Theme park revenue climbed 18.7% in the third quarter for Comcast Corp., propelled by the early months of operation of Epic Universe, the company reported Thursday.
The attractions segment, which includes Universal Orlando as part of Comcast’s content and experiences division, took in $2.7 billion in the quarter that ended Sept. 30. Epic Universe theme park debuted May 22.
“We’re really pleased with the early results from Epic, which are driving higher per-cap spending and attendance across the entirety of Universal Orlando,” said Jason Armstrong, Comcast’s chief financial officer.
Officials said the new park is performing as designed by making the resort more of a draw to weeklong visitors.
“The full resort of Orlando is very strong,” said Mike Cavanagh, Comcast president. He said there has been less “cannibalization” of Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, the pre-existing parks of Universal Orlando, than anticipated.
“Our focus now is just driving increased ride capacity. It’s a new park and very technologically advanced, so working on the labor and the kinks to drive it to full capacity,” said Cavanagh, who will become co-CEO of the company in January.
“We’ve been holding back a little bit to make sure the experience is what we want it to be, so we expect it to fully scale up in the months ahead, and we’ll really be driving higher attendance, per-caps and improved operating leverage … over the next year, year-plus,” he said.
The theme park segment’s adjusted EBITDA — a financial measure of profitability before taxes, depreciation and other factors — was up 13.1% for the quarter. In short, the expense of operating Epic was outpaced by its revenue.
No attendance figures for the parks were released. Also not mentioned in Thursday’s conference call were the August opening of Universal Horror Unleashed, the year-round haunt attraction in Las Vegas, or the September death of an Epic Universe visitor after riding the park’s Stardust Racers roller coaster.
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Executives addressed the broadband, wireless, streaming, movie studio and sports businesses within Comcast. The company as a whole made $31.2 billion in the quarter, a year-to-year increase of 2.7%.
“Last week’s NBA tip-off marked the start of one of the biggest stretches of live sports in our history, and drew the largest audience for an NBA opening doubleheader since 2010,” Cavanagh said.
“We’re in the heart of the NFL and college football seasons, and in February, we’ll have the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics and NBA All-Star Weekend, followed by the World Cup on Telemundo in June,” he said. “Sports remains a cornerstone of our media business.”
dbevil@orlandosentinel.com
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