Comcast Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts reported the attendance gain to Wall Street analysts in a conference call this morning. Overall, Universal's theme park revenue was up 9 percent year-over-year for the quarter, to $1.1 billion. And that was despite the popular Easter holiday falling in the second quarter this year, as opposed to being part of the first quarter last year.
Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal (which in turn owns the Universal Studios theme parks), also reported that attendance and guest spending were up at its theme parks for the quarter, despite higher spending by the parks to prepare its Jimmy Fallon and Volcano Bay attractions in Orlando. Universal also recently opened a new Minions Park land in Japan, which features another installation of the Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem ride.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood opened officially on April 7, 2016, following a soft opening on February 12, 2016. So some Wizarding World attendance is reflected in that first quarter 2016 data that Universal improved 60 percent upon in the first three months of this year.
Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure saw a 30% increase in attendance in 2010 and a 29% increase in 2011, following the June 2010 opening of the original Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Universal Studios Florida saw a 17 percent attendance jump in 2014 and 16 percent in 2015 after the July 2014 opening of Diagon Alley. And Universal Studios Japan's attendance went up 17 percent in 2014 and 18 percent in 2015 after its Wizarding World also opened in July 2014, according to the TEA/AECOM Theme Index Report. We will see what Universal Studios Hollywood's year-over-year improvement was for 2016 when the next Theme Index Report comes out later this spring.
But, clearly, Harry Potter continues to make visitors and their money apparate into Universal's theme parks.
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It really has become Disney, Universal, then everyone else in the U.S. theme park business these days.
We are going to do Busch Gardens Tampa too (Quick Queues for everybody)
2015- 7,097,000, up 4%
2014- 6,824,000, up 11%
2013- 6,148,000, up 4%
2012- 5,912,000, up 15%
2011- 5,141,000, up 2%
2010- 5,040,000, up 26%
What's amazing to me is that Universal has posted attendance gains every year even as it ripped up the park all to hell over the past several years.
I thought bad ride capacity determined if new attractions were important, not actual attendance increases.
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