Three months after the debut of Universal Epic Universe Theme Park, Universal Destination & Experiences CEO Mark Woodbury talks about the future not only in Orlando but also in other US cities, the UK and Asia.
In an interview with Jessica Reif Ehrlich of Bofa Securities Inc., Woodbury brought universal brands to new markets this week, including her annual home in Las Vegas and a Texas underconstructed kids’ park.
And Orlando’s latest park is approaching a “pretty great start,” and he covered ticket prices, financial priorities and the looming possibility of expansion in epic space.
Here are some highlights of Woodbury’s thoughts from the session:
Woodbury on Epic’s performance so far
“We’re doing exactly what we wanted in terms of encouraging progressive attendance in the entire resort and the Cap’s performance line. It’s very powerful after opening the door. And you can see it in the product. Now we didn’t expect it.”
About the epic expansion
“When you fly around the epic or look at Google Earth, you can see how you planned the park. Greenfield spaces are visible among existing worlds. It is strategically positioned to give you the flexibility to expand the world and create a new world. Continuing to use resorts is an important part of your strategy for the future.
In a “evil” world?
“I think I might have stirred up that pot when I saw the ‘Evil’ set and said it was a theme park waiting for it to happen. ”
Magnificent ticket prices
“We’re looking at the revenue generation of the main gate top line. I’ve now said that places like the grand location are more premium than the other two parks. It’s the first park to be built in 25 years, the most technically advanced park, and everything that makes it, so it’s premium.
“But we also look closely at consumer sentiment. We are carefully searching for each business’s market to manage prices, and we have the ability to make prices much better than historical.”
In a magnificent adjoining hotel
In terms of occupancy and ADR (average daily rate), you can see great performance at that (Helios Grand) hotel. And two other hotels, Terra (Nova) and Stella (Luna), 1,500 rooms, which are part of our value proposition. What’s great about it is that it showed us these 2,000 rooms. There was currently a total of 11,000 and no cannibalism was observed. In fact, there has been a strong occupancy throughout the resorts behind this, with a strong presence. ”
About Orlando Market Share
I think we are in a truly strong position to continue to drive incremental growth throughout the market and share that process. As you know, our Chief Frei Bar Disney is a strong competitor. They will also invest quite a lot in the market. I think that’s the case where all ships rise with the tide. Both can take your audience to the market and gain share. ”
Capital expenditures after EPIC
“If you look at the cycle, the development cycles of major theme parks like Epic, a multi-hundred-million dollar investment, will land a large portion of that CAPEX in the last two years of that development cycle. The individual things we see are from big attractions to new land, and even when you see kids (resorts) and horror (unleashed), they are hundreds of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars log billions of dollars in theme parks.”
100 Days of Magnificent Universe: Rave, Long Waiting, Speculation
At Universal Kids Resort
“We have a great pipeline of intellectual property in the form of DreamWorks and ‘Troll’ and ‘Gabby’s Dollhouse’. So Frisco (Texas) is the first universal kids resort to segment audiences, segment portfolios of properties, and in the process, the process of building a local facility. Part of the 300-room hotel in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, as part of that, great products and feeders age and grow into a larger park, along with the brand. ”
Unleashed in Universal Horror
“We’ve had a huge success with Halloween horror nights over the past 32 years. It’s a great business for us. But it’s really a local place with local Orlando local plays and a local area play in Los Angeles. So I think we’re a horror franchise that brings the horror franchise known for our film franchise. 120 square feet, we opened for a few weeks during the soft opening period in Vegas.
Odds of success in Las Vegas
“We’re going to get to the running. …I know people have been commenting frequently about Vegas’ businesses going down lately. They still have nearly 40 million tourists coming to Vegas.
First Look: Universal’s Halloween Horror Night Haunted House in 2025
About the development of parks in the UK
“Our hope is that the process goes very smoothly. However, parks are complex creatures, which take the infrastructure in the form of railway expansion and off-ramps on highways.
About the UK’s strategy
“The best way to see it is to see it like one of our standalone parks. This is a full-fledged universal theme park with a 500-room hotel, grand in terms of the large park with hotels. From the standalone park in terms of attendance, one cap, and overall EBITDA performance perspective.”
About the UK weather
“You really make use of it the best weather, you’ll get as cold as you can, it’ll be very cold in the summer, it’ll be very hot in the summer. China is the UK’s problem is precipitation. It’s bigger territory.”
Development of international parks and domestic park development
“When you get into the design details, the main product is universal and a universal brand IPS, but then you really concentrate. Menu – it’s very unique cultural. You need to pay close attention to it.
About Artificial Intelligence
“We are looking at ways that AI can help drive growth and revenue generation, looking at some areas of its dynamic pricing, making pricing for dynamic variables more efficient and much more real-time. We are looking at the delivery of new products. We are seeing AI support in our call centers.
“Then, in terms of savings… perhaps one of the big areas for us, who are unique to our business, is that AI helps with predictive maintenance of rides and reduces maintenance costs. Now.”
Please email dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Bluesky: @themeparksdb. Thread account: @dbevil. X Account: @themeparks. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.
Original issue: September 4th, 2025, 11:59am EDT
