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Back to Disney: The Renaissance and the Empire.

Why Did Eisner and Wells Raise Disney Park Prices?

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal say Michael Eisner and Frank Wells raised ticket and parking prices at Disneyland and Disney World because those prices had sat flat since Walt died. Parking was still a dollar. Inflation in the 1970s had left so much room that lifting parking from $1 to $5 would not dent demand.

The extra money was pure cash flow. The parks did not change how they ran. Eisner and Wells put that cash into live-action studios and a Paramount-style slate of singles and doubles. Even that did not cover the full film slate, so a partner called Silver Screens financed each film they made over the next eight years. The singles-and-doubles approach that had worked at Paramount worked even better at Disney.

Transcript

Disney: The Renaissance and the Empire ·

Acquired

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