Orlando, Monday, 15 September 2025.
Last Wednesday at Destination D23 in Orlando, Disney signalled a clear shift back to active capital deployment across parks and studios — with the most striking takeaway being the deliberate alignment of film release schedules with park projects to boost attendance and ancillary spend. For retail professionals this means clearer multi-year merchandising windows, franchise-driven attraction rollouts, and prioritized calendar slots that create predictable demand spikes. Presentations highlighted new attraction concepts, IP-integrated programming and phased operational timelines that offer forward visibility on procurement cycles, licensing touchpoints and potential partnership scopes. Expect sharper brief windows for product launches tied to studio slates, increased opportunities for experiential retail and F&B upsell, and contract timing linked to capital phasing. The announcement also confirmed D23’s next fan event in Anaheim next August, reinforcing Disney’s event-driven merchandising cadence — useful for planning inventory, promotional calendars and supplier negotiations over the coming 12–24 months.