Universal Orlando’s New Theme Park, Epic Universe, to Open in 2023

Epic Universe, Universal Orlando’s fourth theme park, is expected to open as soon as 2023, officials let it slip Thursday during a Comcast earnings call.

“We recently announced we’re doing a fourth gate in Orlando in 2023,” said Stephen Burke, senior EVP & CEO of NBCUniversal, during the call with investors. “We think the theme park business is a great business for us, and we’re going to be making the investment to try and grow cash flow aggressively in the future.”

Joining Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay, the 750-acre complex was announced in August.

While it is still not clear what Universal franchises and intellectual property will call the new theme park home, speculation includes a Nintendo-themed area, the DreamWorks animated film “How to Train Your Dragon,” classic Universal monsters, and the Harry Potter prequel series “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

Six years ago, the theme park business made about $1 billion in profits for Comcast Corp (which owns NBC Universal, the parent company of Universal parks and resorts), and now rakes in about $2.5 billion.

For the latest third-quarter earnings, attendance rose at Universal theme parks, helping to generate $1.63 billion in revenue, nearly a 7% jump from the same time period last year (during which time natural disasters affected Universal Studios Japan).

Universal’s theme parks saw summer launches of Jurassic World in Hollywood and the Hagrid-themed Harry Potter coaster in Orlando. It “remains bullish” on growth opportunities with Super Nintendo World opening in Japan in 2020 and a new theme park coming in 2021 to Beijing, China.