While parent company Comcast has beat earnings expectations overall, their Universal theme parks division saw a significant drop off in revenue in Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2020. Revenue dropped 33.1% to $619 million.

This, of course, can mostly be attributed to the pandemic. Universal’s theme parks were mostly unaffected by the pandemic in Q1 of 2020. In 2020, Universal’s theme park revenue dropped over 80% due to park closure and capacity limits.

Sadly, this lead to a number of layoffs for Universal Team Members.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. As many who’ve been to Orlando theme parks can attest to, people are still packing the parks. The numbers will naturally increase as more restrictions are eased.

And there’s the issue of “pent up demand.” We hear a lot about that from both Universal and Disney, but it does appear to be true. Many are holding off on visiting theme parks until the pandemic is mostly in the rear view mirror for a variety of reasons.

From Variety…

Executives are placing new hopes in both the company’s theme parks and Peacock streaming-video hub, they indicated Thursday during a conference call with investors.  “We can see first-hand the pent up demand” for family activity outside the home, said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, predicting that dynamic would boost the company’s movie business as well as visits to its theme parks.

And let’s not forgot that Super Nintendo World and Epic Universe still lie ahead for Universal. Both of these additions are highly anticipated.

Aside from NBCUniversal’s theme parks and theatrical releases taking a hit, Comcast did very well for itself overall.

Comcast’s adjusted earnings per share beat expectations at 76 cents vs 58 cents expected.
Revenue was $27.21 billion vs $26.7 billion expected, and high-speed internet customers were 461,000 vs 396,000 net adds expected.

[Source: CNBC]