In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Walt Disney Company has disclosed that it plans on increasing its capital expenditure projects by 37% in fiscal 2023 compared to fiscal 2022 which ended on October 1, 2022. The Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products division accounts for the majority of capital expenditure spend for The Walt Disney Company.
In the filing, Disney says they plan to increase total capital expenditures from $4.9 billion to $6.7 billion. Disney says the 37% increase in spending will be “due to higher spending across the enterprise”.
If we apply that 37% evenly, that would represent a $4.72 billion investment in the Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products division – a record figure for the DPEP segment. That said, we aren’t ready to say that Disney will break previous capital expenditure highs set in 2016 ($4.22 billion) and 2019 ($4.14 billion). Planned spend is typically different than actual spend.
In a 2021 10-K filed with the SEC, Disney planned $6.1 billion in capital expenditure projects for fiscal 2022. The actual spend was $4.9 billion. If we compare 2021 guidance (for fiscal 2022) and 2022 guidance (for fiscal 2023), there is actually a 9.9% increase in planned spend. If we apply that 9.9% to the actual 2022 spend of $3.44 billion, we get a forecasted actual spend of $3.78 billion in fiscal 2023. If that comes to fruition, we’re looking at 2018 levels of spending, but shy of all-time highs.
Looking forward, the DPEP division does have some spending left to complete. A timeline of projects through the end of calendar year 2024 shows where Disney plans on spending money in the Parks division.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Finish EPCOT World Celebration/Moana Journey of Water
- Finish TRON Lightcycle Run
- Finish Runaway Railway/Toontown
- Disneyland Hotel DVC project
- Finish World of Frozen in Hong Kong Disneyland
- Start on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
- Complete Disney Treasure cruise ship
- DVC tower at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
Other projects that have not officially been given the green light include a DinoLand retheme to Moana/Zootopia, and the “Beyond Big Thunder Mountain” project at Magic Kingdom. These were presented as Blue Sky concepts, but Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro said that they are not “dreams”, but actual concepts.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
I would love to see them reevaluate again…the EPCOT spin project and go back to some of the original plans. Especially, the festival facility which is really low budget at this point…too low budget.