Exactly how much does Disneyland make in a day? If you’re curious about Disney’s operating costs, revenue, and average profit across a typical day, then you’ll want to stick with me.
When you think of Disneyland, you probably think of a wildly successful theme park that draws millions of visitors a year. And you’d be totally right!
But just how much does Disneyland make a day? Well, the figures can be broken down to give you a pretty darn accurate number.
Not only will I cover Disneyland’s gross revenue on a surface level, but I’ll dive into HOW Disneyland makes its money.
I’ll even discuss park expenses to give you an idea of overall profit across an average day.
Now let’s do this!
How Much Does Disneyland Make a Day in Gross Revenue?
Disneyland pulls in approximately $21.07 million every single day across the entire park.
The main sources of this revenue come from hotels, merchandise sales, food and drink at the parks, and ticket sales themselves.
There are expenses to consider that bring Disneyland’s daily profits down a touch (approximately $5.3 million a day).
But this still leaves an impressive profit figure of over $15 million EVERY SINGLE DAY.
That’s just from Disneyland California’s parks alone by the way – the global levels are HUGE.
If you’re wondering exactly how much Disney makes from each of the park’s moneymaking sectors, just stay with me.
How Is Disney’s Park Revenue Going (AKA: Is Income Going Up?)
Just so you’re aware, Disney’s entire revenue for the 3rd quarter of 2023 was a staggering $21.241 billion.
Although this includes ALL Disney revenue, it’s an increase of around 5.41% every single year.
The parks and experiences sector continues to perform extremely well, coming in at $5,384 million.
This growth is largely down to the Disney Cruise Line, an increase of DVC memberships, and higher attendance at the parks.
The quarterly report from 2023 also noted that guest spending increased because of higher average ticket prices and inflationary rises.
So, Disney’s daily profit is only set to rise as the years go on.
Plus, when you consider all of the new IP that’s being bought up and turned into attractions? Well, it’s just going to encourage MORE people to visit!
How Does Disneyland Make Money?
Sponsorships
You may not notice these things around the park, but Disneyland gets quite a lot of sponsors.
For example, Dole sponsors the Enchanted Tiki Room. You may see that Chevron and Honda sponsored Autopia (an easy win!).
The park also has a history of being sponsored by Alamo, McDonalds, Siemens, and Coca-Cola.
Before it went bankrupt, Kodak was a major sponsor at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.
These are all enormous companies with huge advertising budgets, and Disneyland RAKES IN cash from these large corporations.
The advertising isn’t super obvious as many of these sponsorships are just signs that say “sponsored by”.
But these sponsorships get cash in Disneyland’s pocket while reducing their park costs.
It’s a win-win!
Food and drink
When I go to any Disney Park, I absolutely need something Mickey-shaped – and I’m not alone.
Food and drink pull in an amazing $4.6 million for the parks every single day, and the profit margins are huge.
I hate to say it (as a Disney lover), but it’s obvious that the basic foodstuffs at the parks are marked up considerably.
As much as I love a Mickey ice cream bar and a Casey’s hotdog, there’s no WAY those treats cost much to make.
When you throw in signature cocktails, popcorn buckets, quick-service, and character dining, it’s easy to see where the money comes from.
Merchandise
It’s no secret that merchandise is a huge financial draw for the Walt Disney parks.
Disneyland California is said to pull in around $1.87 million in merchandise, which is MASSIVE.
Whether you’re bringing home a Loungefly bag, a Spirit Jersey, or a Mickey plush, that’s all cash going to the Walt Disney Company.
Manufacturing all that merch does cost money, but the company makes around $56.2 billion from merch EVERY YEAR.
That’s across all of its domains, but it’s certainly an impressive figure!
Ticket sales
It probably comes as no surprise that a lot of the money that Disneyland makes in a day is from ticket sales.
This is the largest contributor to overall revenue and amounts to an impressive $13.1 million (or thereabouts!).
When you think about how much your average ticket costs, this makes perfect sense.
As of 2024, a single ticket can be as much as $189 for one park. If you’re park-hopping, it goes up even more.
Hotels
Measuring average hotel income can be tricky, as it accounts for busy and quieter periods of the year.
During peak periods, the hotels will rake in far more than off-peak periods (obviously!).
Hotels generate approximately $1.6 million a day for the Walt Disney Company, with some hotels costing a whopping $980 a night.
You can pay as little as $210 if you’re staying in a room at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel off-peak.
But overall, these rooms pull in an impressive amount for the parks.
Disney does lose SOME money to guests who choose to stay in nearby hotels in Anaheim.
However, I’ve found that most guests choose an onsite hotel for the convenience and the Disney transportation.
What About Expenses?
Disneyland costs around $5 million a day to run (well, around $5.8 million if we’re being precise!).
So, all of that $21.07 million I mentioned earlier isn’t just profit.
To get an accurate idea of how much the California parks make, let’s look more closely at average expenditure.
The cost of labor and seasonal workers
If you’ve been to Disneyland before, you’ve probably spotted hundreds of Cast Members walking around the parks.
These range from ride attendants and parade managers to food/beverage workers and character actors.
In short, a lot of people work at the Disney parks and they all need to be paid fairly.
It’s said that a whopping $50,400 is paid just for custodial cleaning across the park’s property.
A recent report from the Orange County Business Journal suggests that Disneyland employs around 34,000 cast members across its property.
This accounts for 2% of the entire Orange County workforce.
It’s tricky to say exactly how much the ENTIRE cost of Disneyland’s workforce is as we can’t simply multiply an hourly wage by worker numbers.
Usually, workers are paid a minimum of $15 an hour according to California’s minimum wage.
But some workers are paid far more than this (for example, technicians are paid $30 an hour), so we’ll need to look at averages instead.
If we take everything into account, Cast Members account for around $446,000 every single day.
Maintenance costs
Running an operation as large as Disneyland costs a pretty penny, and maintenance costs are around $7,500 per day.
But we also need to take supplies, fireworks and utilities into account. After all, those enormous firework displays don’t pay for themselves, right?
According to Forbes, the Disneyland fireworks show costs around $40,000 to $50,000 a night.
Before your eyes widen too much at that figure, Disney makes a lot of this cost back.
For one thing, the show is sponsored by Pandora which helps take the edge off the huge figure.
It’s also worth mentioning that keeping guests in the park until the end of the day means they’ll buy dinner and more merch.
So, it all evens out.
Advertising
Although it’s not something you usually think about when you visit the parks, advertising costs are huge.
The Walt Disney Company reported advertising costs of $7.2 billion in 2022, and this includes its park spending.
It’s thought that park advertising costs are somewhere in the $1 million range for Disneyland alone.
So, it’s less than you’d think, but is hardly a small figure!
What Are Disney’s Plans for Expanding its Theme Park Business?
With Disney movies not impressing quite as much at the box office, the theme park sector of the business is expected to take center stage.
Disney has recently lost $900 million at the box office and isn’t currently producing the $1billion flicks it used to.
This isn’t to say that these movies aren’t GOOD, but they’re certainly missing something their consumers want to see.
But with park attendance booming and set to keep rising in 2024, I see the parks getting even more important to the company.
That’s just me speaking as a humble Disney blogger, of course.
But with an impressive 18 million average visitors a year, Disneyland’s park numbers aren’t slowing down anytime soon.
It’s also worth thinking about IP expansion.
We’ve already seen Galaxy’s Edge, but are we going to get Frozen Land soon like Hong Kong and Paris?
How about more Avengers IP? Well, only time will tell.
However, I can safely say that the Walt Disney Company is going to keep its focus squarely on the parks for the next few years.
I hope that this post has helped you to answer the question “how much does Disneyland make a day”.
Do any of these figures surprise you? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! Also, what do you think of Disney’s higher prices? I’m not a huge fan, but I suppose people will keep coming!
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