Universal vs Disney: The Battle for Orlando | Epic Rivalry | 4
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Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Business Wars ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. From Audible Originals, I'm David Brown and this is Business Wars.
For decades, Disney was the undisputed champion of theme parks. From the original Disneyland to its multi-park expansion in Orlando, its signature cruises and global expansion, it seemed like nothing could topple Disney from the top of... Well, Space Mountain. But Disney's biggest rival, Universal Studios, kept plugging away. And eventually had its big breakthrough when the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened in 2010 in Orlando. Disney responded with Galaxy's Edge, a fully immersive Star Wars experience to build off its purchase of the franchise. but Universal shows no signs of backing down. In 2025, it launched Epic Universe, a massive park with five immersive worlds. Here to take us on a ride through these fierce theme park rivalries is journalist Drew Taylor.
Drew's been covering film, animation, and theme parks for the past 15 years for outlets like We'll talk about how Universal's been able to gain ground on Disney, what's new on the theme park landscape, and why these days it's all about the IP. There is no minimum height requirement for this episode, so stay with us.
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Drew Taylor, welcome to Business Wars.
Well, thank you for having me. I've never engaged in any kind of conflict, verbal or otherwise. So this this is my first wars and I'm happy it's with you.
Well, no conflict expected here. Let's let's talk about what you've been up to. I gather that you've covered the theme park landscape for The Wrap and The New York Times and a whole lot more. And tell me a little bit more about fine tuning your podcast. I gather you go rather deep on Disney animation.
Yes, we do. I've been an animation fan, you know, pretty much as long as I can remember. And I've always I wanted to be an animator, but then realized I had no talent. So I turned that into writing about animation, which is wonderful because I get to talk to these people that make these amazing movies. It's such an incredible time for animation and for theme parks. So, you know, having those as my beats is a lot of fun.
Writing about animation, it reminded me of, I guess it was Elvis Costello or someone who was quoted as saying, what is it? Dancing about architecture. I forget what it was. Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, something like that. So what does it mean to write about animation?
Well, you know, there's many facets to it. I write a lot of art of and making of books as well, including, I should really plug this, The Art of Wildwood, which is about the new Laika stop motion film, which is out in October. So please pre-order your copy, everyone who's listening. You know, do yourself a favor. It'll be a lovely coffee table book. But a lot of writing about animation is visiting the studios, getting to know the people that are making these movies, talking to them about what the struggle is like. These projects take so long and are multi-year projects, so you get a lot of opportunity to kind of check in on things. You know, animation is really keeping the industry afloat. The top two movies globally last year were both animated.
The only movie to break a billion dollars at the global box office this year was animated. We're seeing the incredible success of Toy Story 5 and Minions and Monsters right now. It's a good place to be because I don't think a lot of people take animation seriously, even though it does kind of drive the entire industry. So that's a good point. You know, I take very silly things seriously and I'm very happy to make animation and theme parks my kind of cornerstones.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–5:10
2
How did Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter change the Orlando theme park rivalry?
5:10–24:41
3
How is Disney’s animation history connected to its theme park identity?
24:41–43:23
4
Why did Universal win the Harry Potter license when Disney originally had it?
43:23–47:38