Universal Eyes Global Growth After Epic Universe Debut

Just a few months
after opening its newest park, Universal
Orlando’s Epic
Universe is already showing promising signs, and CEO of Universal Destinations
& Experiences, Mark Woodbury, says this is just the beginning for
Universal’s expansion plans both in the U.S. and abroad.

Speaking with Bank
of America Securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich this week, Woodbury offered
insight into the park’s early performance, the potential for future expansion
and what’s on the horizon for the brand globally.

Strong Start
for Epic Universe

According to the interview
published in the Orlando
Sentinel, Woodbury said the park is meeting expectations and driving more
visitors to the resort overall. “It’s doing exactly what we wanted it to do, in
terms of driving incremental attendance to the resort as a whole and the
performance line for caps, very strong since we opened the doors. And you can
see it in merchandise. You see it in the food offerings. A lot of great
creative work went into both of those. Not without challenges when you open an
entire theme park at once… It’s always a little complicated to get it to ramp
up to full speed, and we’re in the process of doing that now. Nothing that we
didn’t expect.”

Universal Epic Universe made its debut late last month. (Photo Credit: Universal Orlando)

Room for
Expansion

Even as the park
settles in, Universal has already planned space for growth. “If you fly over
Epic or you look at Google Earth, you’ll see how we planned the park, and
you’ll see greenfield space between the existing worlds, and that is
strategically positioned to give us flexibility to expand the world or create a
new world,” Woodbury said. While he did not announce specific upcoming
attractions, he confirmed that “there are multiple attractions in the works,
not just at Epic, but when you have the three parks, the cadence of product
delivery across the resort to continue to drive the resort is really a key part
of our strategy going forward.”

Addressing rumors
that the next Epic Universe land is destined to be a “Wicked”-themed world, Woodbury
implied that that’s not something that’s part of the company’s plan. “I think I
might have stirred that pot when I saw the ‘Wicked’ sets and said it was a
theme park waiting to happen,” he explained.

A Focus on Families

Universal is also
broadening its reach to younger audiences with its Universal
Kids Resort in Frisco, Texas, which is scheduled to open in 2026. Woodbury
calls the property, which will be anchored by DreamWorks franchises and other
Universal IPs popular with youth “our first Universal Kids Resort that allows
us to both segment the audience and segment our portfolio of properties, and in
the process build a regional product that is sort of a rite of passage for
families and much more accessible for young families in a regional form.” He
added, “They get to that park from all over Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and [with
a] 300-room hotel as part of it, [it’s a] great product and a feeder as they
age up to become aligned with our brand and then grow into our bigger parks.”

Rendering of Universal Kids Resort. (Photo Credit: Universal Resorts Media)

International
Plans

Universal is also
moving forward with the development of a new park in England. Woodbury said
infrastructure needs, such as rail expansion and highway access, add
complexity, but the company is confident in its planning. “We think we have a
pretty good handle on it at this point,” he said.

“It’s a full-blown
Universal theme park with a 500-room hotel that is part of it, very much like
Epic in terms of a big park with a hotel,” Woodbury explained. He emphasized
that the UK park is being designed to complement existing Orlando visits rather
than compete. “We’ve created a different mix of attractions that we think will
work great in the UK, but basically it’ll perform very much like one of our
standalone parks in terms of attendance, in terms of per caps and overall
EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) performance,”
he noted.

International expansion
also requires attention to local preferences. “The main product is Universal,
and it’s Universal-branded IPs, but then you get really focused,” Woodbury said.
“Menu — it’s very unique culturally. You have to pay close attention to that.
And the other place where international development is unique is around humor.
Humor varies very differently in different cultures,” he explained.

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