Disney CEO Bob Iger “We could actually build seven new full lands if we wanted to around the world”. We know $60.0 billion will be spent over the next decade, and at Walt Disney World alone Bob Iger has allocated $17 billion for new lands and experiences.
Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger participated in a question-and-answer session at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference on Tuesday.
The wide-ranging interview touched on multiple topics from across the enterprise, allowing Iger to reinforce that the significant fixing the company underwent following his return as CEO has set the stage for Disney to enter a new era of building to achieve strategic growth in its businesses.
In terms of the big opportunities for expanding Disney’s Experiences business, Iger pointed to the company’s plan to turbocharge growth with a roughly $60 billion investment over the next decade in expanding its domestic and international parks and Disney Cruise Line.
Iger noted the businesses’ strong track record and said, “We have thousands of acres of land still to develop. We could actually build seven new full lands if we wanted to around the world, including the ability to increase the size of Disneyland in California—which everybody thinks is kind of landlocked—by 50%. So, you look at the returns and where you’re going to place your bets in terms of capital to deliver value to shareholders.”
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On Disney’s vast library of stories and characters that have yet to be meaningfully brought to life in its Parks, Iger noted that Disney has “so much IP to mine that there’s opportunity there to create experiences that we know people would love to have in our parks.”
Iger referenced the excitement about plans to develop an Avatar experience at Disneyland in California and acknowledged the prospect of other properties where the franchise might also be successful, noting the popularity of Pandora – The World of Avatar at Walt Disney World in Florida. Iger said that if you “build it right, build it with excellence,” guests will come.
“We opened up the Zootopia land [in Shanghai], which… is one of the most successful animated films we’ve ever released in China, and it’s phenomenal there. And success in terms of visitation is tremendous,” he said.
There’s also Disney’s investment in digital experiences such as the newly announced collaboration with Epic Games to create an all-new games and entertainment universe within Fortnite that will further expand the reach of beloved Disney stories.
“We were really impressed with what Epic had been able to accomplish with Fortnite,” Iger said. “This will be a deep, rich, fully immersive, engaging experience for consumers… And I think not only does it speak to how young consumers are spending their time, but it speaks to basically how much more we can leverage our IP in a completely different medium.”
