Disney announces plans for ‘Avatar’ experience at Disneyland in Calif.

The Walt Disney Co. is planning to add an “Avatar” experience to Disneyland and explore other opportunities at its theme parks as it looks for more ways to appeal to its guests.

While Disney announced last week that it is cutting about 7,000 jobs as part of an ambitious companywide costsavings plan and “strategic reorganization,” the company is pleased with the performance of its domestic theme parks and is actively looking for ways to grow the business. In Disney’s most recent quarter, sales at its parks, experiences and products segment grew 21% to $8.74 billion, from $7.23 billion a year earlier.

CEO Bob Iger said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call that the success of the latest “Avatar” film is spurring the creation of an “Avatar” experience at Disneyland in California. The movie, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” is currently the fourth biggest film of all time globally with close to $2.2 billion earned at the box office to date.

While it is unclear what type of “Avatar” experience will be created at Disneyland, Iger said that when Pandora – The World of Avatar was launched at Walt Disney World in Florida, it prompted more people to visit Animal Kingdom, the park where Pandora is located. Pandora includes two rides: Avatar - Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey.

“We have learned that when we invest in increasing capacity, the Star Wars lands would be a good example of that, Pandora was a great example of that, we can grow our business. In fact, if you look at the results, when we put Pandora in Animal Kingdom, from year to year, they were stunning in terms of how many more people visited Animal Kingdom,” Iger explained.

Iger, who returned as CEO in November following a challenging two-year tenure by his hand-picked successor, Bob Chapek, said that he has spoken with Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney parks, experiences and products, to look at all of the company’s franchises to see where Disney can invest in them in its theme parks to increase capacity while preserving guest satisfaction.

In another effort to keep guests happy, Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said during the call that Disney managed to achieve significant revenue and operating income growth in the quarter despite purposefully

lowering capacity at its domestic theme parks during select peak holiday periods by approximately 20% versus pre-pandemic levels in order to prioritize the guest experience.

Listening to guests’ concerns, Disney said last month that it was making several changes at its domestic theme parks, including some easier reservations.

Among the changes: It will cease charging for overnight self-parking at its Walt Disney World resorts, and Walt Disney World annual passholders will be able to visit the theme parks after 2 p.m. without needing a park reservation (except on Saturdays and Sundays at Magic Kingdom).