Disney IP anchors theme parks. Here’s why it works

The “Happiest Place on Earth” turns 70 this week.

Disneyland, a pillar of the Anaheim, California, community since 1955, was a passion project of founder Walt Disney, a place where adults and their children could have fun together. It also served as a place where the longtime media company could show off and weave together different pieces of its business from films, television shows and comic strips to music and merchandising.

Disney’s portfolio of intellectual property has been the bedrock of its theme parks since the very first location opened its doors. These days, the company’s experiences division, which includes parks, resorts, cruises and consumer products, remains one of its best profit drivers. Operating income for the unit for fiscal 2024 was more than double that of the content-centric entertainment division, where the IP originates.

Disneyland in Anaheim began with more than a dozen attractions, many of which were pulled directly from Disney’s archive of theatrical films. Among them were Mad Tea Party based on “Alice in Wonderland,” Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride from “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad,” Peter Pan’s Flight, Snow White’s Enchanted Wish and Dumbo the Flying Elephant.

Over the past seven decades, Disney has opened a total of 12 theme parks across the United States, Europe and Asia, with another set to open in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in the coming years. It also has a fleet of cruise ships, which is set to double by 2031, and nearly 60 resort hotels and vacation properties globally.

“If you go back now 70 years ago, Walt knew the great stories that he was creating, if he combined those with the technologies that were at hand at the time with this idea of an immersive experience that he could create something that no one else had ever done,” said Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Walt Disney’s parks and resorts. “And it really set the Disney brand apart.”

The first rides at Disneyland were interspersed with original creations like Jungle Cruise, Autopia and the Disneyland Railroad.

While Disney would bring a number of non-IP attractions to life over the next few decades — Matterhorn Bobsleds, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain, among them — in the last decade, the company has committed to utilizing its existing catalog of stories to fuel new and updated attractions in its domestic and international theme parks.

Much of that strategy has come in the wake of CEO Bob Iger’s acquisition of four major studios — Pixar (2006), Marvel (2009), Lucasfilm (2012) and 20th Century Fox (2019) — which brought coveted franchises under the House of Mouse roof.

“I think we’ve been fortunate now in that we have gone after that IP, brought it into the Disney fold, and just made the brand even more powerful,” D’Amaro said.

Many of these brands already appeared in the company’s parks as part of licensing deals, like Star Tours, which opened in 1987; Indiana Jones Adventure, added in 1995; and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster, which debuted in 2005.

The company also opened entire lands — curated areas that have themed rides, food and entertainment centered on one piece of IP. This included A Bug’s Land, which opened in 2002 at Disney’s California Adventure park, based on Pixar’s “A Bug’s Life” and Pandora — The World of Avatar, which opened in 2017 and is set on the fictional planet Pandora from Fox’s “Avatar” film and built at Animal Kingdom in Florida.

Many of these additions came under the leadership of then-CEO Michael Eisner, who helmed the company from 1984 until 2005.

Chief among his acquisitions was securing the IP for Star Wars and Indiana Jones — two of the biggest franchises of the time — according to Gavin Doyle, founder of MickeyVisit.com. Eisner “went and licensed it and brought it into the parks,” Doyle said.

Decades later, Disney acquired Lucasfilm, which owns both film franchises, and expanded…