Comcast

[UniversalFan]

Do you think Comcast is interested in getting the money from us at its theme parks now, or do they care about investing the theme parks to make it special to us and them? As you see, ComCast invested alot on Orlando's park, (since they own 51% percent of Orlando's and Hollywood)

 

[Jon Fu]

Comcast (or more directly, NBCUniversal) actually owns 100% of Universal Orlando.

And by the looks of it, it does look like they're serious about investing in the parks. I'm surprised it took Comcast to understand this, but you need to spend money in this industry to make money. Unfortunately, I think General Electric has instilled a sense of fear in the management of our park that we won't see any massive improvements anytime soon. Potter and Wild West should hopefully prove me wrong, but Despicable Me doesn't seem to getting off to a good start.

 

[UniversalFan]

Comcast (or more directly, NBCUniversal) actually owns 100% of Universal Orlando.
And by the looks of it, it does look like they're serious about investing in the parks. I'm surprised it took Comcast to understand this, but you need to spend money in this industry to make money. Unfortunately, I think General Electric has instilled a sense of fear in the management of our park that we won't see any massive improvements anytime soon. Potter and Wild West should hopefully prove me wrong, but Despicable Me doesn't seem to getting off to a good start.

Wait, what happened to GE in Orlando? Was UOR never owned by GE. 

 

[Jon Fu]

General Electric owned a majority stake in NBCUniversal, and NBCUniversal owned 50% of Universal Orlando.

When Comcast took majority share of NBCUni, they bought the remaining shares from Blackstone.

 

[UniversalFan]

THEME PARKS

NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke, a longtime confidante of Roberts, has targeted the Universal Studios theme parks as a rich vein to tap for both growth and investment. Burke, who once ran EuroDisney, cited theme parks as a major area of growth in 2013.

For the second year in a row, Comcast said it would boost its capital investment plan at NBCUniversal, aiming for a 25 percent increase with a big chunk of that pledged to new theme park attractions.

Comcast plans to bring its "Harry Potter" attraction to Hollywood, for instance, taking aim at Disney's (DIS.N) core market.

Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Harrigan estimates that Comcast invested $155 million in theme parks last year.

"The parks are doing fabulously," said Harrigan. "They were the poor cousin of Disney but not anymore."

Harrigan called NBCUniversal a "work in progress" that was still stabilizing. While he agrees that NBCUniversal is headed in the right direction, he said the Universal studio's full-year operating cash flow in 2012 was underwhelming at $79 million, up from $24 million in 2011.

NOW WE GOT COMCAST BUYING NBCUniversal. As you see, Comcast plans to bring Harry Potter to Hollywood. (Already knew). How may this buyout of NBCUniversal will be in the future?

 

[Jon Fu]

Well, I think this shows that Comcast is committed to NBCUniversal in the long term. It's interesting to see how they've noted the theme park portion of the company as a "tent-pole" source of revenue.


But I think the real test will come when the parks undergo a period of economic decline. That's not to say I hope something like that happens, but we need to keep in mind that General Electric operated the theme parks in the midst of one of the country's worse economic downtowns. When you consider General Electric's infamous cost-cutting measures, that's not a good combination, and may have hurt Universal more than it should have if we had a decent economy.


In short, I'm cautiously optimistic. It's nice that the parks are doing well, but I want to see how Comcast invests in the company in the long term. They've shown that they're serious - that's for sure - but so did General Electric when it bought Vivendi's majority share of Universal.

 

[Chris]

I have noticed that since the addition of King Kong 360 USH has prospered far better than in past years between 1999-2009.  During that decade and the disastrous effects of 9/11 to the tourism economy, Universal was closing one attraction after another just to maintain costs.

I am excited to see change coming to USH.  I am sad to lose all the locations and memories from my youth, but it will be nice to see what this park has in store for itself in the coming decade.  Hopefully we can keep the terrorists acts out of it this time...

 

[Allen The Actor]

^ They weren't really closing the attractions to maintain costs, they were unfortunately closing them to replace them with (IMO) inferior attractions that they deemed to be more popular.

But i do have high hopes for USH's future. I also am hoping for a future Universal Pictures movie that'll be a success to warrant a ride, like ET, JP, and BTTF did before.

 

[Jon Fu]

Wild West, Spiderman and Fear Factor are just a few notable closures.

 

[Allen The Actor]

^ Fear Factor is notable? jk

 

[Jon Fu]

Well, at least they tried. Haha.

 

[Miss Betty Juice]

I would rather have fear factor than creature from the black lagoon any day. =P Spiderman was slightly better i suppose. it would be nice if Comcast was willing to put in the money for another show...

 

[Allen The Actor]

See, sad thing is, i think good money went into the "Creature" musical. It was just painfully cheesy for it's own good and was filled with sexual innuendos that were over the top that no one outside of HHN would wanna see. Couple that with it being a musical. I'm a theater geek and love musicals, and it was even painful for me to watch! Haha

Off topic, but anyone think it would be cool to see a more elaborate version of Wicked than what USJ had? Like, a 45 minute theme park version that's more of the full story, similar to how Aladdin is at DCA? Or is 45 mins too long of a show for USH crowds? As a Wicked fan, I'd love to see it

 

[Miss Betty Juice]

See, sad thing is, i think good money went into the "Creature" musical. It was just painfully cheesy for it's own good and was filled with sexual innuendos that were over the top that no one outside of HHN would wanna see. Couple that with it being a musical. I'm a theater geek and love musicals, and it was even painful for me to watch! Haha

Off topic, but anyone think it would be cool to see a more elaborate version of Wicked than what USJ had? Like, a 45 minute theme park version that's more of the full story, similar to how Aladdin is at DCA? Or is 45 mins too long of a show for USH crowds? As a Wicked fan, I'd love to see it

Wicked is my favorite musical and I could literally freak out for days about the reasons why we should have a version in Hollywood. 45 minutes may be pushing it, but then again - the tour is longer than that! If they did it right, I absolutely think they should bring Wicked to USH.

 

[Allen The Actor]

Adri, same!!! It's my favorite, I've seen it 12 times live I think it would be a big hit at USH if done right. When the LA production was here, the Wicked Wednesdays at Universal Studios were always pretty popular! And heck, maybe once they get the movie announced finally, it'll be a good tie in!

 

[UniversalFan]

I forgot what the Wicked Wednesdays were, anyone want to tell me?

 

[Allen The Actor]

They had the cast from the Los Angeles Wicked production visit during certain Wednesdays during the summer of 2007 or 2008 (forget which) and they would sing songs from the show, but before they did, they had karaoke contests and prizes, and then meet and greets. Notable cast members were Adam Lambert, Julie Reiber, Megan Hilty, Eden Espinosa, Adam Wylie, and Emily Rozek.

 

[Miss Betty Juice]

They had the cast from the Los Angeles Wicked production visit during certain Wednesdays during the summer of 2007 or 2008 (forget which) and they would sing songs from the show, but before they did, they had karaoke contests and prizes, and then meet and greets. Notable cast members were Adam Lambert, Julie Reiber, Megan Hilty, Eden Espinosa, Adam Wylie, and Emily Rozek.

If I met Eden I would just die. She is my first and favorite Elphie. I never heard about Universal doing this! Do you happen to know of any articles or video of any of those days?

 

[Allen The Actor]

Met Eden loads of times, she's my first and favorite too! Absolutely a sweetheart, so cool in person! But no one was ever bubblier than Megan Hilty in person, she was an absolute doll every time i met her! And Adam Lambert and i actually started to become chummy! It was awesome, i miss the LA cast.

And it's all on YouTube, here's the link to the first clip from the first day. The same uploader has all the other days as well, so just click on their YouTube profile after you're done:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/TIkIHG-c8dE?feature=oembed