The Walt Disney Company reported its full fiscal year and fourth quarter results on Thursday with CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston highlighting the company’s successes in the quarter and 2025 as a whole. This covers the good & bad of these results as they relate to Walt Disney World & Disneyland, including comments about Epic Universe, park attendance, hotel occupancy & more.
Company-wide, Disney’s beat forecasts on earnings per share of $1.11 adjusted vs. $1.05 expected. However, the company missed on revenue, with $22.46 billion vs. $22.75 billion expected. Net income for the quarter was $1.44 billion, more than double the $564 million that Disney reported in the same period a year earlier.
Disney also said it plans to boost its dividend and double its share buyback plan for fiscal 2026. Following these mixed results, the Walt Disney Company’s stock is down 8% as of mid-morning on Thursday. This is largely for one reason, and of course, that reason is not theme parks. It’s once again the entertainment unit, which fell 6% from last year to $10.21 billion, dragged down by the linear TV networks and theatrical releases.
In the entertainment segment, streaming was once again a bright spot in the business as consumers continued to turn away from the pay TV bundle. The Disney+ streaming service added 3.8 million paid subscribers, bringing its total to 131.6 million, while Hulu had 64.1 million customers. In a move that follows industry leader Netflix, this marks the last quarter that Disney will report subscriber numbers.
The big issue for entertainment was that operating income for the linear networks dropped 21% to $391 million, even as it rose 39% to $352 million for streaming. Advertising revenue for the networks was down year over year, which was partly attributable to lower political spending.
Disney’s Experiences segment (including Parks & Resorts) delivered record operating income for both Q4 and the full 2025 fiscal year. For the year, segment operating income hit $10.0 billion, an increase of $723 million compared to the prior year.
Disney’s Experiences division Q4 revenue rose 6% during the quarter to $8.77 billion and operating income increased 13% to $1.88 billion. For Q4, domestic theme park operating income rose 9% to $920 million.
International park income grew 25% to 375 million, a reversal from last quarter when the international parks were down slightly and carried by Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
The company attributed the increased operating results at its domestic parks & experiences to growth at Disney Cruise Line. This was attributable to an increase in passenger cruise days, partially offset by higher fleet expansion costs, both reflecting the launch of the Disney Treasure in the first quarter of the current year.
Disney CFO Hugh Johnston commented during the Q&A on DCL: “In terms of demand for Disney Cruise Line, it’s very strong, despite the fact that we have added as much capacity as we have. Our utilization rates are in line with what we have seen in the past.” The Disney Destiny will come online later this month followed by the Disney Adventure in March 2026, meaning Parks & Resorts should have another fiscal year buoyed by DCL.
The strong gains at the international parks were attributed primarily to growth at Disneyland Paris. The increase at international parks and experiences was attributable to: volume growth due to an increase in attendance, higher guest spending, and higher costs due to new guest offerings.
Drilling down a little deeper, Disney’s 10-K showed that attendance was down 1% year over year at the domestic theme parks, which should offer a ‘sneak peek’ at next year’s version of the annual theme park attendance report that was just released for 2024 a couple weeks ago (see Walt Disney World Attendance Rises Slightly as Universal Orlando Deepens Drop).
Pop math quiz time: setting aside DCL, how does Parks & Resorts hit record numbers despite decreased attendance at the domestic parks? Price increases, of course! Domestic parks reported an increase in per guest spending of 5%, which is fairly significant. Last year’s growth was a more modest 3% and that was on 1% attendance growth.
Disney doesn’t specifically say what drove higher per guest spending. Our best guess is higher ticket prices; prior to the last fiscal year, single and multi-day admission costs actually had not gone up since December 2022. They rose for the current calendar year and are up again for 2026. Lightning Lane prices are also up across the board, and then there’s the new Premier Pass, which launched prior to the start of the 2025 fiscal year. All potential drivers of that 5% increase.
Then there’s resort occupancy, which increased from 85% to 87% at Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
Since there are exponentially more Disney-owned hotels in Florida than California, this is largely a story of Walt Disney World’s strength. In addition to occupancy being higher, so too were available room nights. Without looking back at prior 10-Ks, I’m pretty sure these are the highest numbers we’ve seen on the resort side in a long time.
International occupancy was also up, increasing from 82% to 87%. That’s a huge boost, and explains why per room guest spending for the international parks was up an impressive 6%. (This was presumably driven by Disneyland Paris, since that’s the international site with the most hotel inventory.)
This momentum is continuing into the 2026 fiscal year and current quarter (October through December 2025). According to the CFO, “bookings are up 3% the first quarter. We feel good about that. They’re also up for the year. I feel good where are demand is right now.”
Notable to this is that Walt Disney World has already released its first round of discounts for travel dates through mid-2026, and there’s also the Kids Free Dining offer that’ll likely fuel further guest spending growth.
Johnston also boasted that per guest spending is up at the parks in the current quarter by 5%. Not coincidentally, price increases just hit at the start of the new fiscal year, with pretty much across-the-board increases by about 3-6%. Although discounting remains aggressive, it has not appreciably increased year-over-year (aside from a limited Georgia resident hotel deal and a Florida resident ticket deal–but those are likely offset by slightly more modest general public offers).
This is once again growth for Parks & Resorts coming in at the higher end of expectations. And it’s happening despite Universal Orlando opening Epic Universe. Not only that, but it’s being fueled in large part by higher hotel occupancy–numbers that are necessarily driven by Walt Disney World bookings since that’s where the hotels are (mostly).
Speaking of Epic Universe, the company was asked about the impact of Universal Orlando’s new theme park during the Q&A. Here’s what the CFO had to say: “We’ve talked about Epic Universe in the past as something that we knew was going to be a factor in domestic parks and, in fact, it was very much in line with our expectations. If anything, it seems to be impacting the rest of the competition down in Florida more than it’s impacting us. From a consumer perspective, we certainly feel good about it.”
He also added that demand or attendance was not “light” in the fourth quarter due to increased competition, but rather, in line with expectations. This is essentially a variation of what Bob Iger and Hugh Johnston have been saying on earnings calls for the last year-plus. If anything, they’ve gotten more bullish about the non-impact of competition on the parks.
My view is that this is probably a fair perspective, especially once taking hotel occupancy into account. (I’m starting to wonder when analysts might ask about DCL potentially cannibalizing attendance from Walt Disney World. I don’t think that’s a material concern at this point, but it’s at least a more interesting discussion than rehashing the same played out Disney vs. Universal debat.)
We don’t love to see attendance down, even if it is only by 1%. I’d be interested in knowing the breakdown between Walt Disney World and Disneyland on that.
Even though the latter is almost perpetually busy and we observed a decrease in wait times at Walt Disney World for all but the winter, I wouldn’t be surprised if Disneyland saw more of a drop. The 70th Anniversary didn’t seem to be a huge driver over the summer, and more limited ticket deals led to noticeably lower ‘feels like’ crowds and wait times in late summer and early in the Halloween season.
Regardless, the increase in occupancy is impressive. Even with flat attendance, shifting stays from off-site to on-site is huge. That’s doubly true when Universal Orlando just opened 3 new resorts, and countless other hotels have debuted recently in Central Florida. No matter how you slice it, Walt Disney World performing well. Stronger than expected.
It’s also worth acknowledging that this higher occupancy is likely directly attributable to better special offers. As we pointed out, Summer 2025 had the most aggressive discounts we’ve seen in a long time (and summer had become the lowest occupancy season of the year).
By carefully taking advantage of the discounts that were available over the summer on tickets & resorts, we saw the lowest prices for Walt Disney World vacations in over 6 years. (See How to Get the Cheapest Walt Disney World Trip Since 2019.)
Lower prices on resorts paired with higher occupancy resulted in higher per room guest spending, which strikes us as a rare win-win for guests and Disney. This is the exact opposite of what happened with the 1% decrease in attendance paired with higher guest spending to drive record revenue and income. Our view is that the Walt Disney World parks have excess bandwidth most of the year in terms of what’s comfortable crowd-wise, so we’d like to see an increase there with greater affordability. To each their own on that, though.
Ultimately, it was a strong full fiscal year 2025 for the company (minus linear networks), but especially the Disney Experiences division and the domestic Parks & Resorts, in particular. Walt Disney World and Disneyland, as well as Disney Cruise Line were real bright spots. Hopefully that reinforces the company’s bullishness in the business, and investing in Parks & Resorts over the next decade.
Walt Disney World has now reported record results in the last two quarters despite the opening of Epic Universe. That should not be overlooked, even though it probably will be. While Comcast’s recent earnings call expressed excitement and optimism for that new park’s opening, they’ve also hinted at some of the same issues (capacity and reliability) that we’ve been discussing for a while (see Why You Should Skip Epic Universe Until 2026).
Some fans so badly want to see Disney taken down a peg or go back to how things were in the ‘good ole days’ that they are willfully ignoring the weaknesses of Epic Universe, or at least the challenges presented by a new theme park. Not only that, but Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, and (especially) Universal Studios Hollywood were hit hard by attendance decreases last year.
As should be painfully obvious by now, Universal is not going to eat Disney’s lunch and Epic Universe isn’t hurting Walt Disney World. To be sure, Epic Universe is a great theme park that will be a formidable force over time. Epic Universe is still scaling up and the park’s demand and capacity normalizing over time will likely give Universal Orlando a hotel occupancy boost.
But nothing we’re seeing right now offers any support to claims that Epic Universe is negatively impacting Walt Disney World in any way, shape or form. Should be an interesting saga to watch continue, especially as Universal Orlando reduces friction for 2026 with the introduction of park hopping and multi-day visits to Epic Universe.
The “rising tides” thesis might very well be correct, at least for the two big players in Central Florida. The true casualties might be the downmarket offerings, which are feeling the squeeze in Orlando and beyond, especially as more price-sensitive consumers scale back on spending.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on the Walt Disney Company’s fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2025 earnings? Thoughts on the growth of the domestic parks? Would you like to see both attendance and affordability increase? Or do you prefer lower crowds/wait times and higher prices? Thoughts on occupancy growth at WDW and beyond? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any other thoughts or commentary to add? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!