Disney vows to give Epcot a makeover

LOS ANGELES — Disney’s third-oldest theme park, Epcot, is overdue for a serious sprucing up. Is Disney finally ready to write a check?

Bob Chapek, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, hinted in November that major changes were coming to Epcot, which sprawls across 300 acres as part of the four-park Disney World complex near Orlando, Florida. At an event for Disney fans, Chapek said the 35-year-old Epcot, best known for the giant golf ball-looking sphere at its entrance, would one day become “more Disney, timeless, relevant, familyfriendly.”

Chapek made it official recently, announcing the company’s ambitious Epcot plans at D23 Expo, a biennial convention for Disney fans that attracts an estimated 100,000 people to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, over three days. A major new ride — themed to “Guardians of the Galaxy,” the hit Marvel movie series — is planned for Epcot’s front section, where a simulator attraction, Mission: Space, will be updated and expanded. A ride based on the Pixar film “Ratatouille” will be added to the park’s World Showcase area. Epcot will also serve as stop for a new gondola system called Disney Skyliner connecting various hotels and parks.

Chapek also announced more than $1 billion worth of projects unrelated to Epcot. A version of the “Tron”-inspired roller coaster that has been a runaway hit at Shanghai Disneyland is coming to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World. Also coming to that resort will be a luxury hotel designed to make guests feel as if they are staying on an actual “Star Wars” starship.

Disney is counting on its theme park division to help offset slowing growth at ESPN. Last year, Disney parks generated $17 billion in revenue, a 5 percent increase compared with a year earlier, and $3.3 billion in operating income, a 9 percent increase.

In particular, Disney has been investing in Disney World. Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, wants to use technology to make its parks more immersive and relevant to a new generation of children. The expansions are also designed to make each of Disney World’s four major parks — the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom — an equally powerful draw for tourists. That might help better distribute crowds across the resort.

Most people, for instance, make a beeline for the 110-acre Magic Kingdom, where attendance totaled roughly 20.4 million last year, and then add on half-days at parks like Epcot, which hosted about 11.7 million visitors last year despite being more than twice the size of the Magic Kingdom.

Disney World, which is gearing up for its 50th anniversary in 2021, also faces stronger competition from nearby Universal Orlando, which is conducting a building boom of its own.

In 2012, Disney opened a $500 million expansion of Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom. Animal Kingdom recently unveiled a $500 million addition, with an “Avatar” theme, that has been mobbed by visitors. Hollywood Studios is in the midst of what Bank of America Merrill Lynch has estimated is a $1 billion project to add myriad “Toy Story” and “Star Wars” rides.