Business Week Magazine does some analysis of the revenue machine that is The Mouse.
Frolicking kids and free-spending parents will make Disney’s theme parks the biggest growth driver this year, figure most analysts
I don’t know what oracle those analysts have been consulting, but the word I hear is that attendance is light at the Disney Themeparks this summer. In Anaheim the Tower of Terror just isn’t drawing in the numbers they expected at Califonia Adventure, and Disneyland’s new stage show “Snow White” caused a brief splash in the numbers, but the crowds haven’t materialized for the summer. It’s suspected to be a combination of a number of things including, the lack of anything really new in the last 3 years, the lack of discounts, and the poor experiences guests had the last few years at the parks. In Orlando, resorts are offering more and specials than last year, black out dates have been reduced for Florida Locals, and Mission Space isn’t drawing them in like they had hoped (although it is doing pretty well, the vomit comet experience is spreading by word of mouth).
There’s more too. Read about expected bad performance next year in the DVD market due to the Box Office duds of this year.