
By Gavin Boyle
In an era where longstanding rules of the entertainment industry keep changing, theme parks offer the consistency that companies like Disney and Comcast long for.
“I think that there has never been a better time to be in this business,” said Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. “What we’re seeing here is this idea of convergence, where great stories are coming together with cutting edge technology coming together with physical experiences and immersive experience. That’s what consumers are craving, that’s what they’re looking for.”
As more and more people pursue these experiences, Disney and Comcast — who owns NBCUniversal — are ramping up just how much they offer. Universal, for example, just opened its Epic Universe theme park in Orlando, Florida, which offers themed worlds that visitors can access through portals connected to a central hub. The park cost over $7 billion to create but is expected to pay itself off in only a couple of years.
Meanwhile, both companies will move forward with multiple new projects. Universal has three in the works: akid-focused theme park, a horror-focused theme park and a newly-announced theme park set to open in the U.K. As for Disney, in 2023, the company committed $60 billion to expanding its parks business. Much of that will go towards expanding its current parks, along with plans that include a new theme park in Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island.
“Anytime we have the opportunity to build from the ground up, with as much change in the tech space and as much advantage that the tech space offers us right now, we’re going to go after that full force,” D’Amaro said about the new park. “In doing so, it will give us an opportunity to tell our stories in more immersive ways and more flexible and dynamic ways, in ways that Walt probably dreamed of back in 1955.”
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“Inevitably, given that this is our newest and seventh resort destination, it will be the most tech-forward, and our Imagineers are incredibly excited about that,” D’Amaro added.
At the same time, Disney is also celebrating 70 years of parks with Disneyland reaching that incredible milestone earlier this summer. To celebrate, the company has combined the old with the new to celebrate Walt’s original vision while modernizing it for our current age.
“[Disney] wanted people to ‘leave their daily frets behind,’ as he said…and come experience, you know, the wonder of fantasy and adventure,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told ABC News’ Will Reeve. “He had very specific ideas in mind in terms of how people could enjoy this place. And one of those ideas was to be in a place that didn’t exist in the real world, and by leaving the real world behind, I think it gave people — it liberated people, really, into having experiences like this.”
Seventy years later, theme parks have become a central part of the entertainment industry and currently provide an area for these companies to invest in that seems reliable in an age of uncertainty.
Read Next: Does Disney Still Capture Walt’s Vision 70 Years Later?
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