Saturday, October 25, 2014

Comcast Revenues Soar in Theme Park Division - Thanks, Harry!


Comcast's 3rd quarter earnings came out this past week, and the success of its theme park division, a part of its NBCUniversal segment, continues its upward trend.

Comcast is a gigantic company, so although the parks division is doing really well, there's still limited detail included in the earnings releases.  But there are some interesting numbers to look at.

Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida
The 3rd quarter of 2014 saw the company's theme park division post a 18.7% increase in revenues, up to $786 million compared to $661 million in 2013.  A huge part of this is higher attendance and guest spending from the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley.

For the first nine months of the year the parks segment's revenues increased 13.1% to $1.9 billion, compared to $1.7 billion last year.

It is not just more people that are coming out to the parks for the latest additions, it's record numbers of people!  The company reports that the added hotel capacity from Cabana Bay Beach Resort, and Diagon Alley, led to "record summer attendance and a record labor day" in Orlando.

Transformers The Ride, another recent addition.
Also as expected, the amount of cash being spent inside Universal Studios Florida due to Diagon Alley is astounding, leading to double digit increases in per capita spending.  Also as planned, a large increased in park-to-park ticket sales has taken place, with guests wanting to experience both parks and Hogwarts Express.

It is no wonder that NBCUniversal is still itching to expand the Orlando resort even further - they seem to be no where near the roof on how many additional people they can get to come to the parks.

The release also said that Despicable Me at Universal Studios Hollywood is continuing to drive "strong attendance."  It sounds like they are anxious to see the response of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter once it opens in a couple years in Hollywood.


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