NBCUniversal’s theme parks biz is on the up

Chances are, when you think about Comcast, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t a log flume.

But the telecom company has a hot theme parks business where revenue — which increased ~12% YoY to $2.1B in Q4 2022 — is far beyond even its pre-pandemic numbers, per Variety.

Today, Comcast’s NBCUniversal operates theme parks in the US, Tokyo, Singapore, and Beijing.

• Planned expansions include a Super Nintendo World in California, a $1B Epic Universe in Orlando, and smaller children’s and horror concept parks in Texas and Las Vegas.

Theme parks are often regarded as recession-proof businesses. For companies like Comcast and Disney, they also provide cash that helps weather losses in their streaming units.

These conglomerates are also becoming increasingly good at monetizing visitors.

• While these parks offer much more than they did in 1960, Zack’s fantastic analysis on Disneyland’s rising prices found the cost of parking has jumped 11.9k% since then, or 13.5x the rate of inflation.

Last year, per capita spending at US Disney parks was up 40% from 2019.