This is How Much Disneyland Makes a Day—It’s Shocking

Discover How Much Disneyland Makes a Day!
This photo was taken by Michael for Countdown to Magic

With Disneyland and Disney California Adventure ticket prices now significantly over $100.00 per day for the average single day park tickets, it’s probably not a shock that the beloved theme park is raking in the money.  But, just how much does Disneyland make a day when you factor in all of its revenue streams?  I decided to dig into some exciting Disney stats and numbers to find out, and the answer is pretty shocking.

How Much Does Disneyland Make a Day

This photo was taken by Michael for Countdown to Magic

Disneyland makes approximately $13.5 millions per day on average.  With that said, it costs approximately $3.25 million to properly operate Disneyland every single day. Therefore, the daily net profit of Disneyland is approximately $10.25 million.

General Information

In order to properly determine how much Disneyland makes in a day, we must first define the type of income that we are specifically looking to share! For the sake of this article, we will be discussing gross income, which is the total amount of money that Disneyland makes prior to the deduction of production, salary and supplies costs as well as prior to the deduction of taxes and fees.

We will also explore a ballpark estimate of the net income (profits) of Disneyland for one day in addition to gross income! Unfortunately, specific information isn’t always available so there is a pretty hefty amount of guesswork that goes into calculating gross income (unless you work for the company of course)!

Guest Costs

Sleeping Beauty Castle” by HarshLight licensed under CC BY 2.0

Let’s jump right on into the nitty-gritty of determining just how much Disneyland earns in a single day of operation! In order to do this in the most simple way possible, we must first determine an approximate and average cost that each guest pays for each day of their park visit!

Let’s go ahead and say that our example guest, Sarah, is planning a solo, five day and six night trip to Disneyland and she is staying on site at the Disneyland Hotel. The cost of a five day, one park per day ticket (without Genie+) in early 2023 works out to about $420 if you purchase directly through Disney, which breaks down to about $83 a day.

If Sarah were to add park hopping capabilities or the genie+ addition, the total cost for her five day ticket could range anywhere from $480 all the way up to $605, assuming she purchases Genie+ ($25 per person per day) at the time of booking.

Sarah booked her room at the Disneyland Hotel several months in advance, and she found that the cheapest room available would cost her approximately $500 a night without any extra additions to her stay. The hotel does not have free breakfast included, however there is a restaurant on site that will serve breakfast for the cost of a standard meal.

Typically, this can range anywhere from $10-$50 depending both on what you order as well as any drinks that you get with your meal. Let’s say that Sarah‘s breakfast costs her $25 per day of her trip. Already, Sarah has paid a total of $608 for one day of her five day Disneyland trip, and she hasn’t even made it into the park itself yet!

Once Sarah enters the park, she has the opportunity to purchase any number of snacks, beverages, souvenirs and even individual lightning lanes for a few specific rides that she might enjoy! Sarah finds several pairs of ears that she wants to purchase within Disneyland, which cost $34 plus sales tax per pair at the time that this article was written.

For the sake of our example, let’s say that she bought three pairs of ears on her first day in the park! Sarah also chose to have a churro and a dole whip during her time in the park, which averages out to about $10 before sales tax. Sarah has now spent $112 on souvenirs and food within the park.

By the time that Sarah has made it from the beginning of her Disney day to the end of her time in the park, she has spent a grand total of $720 on Disneyland property.

Total Number of Guests

According to the Orange County Register, Disneyland received an average of 51,000 visitors per day while California Adventure averaged about 27,000 visitors per day in 2019. While the Coronavirus pandemic has undoubtedly swayed these numbers, we can imagine that they are reasonably similar to the pre-pandemic statistics.

If every single guest who visits the park each day has a similar budget to Sarah, we can assume that the two parks bring in around $56 million per day. It is extremely unlikely, however, that every guest visiting the park on any given day is staying on property and spending upwards of $100 on souvenirs per visit, so chances are this number isn’t all that accurate in the grand scheme of things. 

Let’s take a look at the official numbers released by Disney and see how our rough estimate compares to the real world income from the Disneyland Resort!

The Official Numbers

Minnie Mouse” by HarshLight licensed under CC BY 2.0

Now that we have done our best to make an official guess with the information we have been given, it’s time for the moment that you’ve all been waiting for! Just how much does Disneyland Resort make over the span of 24 hours? Unfortunately, in order for us to answer this question, we need to do just a little bit more math!

According to the Quarter 4 Earnings Report for the Fiscal Year of 2022, released directly by the Walt Disney Company, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products worked out to approximately $7.4 billion for the three month span of the quarter (quarter four for the fiscal year of 2022 starts at the beginning of April and concludes at the beginning of June).

It’s important to note that there are six parks throughout the world which factor into these numbers, so we have to take the time to calculate a more specific number for the Disneyland resort!

Since there’s no way for us to know exactly which parks bring in certain dollar amounts, we can really only get an average total income for each of the Disney Parks per quarter. If we divide 7,400,000,000 by six, we end up with 1.23 billion dollars per quarter, per park which ultimately means that the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California makes approximately $1.23 billion every three months!

To narrow it down even further, we know that there are 91 days in the fourth quarter of the year (30 days in April, 31 days in May and 30 days in June), so in order to get an average daily amount we will need to divide 1,230,000,000 by 91. 

This ultimately comes out to about 13,516,000, meaning that the Disneyland resort makes a rough average of $13.5 million per day.

13 million is quite a far cry from the 56 million that we estimated earlier in the article, so you might be wondering why there’s such a large discrepancy! Firstly, it’s important to take note that our previous estimate was based on attendance numbers that were recorded in the year 2019 (prior to the coronavirus pandemic), as there hasn’t been a lot of information released by the company surrounding attendance during and after the pandemic.

As an additional factor, our hypothetical tourists budget is fairly high, as many park guests are traveling in families, staying on property and otherwise splitting up costs amongst their fellow guests. Guests in early 2023 can spend anywhere from approximately $83 per day all the way upwards of several thousand dollars in one day depending on where they eat, what souvenirs they purchase and if they have any add-ons (such as a VIP tour)!

Final Number — So What’s the Net Profit?

How Much Does Disneyland Earn a Day?  Let's Find Out

Through all of our prior calculations within this article, we have determined that the Disneyland Resort pulls in about $13.51 million every single day of operation. This may seem like a lot of money, but it’s important to keep in mind that this number is not yet including the costs required to keep the park functioning.

Operational costs can include salaries, supplies and even things such as pyrotechnic costs for the firework shows, so in order to land on the net profit, we have to subtract the operational costs for the same 24 hour stretch of time!

Now according to Yahoo, it costs Disney about $3.25 million per day to run Disneyland.  This high figure factors in things like paying employees, paying for janitorial services, ride maintenance and more.

As we mentioned earlier, the net profit of Disneyland Resort is ultimately calculated by subtracting the operational costs from the gross income of the park. If we subtract $3.25 million from the $13.5 million that we calculated earlier, we end up with the final total of $11.0 million in net profit for the Disneyland Resort.

Overall Numbers

In conclusion, the Disneyland Resort located in Anaheim, California brings in a gross profit of a whopping $13.51 million for each day of operation, typically 365 days a year. The net profit for the resort works out to about $11 million per day! To top it all off, let’s determine an average of what the resort makes in net profit for each year!

The net profit for the Disneyland Resort comes in at a whopping $11 million per day, which works out to $4,015,000,000 dollars per year!

Whether you guessed that the Disneyland Resort earned $2 million or $100 million per day, it’s fascinating to put into perspective just how many people attend the parks per day and how much money goes into maintaining and running the parks that we all know and love!

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