Disney parks boss outlines investment strategy, with superfans at fore

It’s not everyday that a live crowd goes wild for an animatronic yeti.

But the audience at Disney’s D23 Expo isn’t just any old crowd, and its superfans are central to Disney’s strategic parks investments — some $60 billion planned over a decade.

“We are bringing the yeti back to life,” Thomas Mazloum, chairman of Disney Experiences, announced to 12,000 Disney parks fans Saturday night during the division’s D23 showcase in Anaheim, California.

The repair he was referencing is within the Expedition Everest attraction at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom theme park. Since 2006, the ride’s yeti has been stationary. At the time the figure was unveiled it was the largest and most complex audio-animatronic that Walt Disney Imagineering had ever built. But after only a few months, it broke.

Its location within the finished ride made it difficult to fix, so Imagineers placed the machine in “B-mode,” in which a strobe-light effect was used to give the illusion of movement. The broken animatronic has since become affectionately known as “Disco Yeti.” Now, it’s getting a second life.

Mazloum, who became parks chief after Josh D’Amaro was appointed as Disney CEO, announced the yeti repair — as well as the return of fan-favorite characters Dreamfinder and Figment to EPCOT in Florida and an overhaul of Tomorrowland in California — to some of Disney’s most ardent fans on Saturday.

It’s a signal of where the company plans to put its focus for the blockbuster Disney Experiences unit, made up of theme parks, cruise lines and consumer goods sales. As Disney expands its reach, it will need to lean on its most loyal attendees and biggest spenders to counter macroeconomic uncertainties and challenging travel trends.

“It may not sound like a big thing, but something like the Yeti or Figment or really being serious about Tomorrowland, they mean a lot to people because they grew up with these stories,” Mazloum told CNBC.

“They’re small, they’re immediate, but they’re meaningful,” he added.

For Mazloum, the focus of his tenure as head of Disney’s experiences division will be about balancing the company’s massive expansion plans — new lands and area overhauls based on popular intellectual property — meant to attract the less frequent out-of-state and international visitors with more targeted updates and upgrades that annual passholders and more regular attendees want to see.

“Our job is to listen carefully and then find the way to harmonize the different needs and wants,” he said.

“The simplest way to frame it is: I’m really focused on making sure we put our fans and the consumer and the guests into the center of our decision-making,” he added.

Mazloum said these efforts are already paying off, touting the company’s recent fiscal third-quarter earnings report in which the experiences division posted nearly $10 billion in revenue, a 10% jump from the same quarter a year prior and a quarterly record.

“I believe the results are at the end of doing something right at the beginning, and that is really putting the fans in the center of our attention,” he said. “That’s why, despite some, you know, other companies reporting different results, we’re doing extremely well in Florida. We’re doing very well here in California, because we’ve listened carefully and we’ve really responded to the right consumer at the right time.”

Last month, rival Comcast reported lags in theme park attendance, particularly in Orlando, Florida. And yet, at Disney, domestic park attendance was up 3% and guest spending rose 4%.

The company attributed strong attendance to its Cool Kids Summer promotion, which features kid-focused character meet-and-greets, dance parties and air-conditioned hangout spots as well as free water park admission for hotel guests.

Disney also recently refreshed and reimagined park attractions like Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Muppets-themed Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

Next up is the refurbishment of the Carousel of Progress, which is expected to be completed in late spring 2027, and the opening of the Monsters, Inc.-themed Monstropolis land, also set for 2027.

In the meantime, Disney continues working on its Avengers Campus expansion, its new Villains Land, the retheming of Frontierland featuring the Cars franchise as well as the new Tropical Americas land, among other long-term projects.

Disney’s portfolio of IP has been the bedrock of its theme parks since the very first location opened its doors, and that library of content has only grown in recent decades. The company has a vast well of stories and characters to tap into in order to entice parkgoers.

While these new lands and rethemed attractions are designed for all future Disney parkgoers, these additions predominantly act as a beacon to those that don’t travel as often to the company’s resorts and parks. They offer a fresh reason for out-of-state and international guests to book a trip.

“The percentage of people that go to Shanghai Disneyland just to go to Zootopia Land is very, very high,” then-CEO Bob Iger said during the company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings report in February.

Equally important are the guests that frequent Disney’s parks more often. These attendees have some of the strongest emotional attachment to the parks and more purchasing opportunities when it comes to merchandise and concessions.

These parkgoers enjoy the new marquee expansions, but it’s not the only driver for their visits to the parks. Those who visit annually or several times during the year are deeply passionate about the live shows, character meet-and-greets, holiday food specials, seasonal festivals and parades and nighttime spectaculars that these parks provide.

On Saturday, Disney revealed the return of two fan-favorite nighttime spectaculars — Remember Dreams Come True, a fireworks show at Disneyland, and the original World of Color at California Adventure. The Magic Happens parade will also be making a comeback at Disneyland.

“This new set of announcements demonstrates that Disney is listening to what fans want,” said Gavin Doyle, founder of MickeyVisit.com. “The reaction in the room was cheering and thunderous applause. People feel like Disney hears what they have been asking for.”