Disney released its latest earnings report for the final quarter of 2023. It’s been a rollercoaster of a year, with TONS of big announcements, price increases, and leadership changes across the board.

The Q4 earnings report gave us a look at how the company is doing in terms of general revenue, streaming, and more. We also learned how the Disney Parks have been doing financially, and it looks like Disney Parks are generally doing pretty well, with a couple of exceptions.

Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products revenues for the quarter increased overall by 13% from $7.253 billion in the same quarter last year to $8.16 billion this quarter. The segment operating income (the difference between segment net revenue and the sum of operating expenses and segment revenue) decreased 31% from $1.342 billion in 2022 to $1.759 billion this quarter.

Although Disney saw an increase in revenue at both domestic and international parks, the increase was significantly higher at the international parks. Disney attributes the growth to a few specific factors: An increase in spending at Shanghai Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort due to ticket price increases along with increased attendance at both parks.

The Florida Disney theme parks, by contrast, aren’t seeing the growth that investors were hoping for. In an interview with CNBC, Bob Iger noted that “blips come and go,” and he compared the downturn at the Florida theme parks to the downturn in tourism after the 2001 terrorist attack.

In its earnings report, Disney stated that the lower financial results from the Florida theme parks were due to “accelerated depreciation related to the closure of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser” and “lower guest spending driven by a decrease in average daily hotel room rates.” Without the Star Wars hotel and with more hotel discounts, it seems that Disney World isn’t making as much money as expected.

The Star Wars hotel caused quite a few problems for Disney, beginning with some negative publicity once the pricing was released and was much higher than some guests were anticipating.

Disney executive Josh D’Amaro shared some details about why the Starcruiser failed and how it will affect The Walt Disney Company in an interview earlier this year. He said that the Galactic Starcruise hotel is “a pretty stunning asset.” He said, “It’s essentially a spaceship that guests board, themed out to feel exactly like Star Wars. Our Imagineers did an incredible job pulling this asset together, and our guests gave it very high ratings.” Despite those high ratings, however, D’Amaro said, “It didn’t perform exactly like we wanted it to perform, so we decided that we’re going to sunset this in September.”

Why the Star Wars Hotel Closed in Disney World

Iger was also asked about the $60 billion investment that Disney plans to make in its theme parks. He said, “If you look at our track record, it’s been stellar in terms of invested capital over the past 10 years. The investments have paid for themselves.” He went on to say, “We felt that in looking at the results of the parks, since the returns have been so good, why not invest more.”

Although growth in Florida was lower than expected, Disney noted that they were pleased with results at the Disney Cruise Line, which saw growth due to “increases in passenger cruise days and average ticket prices.”

They also stated that Disney Vacation Club saw an increase in sales with the addition of the new The Villas at Disneyland Hotel in Disneyland.

Disneyland overall saw more growth than Disney World, which Disney attributes to “higher attendance, increased in guest spending primarily due to higher average ticket prices, and higher costs due to inflation.”

We’ll be covering even more details about the Disney Q4 earnings call, so stay tuned to DFB for more!

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