• Disney plans to bring dynamic ticket pricing to U.S. parks.
  • Stepping back from Warner Bros. bidding and a disappointing Q3, Q4 leaves Disney reliant on parks and upcoming films.
  • Disney may have the best slate of blockbusters out there for the holidays and through 2026.

Never mind buying Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) — how about charging more to visit Disneyland when it’s crowded?

That’s what the Walt Disney Company (DIS) has turned to following a less-than-inspiring Q3 at the box office, where the flop of “Tron: Ares” pushed it into (verbal meme) dog-drinking-coffee-in-a-burning-house territory.

After that came the stay-the-course-oriented Q4 earnings call, where executives let us know they are bowing out of the Warner Bros. sweepstakes on the hope that a strong holiday season and 2026 will keep Disney apace with the likes of Comcast (CMCSA), Paramount (PSKY), and Netflix (NFLX).

All three Disney competitors submitted bids for Warner Bros. this Nov. 20, marking the next chapter of an ongoing bidding war, per The New York Times.

None of those companies has a parks division to rival Disney’s (Comcast/NBC operate Universal Parks & Resorts). So Disney plans to lean on a differentiator — its iconic parks — until the company’s blockbusters come to rescue it in 2026.

Disney theme parks will adjust ticket pricing based on demand.

Shutterstock

Disney leans into dynamic park pricing

At the Wells Fargo (WFC) Tech Summit on Nov. 19, Disney confirmed it will implement dynamic ticket pricing at its U.S. parks.

Dynamic pricing is the practice of adjusting ticket prices based on the volume of customers already booked for a given time. So no more flat rate, and if you’re visiting during a busy season (holidays, summer), you’ll end up paying more to take a selfie with Goofy.

Read on for a breakdown of why Disney wants to see how far they can stretch your (and your family’s) pocketbooks.

Related: White House demands have unexpected impact on Warner Bros. sale

Disney CFO Hugh Johnston defended the statement and massaged expectations.

“We’re actually investing in creating dynamic pricing. We’re doing it in Paris right now. We’ve been doing it for about a year,” Johnston said during the event Q&A.

“It’s off to a very good start, but we’re really going to make sure we optimize it before we bring it into the domestic parks. So that’s probably something that you won’t see this year, but you may see in the subsequent years.”

Sounds like he’s cautious of the public response, which was confirmed when another question asked if this would resemble the oft-maligned dynamic pricing model airlines use (check out Forbes’ breakdown of dynamic pricing’s impact on your holiday travel).

Most of us are familiar with flights at not-ungodly hours costing more, flights on certain days costing more, etc. That’s dynamic pricing.

“I’d like to not think about it that way, to be honest with you. But yes, similar,” Johnston allowed, according to Deadline’s reporting.

My theory is that Disney’s motivations for switching to dynamic pricing stem from feeling left out of the Warner Bros. sweepstakes, a rocky Q3 at the box office, and the available cushion of a very strong parks division.

Disney bets big on holidays films and 2026

A down 2025 at the box office has Disney CEO Bob Iger counting on Thanksgiving and Christmas releases to right the ship for both Disney and its subsidiary, Marvel Studios, as the company rushes into the new year.

“[‘Zootopia 2’] is our Thanksgiving release,” Iger explained during Disney’s Q4 earnings call. “We finish the calendar year with ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash.’ Obviously, we have very, very high hopes for that.”

More Disney:

  • Walt Disney is the only movie company that matters
  • Disney makes bold statement on Warner Bros. purchase
  • AMC stock secretly relies on these upcoming Disney films

Disney believes those two blockbusters, both sequels to billion-dollar earners, will lead to gains in its Q1, which runs until January.

The reason it needs to make up ground? Well, “Elio,” live-action “Snow White,” and “Freakier Friday” made a paltry $512 million combined, leaving all three out of this year’s top 10 (see below for comparison).

2025 Box-Office Top 10

Rank

Title

Global

Domestic

1

“Ne Zha 2“

$1,902,337,333

$23,322,209

2

“Lilo & Stitch“

$1,037,869,882

$423,778,855

3

“A Minecraft Movie“

$957,949,195

$423,949,195

4

“Jurassic World: Rebirth“

$868,479,513

$339,640,400

5

“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie – Infinity Castle“

$670,176,164

$133,176,164

6

“How to Train Your Dragon“

$636,055,256

$262,958,100

7

“F1: The Movie“

$629,527,111

$189,527,111

8

“Superman“

$615,984,465

$354,184,465

9

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning“

$598,767,057

$197,413,515

10

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps“

$521,858,728

$274,286,610

Source:Box Office Mojo

So yeah, not a great year, and then “Tron: Ares” crawled into — and out of — the box office in an underperforming coup-de-grace.

It’s why Iger’s pushing so many chips into the middle for “Zootopia” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” However that shakes out, the longtime head honcho does have one final ace: Disney could dominate the box office in 2026.

Marvel needs to succeed in 2026

It all depends on the Marvel piece. Essentially, Marvel’s 2025 was flat-out embarrassing, especially compared to historical performance.

Marvel Studios’ three major 2025 releases fell well short of box-office expectations. “Fantastic Four: First Steps” made $520 million internationally, “Captain America: Brave New World” earned just $200 million, and “Thunderbolts*” pulled $190 million, per Box Office Mojo data.

Here’s that in context of Marvel’s all-time best returns:

Top 5 Marvel films of all time, by global box office:

  • “Avengers: Endgame” (2019): $2,799,439,100
  • “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018): $2,052,415,039
  • “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021): $1,921,426,073
  • “Black Panther” (2018): $1,349,926,083
  • “Deadpool & Wolverine” (2024): $1,338,073,645
    Source: Box Office Mojo

These results are definitely not up to standard. Iger and Disney, however, believe they have a couple fight-stopping punches for their competitors in 2026 (meaning film and TV megahits that will thrill audiences, if that metaphor didn’t land).

Iger offered more detail during Disney’s Q4 Earnings Webcast.

Surprisingly, he forgot to even mention “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which will sling into theaters July 2026 and undoubtedly be a massive affair.

Clearly, Disney has the fuel necessary to get where it wants to go, content-wise.

The pain threshold of parkgoers, however, will determine whether the dynamic pricing bump is worth the shareholder value it’s meant to engender until those films hit theaters.

Related: ESPN makes surprise change after controversy