payroll would be $480,000. Let's say Wishes costs $20,000 per night. That's $500,000. That still leaves $4.5 million left over.

Granted, all these numbers are made up and VERY rough guesses, but I think you see the point.

I would love to see the breakdown for one day at MK. That would be interesting. You'd need to factor in benefits for the employees, I'm sure insurance is a huge cost (or do they self insure) either way, it's a huge number. Then you have the cost of food, the cost of merchandise, the cost of operating supplies (trash bags, toilet paper, etc...), the cost to clean the parks every night, the cost of maintaining the rides, the capitol expense of rides themselves. And I'm missing a ton of expenses including utilities, fireworks, costumes/wardrobe! Then there's all of the cost you'd need to factor in to getting the people to MK (w/ no income generation) like the monorail, buses, etc... Plus there's the cost of advertising and IF the hotels are operating at a loss to get people in to the park, you'd need to factor that in too. I'm guessing the hotels have to be at a decent capacity to turn a profit w/ the decent prices (value resorts that is) and the number of employees there. Not many hotels could turn a profit at 70 per night with 3 pools, staffing like WDW, and all of the other perks.



BTW Anyone know how many people work at the MK every day? I've heard that WDW (not Disney, but WDW) employs more than 50,000 people, but I'm wondering how many CMs at MK at any given time. Between cleaning, maintenance, admission, guest services, security, entertainers, food service workers, ride operators, managers, retail workers, back of house workers, photographers, etc, etc, etc... the number has to be huge.

 

[Mouseaholic!!!]

I would love to see the breakdown for one day at MK. That would be interesting. You'd need to factor in benefits for the employees, I'm sure insurance is a huge cost (or do they self insure) either way, it's a huge number. Then you have the cost of food, the cost of merchandise, the cost of operating supplies (trash bags, toilet paper, etc...), the cost to clean the parks every night, the cost of maintaining the rides, the capitol expense of rides themselves. And I'm missing a ton of expenses including utilities, fireworks, costumes/wardrobe! Then there's all of the cost you'd need to factor in to getting the people to MK (w/ no income generation) like the monorail, buses, etc... Plus there's the cost of advertising and IF the hotels are operating at a loss to get people in to the park, you'd need to factor that in too. I'm guessing the hotels have to be at a decent capacity to turn a profit w/ the decent prices (value resorts that is) and the number of employees there. Not many hotels could turn a profit at 70 per night with 3 pools, staffing like WDW, and all of the other perks.



BTW Anyone know how many people work at the MK every day? I've heard that WDW (not Disney, but WDW) employs more than 50,000 people, but I'm wondering how many CMs at MK at any given time. Between cleaning, maintenance, admission, guest services, security, entertainers, food service workers, ride operators, managers, retail workers, back of house workers, photographers, etc, etc, etc... the number has to be huge.

I believe you are right with the 50,000.....at least a few years ago. Now that Disney has discovered the advantages of contract labor.....I believe the WDW employee numbers are lower but overall the body count is nearly the same.

Now that number is for EVERYTHING - the castmembers on stage helping us, the human resources personnel, the fireworks launchers, the grass cutters, the poor guy who has to dive the the Splash Mountain water each night to pickup all the hats and glasses that fall off the ride, the vets who care for the animals at AK.....and the "pooper pickers" who cleanup the on-stage areas for the animals, Holiday Services who spend ALL YEAR making Christmas Decorations (long waiting list for those jobs I understand), Reedy Creek fire department (another long waiting list for these jobs), the nice lady who paints the carrosel horses.

When you think about everything that happens behind the scenes to make our on-stage experience magical.....it takes a MIGHTY big village!

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

But there are 4 parks.

$549/4 = $137.25 million per park for the quarter (not that all parks are equal of course)
$137.25/90 = $1.525 million per park per day (90 days in the quarter)

So each parks rakes in about $1.5 million of profit per day

The profits noted are for the Theme Park Division of the company, not just Disney World. There are a lot more than 4 parks...

Florida:
Magic Kingdom
Epcot
Hollywood Studios
Animal Kingdom Park
Typhoon Lagoon
Blizzard Beach

California:
Disneyland
California Adventure

Hong Kong:
Disneyland

Paris:
Disneyland

Tokyo:
Disneyland
DisneySea

 

[TaylorsDad]

So much for the theory that Disney had to change the Dining Plan because they were losing too much money. One would think the profits from all their parks would have easily made up for a slight loss in Dining.
But actually, I am glad to hear they are doing well. That way my vacation plans will be secure for a long time.

 

[doconeill]

The parks are indeed an advertisement - of the most successful type. Disney has figured out how to charge people thousands of dollars to see an advertisement, over and over again...and we do it!



The parks have become a "tentpole" business - a division of the company that pulls in enough profit that allow other divisions to be less/not profitable for a time while they are being incubated/adjusted, riding out downturns or eventually being shut down.

 

[danny1649]

Is better suited on this board Danny