Universal leans into theme parks with multibillion buck Epic Universe, whilst financial uncertainty looms

ORLANDO, Florida — With the grand opening of Epic Universe on Thursday, Comcast is positioning its Universal Studios Orlando Resort as a vacation spot, now not a pit forestall.

For years, Universal’s Florida-based hotel has performed 2nd mess around to rival Disney. While it boasted 3 theme parks — Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure and water park Volcano Bay — and a handful of motels, it wasn’t considered as a vacation spot.

“This fourth gate changes everything,” mentioned Karen Irwin, president of Universal Orlando Resort. “It not only cements us as more than a full week destination vacation, but it also adds three hotels to the resort.”

Epic Universe opens at a time of monetary uncertainty within the U.S., as President Donald Trump has instituted quite a lot of ever-changing price lists that experience stoked fears about a world industry conflict, despatched the inventory marketplace by itself curler coaster journey and has threatened to tip the American financial system right into a recession.

The U.S. has already noticed a droop in air commute, in particular from world vacationers. While the ones visitors are small subset of total guests to central Florida, they steadily spend an extended time period staying at motels and visiting theme parks and spend extra money on meals and products.

“When there’s consumer uncertainty, the parks tend to feel it,” Jason Armstrong, leader monetary officer at Comcast, mentioned throughout a MoffettNathanson convention remaining week. “They tend to snap back really quickly, but they do tend to feel that.”

“On parks, whether it’s current attendance trends or bookings — which, bookings aren’t a perfect window, but they are the window you have — there’s nothing that’s showing up in the bookings trends so far that would indicate any pressure,” he added. “That’s true in Orlando. It’s true internationally.”

Those who’re maximum budget-conscious can have already been priced out of the theme park marketplace, Craig Moffett, co-founder and senior analyst at MoffettNathanson, advised CNBC.

“There was a time when visiting a theme park was a mass market vacation,” he mentioned. “It’s arguably too expensive for that to be the case anymore. The tickets alone can run a family a thousand dollars or more for a multiday visit, and that’s before hotels and meals. Perhaps that’s why we’re not seeing as much economic sensitivity as we might have expected.”

In spite of those financial headwinds, Epic Universe is anticipated to attract in tens of millions of holiday makers, bolster theme park earnings for Universal, in addition to Disney simply down the freeway, and deliver billions of bucks to the native financial system.

It’s additionally the beginning of a brand new generation of theme park building for the corporate.

It took just about a decade for Comcast to deliver Epic Universe to lifestyles. From purchasing up land its earlier management had offered off, to Covid-related construction delays, this 750-acre building is the primary new theme park to open in Orlando in 25 years.

Epic Universe, first introduced in 2019, represents the biggest unmarried funding Comcast has ever made in its theme parks industry and in Florida total, CEO Brian Roberts mentioned on the time. That determine is rumored to be round $7 billion, although the precise quantity is unclear.

The park options 5 themed worlds: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, Super Nintendo World, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, Celestial Park and Dark Universe.

Comcast’s funding in Epic Universe is a part of a much wider push to develop its theme park and studies industry. The corporate already has plans to open a year-round Hollywood Horror Nights themed revel in in Las Vegas later this yr, a kid-friendly park in Frisco, Texas, in 2026, and a U.Ok.-based park in 2031.

“Comcast is leaning into the theme park segment for a simple reason: It’s working,” Moffett mentioned. “Growth is good and returns on investment are attractive, and the theme parks pay all kinds of strategic dividends by deepening customers’ relationships with their favorite Universal characters.”

While theme parks are a smaller earnings driving force than Comcast’s media department, the department is winning and has vital attainable for expansion. In 2024, theme parks accounted for rather less than 20% of Comcast’s total earnings, however about 44% of its adjusted EBITDA.

For comparability, Disney’s studies department, which incorporates parks, represented 37% of the corporate’s earnings in fiscal 2024, smaller than its leisure industry, however accounted for almost 60% of its web source of revenue.

Universal’s theme park funding and growth come as Disney has pledged to spend $60 billion over a decade to reinforce, innovate and make bigger its amusement places. New traits, whether or not they be parks, lands or rides, spark wholesome pageant between the firms to create extra compelling and leading edge points of interest to entice in visitors.

“This is the first new theme park in Orlando in a quarter century, and those 25 years have seen breathtaking technological advances,” Moffett mentioned. “For that reason alone, it’s a big deal.”

The corporate has won 161 patents for its inventions at Epic Universe, together with new animated results, journey designs and robotics. Across the brand new park, there are trackless journey methods, augmented truth and high-resolution projections. In overall, the Universal Destinations and Experience department holds 3,300 patents globally.

Major inventions will also be noticed in rides like Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment within the Dark Universe portal and Harry Potter and the Battle on the Ministry at the latest Wizarding World land that transports visitors from 1920s Paris to the 1990s British Ministry of Magic.

It could also be obvious in new leisure presentations like “The Untrainable Dragon” with the How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk portal, the place an animatronic Toothless, with a wingspan of just about 27 ft, soars over the target audience.