“The great thing about the theme park business, particularly the way we approach the theme park business and
where we are in our life cycle, it’s sort of an ‘if you build it, they will come’ business,” Burke said. “If we keep investing in Florida, California, Japan, Beijing, and
potentially other countries around the world, we can have significant double-digit [operating cash flow] growth for many, many years.
“Theme parks, which was a part of the company that we really didn’t spend much time even thinking about when we bought it, is now one of our favorite parts of NBCUniversal,” Burke said.
He said the parks are the perfect outlet for NBCUniversal’s intellectual property, including Despicable Me, Minions, and the characters in the DreamWorks portfolio, which the company
acquired this year.
“It’s so perfectly complementary with the rest of the company,” Burke said.
“Of all the businesses in some ways, I think over a 10-or 20-year period, it is the clearest vision we have for how to expand at a very rapid rate for a very long period of time.”or 20-year period, it is the clearest vision we have for how to expand at a very rapid rate for a very long period of time.”
Universal Theme Parks Are Bound for a Long Stretch of Rapid Growth, CEO Says – Skift