In less than a week, Disneyland Resort rolled out two limited-time ticket deals — a $59 evening ticket and a special rate for Anaheim residents.
The offers sparked speculation online that something was amiss at the Happiest Place on Earth. Why the seemingly sudden discounts?
I spoke with analysts and theme park experts about what might be going on. In short, there’s probably no “material drop” in attendance at Disneyland Resort’s two parks, said Len Testa, president of theme park travel site TouringPlans.com.
If that were the case, we’d probably see discounts on one and two-day tickets for the general public, not offers for partial-day attendance or deals limited to nearby residents. Larger price cuts would be a sign that “something needs fixing,” he said. “And we’re not there yet.”
After all, data show that wait times at Disneyland appear to be stable compared with last year, and Anaheim was expected to haul in 3.8% more in tourism taxes compared with fiscal year 2025, Testa said.
Disney does not disclose attendance figures, but the Themed Entertainment Assn. estimated the two parks drew more than 27 million visitors in 2024.
What we do know, however, is that international visitation to Burbank-based Disney’s U.S. theme parks has decreased amid a broader slowdown in tourism in Southern California, which has been hurt by ICE raids, global trade disputes and rising airline travel costs.
In May, company executives said domestic parks attendance was down 1% compared with the same period a year ago, a result of “continued softness” in overseas visitors.
Orlando-based Walt Disney World has typically seen a greater volume of foreign visitors than Disneyland, where California residents make up more than 50% of attendees. But ensuring that more Southern Californians show up to the parks isn’t a bad strategy, particularly if there’s capacity in the parks at night.
An evening ticket deal could help Disneyland, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary through August, compete against the World Cup, gas prices and summer heat — external factors that can complicate attendance — and allows the Burbank company to target a younger adult audience that might not be able to do a full day at the park. The Anaheim deal is a reprise of similar discounts offered over the years.
“They always talk about the levers they can pull, and this is an example of one of those levers,” said Ric Prentiss, who heads media equity research at financial services firm Raymond James.
So far, it seems like it’s working. The evening ticket deal sold out of available spots less than a week after it was offered, Disneyland officials said. The company has done several nighttime offers over the years, including a 1957 “Date Nite” deal. The Anaheim resident deal goes on sale later this week.
Park attendance gets a lot of attention because Disney’s experiences sector — which includes the parks, cruise line and merchandise sales — brings in the lion’s share of the company’s operating income.
The segment pulled in nearly $10 billion in operating income in fiscal 2025, up 8% compared with the previous fiscal year.
But Disney has been looking to diversify its cash generation beyond the parks. The company has expanded its popular cruise line and is also doubling down on its streaming business, which is a bigger potential driver of earnings growth in the future, said Brent Penter, equity research analyst at Raymond James.
“Attendance in the parks can be very cyclical,” he told me. “For those who are making investments on a time horizon longer than the next quarter, it doesn’t really cause us to lose sleep.”
States vs. Paramount-Warner
On Monday, 12 Democratic state attorneys general, including California’s Rob Bonta, filed a lawsuit to block Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, alleging the deal would violate antitrust law.
As my colleague Meg James reported, the legal salvo is an 11th-hour effort to stop the merger that is poised to reshape Hollywood and the media business.
The attorneys general are arguing, among other things, that uniting two major studios will stifle competition in the wide-release film distribution business, where Warner Bros. and Paramount control about 27% of the market.
The states are asking Paramount to delay the closing of the takeover until the litigation can be resolved.
Theater owner trade group Cinema United and the Writers Guild of America have both cheered the lawsuit, warning of the potential dangers of consolidation to an already-reeling Hollywood.
Paramount has said delaying the transaction “will only harm entertainment workers who have already suffered over recent years as technology has disrupted their livelihood and cost California tens of thousands of entertainment jobs.”
Legal experts say it will probably be an uphill battle to derail the transaction, and some stock analysts have said it’s still unlikely that the deal will fall apart.
Stuff We Wrote
Film shoots
Number of the week
Lionsgate’s “Michael” has now made more than $1 billion in worldwide box office revenue, the studio said Sunday. It’s the first time the Santa Monica-based studio has crossed this milestone.
The musical biopic has made most of its money overseas, with an international haul of $629.8 million. Domestically, “Michael” has made $371.8 million.
“Michael” is the second film so far this year to cross the billion-dollar mark at the global box office after Universal Pictures, Illumination and Nintendo’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”
What I’m watching
As someone who read (and re-read) all of the “Little House on the Prairie” books as a child, I was thrilled to see Netflix’s reboot of the Laura Ingalls Wilder tales. The new show does a great job of filling in some of the historical context that was clearly left out of Wilder’s books — the perspective of the Osage as settlers moved onto their land, the racial dynamics of the new frontier and even the class tensions that emerged on the prairie.
