Disney Park Ticket Prices Up 100%

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Aug 27, 9:15AM EDT

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A recent analysis reveals that some Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) park ticket prices have doubled in the past decade.
This raises concerns that the prices may be too high if the economy slows.

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Disney Park Ticket Prices Up 100% — © Mickey at Disney World (CC BY 2.0) by Raymond Brown

A review of ticket prices at Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS | DIS Price Prediction) parks shows that some have increased by 100% in the past decade. The new study looked at ten Disney locations. The data covered three tiers of ticket prices: high, average, and low. The period covered was from 2015 to 2025. FinanceBuzz conducted the study, which focused on single-day ticket prices.

The research encompasses Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, featuring four theme parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom), and two water parks (Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach). Additionally, it covers Disneyland Resort in California, which comprises two theme parks (Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park).

Across all the company’s parks, the average ticket price increased by 79% during the decade measured. High-priced tickets increased by 100%, and low-priced tickets rose by 43%. High-priced tickets rose 100% or more at EPCOT, Disneyland, and Disney California Adventure Park.

Disney accounted for the first six of the top ten theme park price increases across all major theme parks in the United States. Other major parks were Universal Studios Florida, Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood, Six Flags Great America, and Six Flags Great Adventure

High-priced tickets reflect a demand-based pricing model, which increases costs for peak dates and popular parks.

These parks are part of what the company calls “Experiences.” Revenue for this quarter was $9.1 billion, up 8% from the same period the previous year. Operating income rose to $2.5 billion. To put this into perspective, Disney’s total revenue for the period was $23.7 billion, representing a 2% increase. Operating income for the entire company rose 8% to $4.6 billion. One concern about this Disney division is that its ticket prices may be too expensive, especially if the economy slows.

Disney Ticket Prices Through the Decades

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.