By any metric, Epic Universe has been a huge hit. The newest American theme park has added a third gate to Universal Orlando Resort, and it includes some of the most advanced theme park attractions you’ll find anywhere in the world. Of course, the park’s popularity means that you’ll have to deal with crowds, and it appears that over the next several months, those crowds are going to get subtly worse.
Comcast held its Q3 2025 Earnings Call this morning, and during the Q&A period, Comcast President and soon-to-be Co-CEO Mike Cavenaugh revealed that revenue for the theme park division of Universal was up 19% for the quarter. It was Epic Universe’s first full quarter of operation since it opened in May, and Cavenaugh indicated that he expected revenues to only increase, in part because they have been keeping the capacity of Epic Universe artificially low. But he expects to begin ramping that up over the next several months. He said…
We've been holding back a little bit to make sure the experience is what we want it to be, so we expect it to fully scale up in the months ahead, and we’ll really be driving higher attendance, per-caps and improved operating leverage … over the next year, year-plus.
Cavanaugh indicated that the technological advancement of Epic Universe is actually a big part of the reason they’ve made the decision to be “holding back” on Epic. It’s been clear that two of Epic Universe's best rides, Monsters Unchained: the Frankenstein Experiment, and Harry Potter and the Battle of the Ministry, have been having some growing pains. While the rides are certainly up more than they’re down, they have been going down more often than other rides in the park. It's unfortunate since I think Battle at the Ministry is the best ride at Epic Universe, though not everybody here agrees with that.
The implication is that Epic Universe just hasn’t really been quite ready to handle more people effectively, and so the plan has been to keep attendance at a level that the park can handle. As things improve, that capacity will be steadily increased.
To be clear, the fact that Universal has been managing capacity is a good thing. If the park had gone for full capacity and been unready for it, a lot of people would have had less than wonderful experiences, and early word of mouth was always going to be important to the park.
The fact that capacity will be steadily growing is good news if you’re attending an earnings call, as it means the park will make more money. It’s perhaps a bit less exciting if you’re planning a trip to the park, as it means it will likely be more crowded than it is now. That said, if the plan works as expected, and the park is able to handle more people, it’s possible that Epic Universe won’t feel more crowded, even if it technically is.
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