• 734 days Will The ECB Continue To Hike Rates?
  • 734 days Forbes: Aramco Remains Largest Company In The Middle East
  • 736 days Caltech Scientists Succesfully Beam Back Solar Power From Space
  • 1,135 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 1,140 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 1,142 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 1,145 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 1,146 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 1,146 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 1,148 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 1,148 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 1,152 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 1,153 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 1,153 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 1,156 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 1,156 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 1,159 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 1,160 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 1,160 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 1,162 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
Biggest Job Gains in History, but It’s Not Enough

Biggest Job Gains in History, but It’s Not Enough

The U.S. economy added 467,000…

Fintech Valuations Have Grown Red-Hot

Fintech Valuations Have Grown Red-Hot

Nu’s successful listing probably served…

Big Money Pouring into Air Taxis

Big Money Pouring into Air Taxis

U.S.-based electric vertical takeoff and…

  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Breaking News

Is Disney Becoming Inaccessible For Everyone But The Rich?

Disney

Disney Parks and Resorts brought in a whopping $4.5 billion in operating profits for fiscal 2018, rewarding its visitors with two price increases in the same year that could make the park inaccessible for many in 2019.

As the rich get richer, Disney World is no longer targeting the regular middle class—it’s going where the real money is.

It’s also using dynamic pricing to try to force visitors to visit all year around—not just in the summer and holidays when the children it caters to are out of school.   

And no one can say it’s not working, so far. Disney is a behemoth that takes on its competitors with no holds barred.

It’s got a brilliant setup, and 2019 will prove that it has the advantage from the box office to the theme park, not to mention consumer licensing of its characters. This year alone, gives Disney seven of the year’s most anticipated movie releases from Fandango. It total, Disney has 10 new movies coming out this year.

This year will also see it launch its Star Wars-themed attraction—Galaxy’s Edge--at Disney World and Disneyland. It will also see Disney’s answer to Netflix, with the launch of its Disney+ streaming service.

Each service leverages the other, building a monster of entertainment.

While Disney Parks and Resorts saw $4.5 billion in operating profit in fiscal 2018, Marvel movies accounted for more than half of Disney’s $7.3 box office earnings.

So, Disney is clearly not worried about shutting out the middle class with its theme park pricing hikes—even if it means movies for the middle class and parks for the wealthy.

Speaking to Business Insider, Theme Park Insider editor Robert Niles, is using dynamic pricing and promotions to equalize crowds year round, and while the middle class “early adopters” may “feel frustrated that they put a lot of loyalty into this brand” the fact is that “if Disney’s going to grow, it’s got to go where the money is”. Related: Morgan Stanley Predicts First Slump In Global Auto Sales In 10 Years

That’s why Disney World raised prices on its platinum pass in February from $779 to $849 and then again in October to $894—a 15-percent hike in a single year.

Disney is following the demographics, says Niles. “They understand what’s happening with income and economic inequality. They know that the money is in the upper level, the top 10%, the top 1%,” he said.

The game now is to squeeze as money out of the elite as possible. And for now, it seems that the elite are more than happy to keep pumping money into Disney parks. On New Year’s Eve, Disney World in Orlando was so packed the park had to turn people away from the Magic Kingdom, and the wait to ride the Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain roller coasters was three hours.

With crowds of wealthy willing to stand in lines all day to feed Disney’s earnings, raising prices isn’t likely to hit at the bottom line at all. The middle class may feel shunted and tire of using credit to fund line-standing, but demographics seems to show that Disney’s profits don’t depend on them anymore.

By Josh Owens for Safehaven.com

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment