Comcast, the parent company of Universal, has released its Q3 2025 earnings report for the months covering July, August, and September. This is the first quarter where the all-new Universal Epic Universe was open for all dates in the quarter. Revenue for Q3 was 18.7% in the theme park division of the company, which is actually a very small decline from Q2 at 18.9%. Here’s a closer look at the numbers, and why they indicate that Epic Universe is not coming out of the gate roaring.
Universal Epic Universe Provides Modest Boost to Theme Park Earnings
According to executives, Universal Epic Universe has enjoyed some “early success”, driving an increase in theme park division revenues and earnings. In terms of raw numbers and year-over-year percentage increases, here’s what the theme park division recorded during first full quarter of Epic Universe operations.
- Q3 2025 revenue: $2.7 billion (18.7%)
- Q3 2025 EBITDA: $958 million (13.1%)
When compared to last quarter, revenue dollars are up, but year-over-year percentage increases are slightly down. That is, while there is still growth when compared to last year, the growth this quarter was slightly less than the growth last quarter. The lack of an increase in growth rate was sort of predictable, and we even wrote an article titled “Universal Epic Universe’s Stagnant Summer“. In that article, we took a look at leaked ticket data to show that despite Universal increasing some arbitrary “capacity” number, there wasn’t a measurable increase in ticket sales (read: interest).
Now, it is worth mentioning that here at BlogMickey.com, we would certainly enjoy an 18.7% year-over-year revenue increase. It’s not an insignificant number, but then again, Universal opened a brand new theme park. I think it is more than fair to present these revenue and earning increases as “modest,” given the pre-opening hype for Epic Universe, and its position as the first major theme park in decades for one of the busiest theme park tourism corridors in the world.
For some additional context, Disney Experiences recorded an operating income in its domestic theme parks of 22% last quarter, and an overall operating income increase of 13%. Those year-over-year percentage increases were in line with Universal, or even beating Universal for similar quarters. We will get more data on the July, August, September timeframe for Disney in a few weeks.
In short, Disney is seeing similar year-over-year percentage increases as Universal is, and Disney didn’t open a new theme park. We’re still waiting to see Universal gain some sort of financial advantage from the opening of Epic Universe. I guess it’ll be fair to say that theme parks shouldn’t be measured from quarter to quarter, but rather decade to decade, but I digress.
Turning to some quotes from Universal executives, they seem quite pleased with the opening of Epic Universe, while still acknowledging that it’s not firing on all cylinders. Comcast Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh said that parks delivered a strong quarter, reciting the earlier revenue and EBITDA percentage increases. Cavanagh attributed the increases to the first full quarter of Epic Universe. Cavanagh said that all of the Universal Orlando Resort is “very strong”, saying that Epic Universe is driving higher per capita spending and attendance across the entirety of the resort complex.
Cavanagh addressed a concern that theme park watchers had, that of Epic Universe cannibalizing attendance and revenues from the existing Universal Orlando Resort theme parks. Cavanagh said that there has been less cannibalization than Universal expected.
Focusing just on Epic Universe, Cavanagh said that Universal’s focus right now is to increase ride capacity, which has been a problem for the new theme park.
Cavanagh said that Universal has been “holding back a little bit” to ensure that the experience is what Universal wants it to be. He likely meant that Universal was holding back on releasing ticket types that guests would prefer to purchase. In the new year, Universal will be rolling out new ticket types to allow guests more flexibility when visiting Epic Universe, including multi-day tickets and park hopper options.
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