What We Know About Shanghai Disney's Reopening

Chinese consumers appear to be eager to visit Walt Disney Co's DIS theme park, as opening day tickets for May 16 sold out within minutes.

What Happened At Shanghai Disney

Chinese third-party ticket vendor Flitty said it completely sold out of tickets to visit Shanghai Disney within just 3 minutes, CNBC's Eunice Yoon reported. The vendor sold out all of its available tickets for the full week within 1 hour.

Another third-party ticket vendor, MeiTuan, sold out of its allotted tickets for the opening day as well.

Shanghai Disney Reopens With Restrictions

Chinese consumers are very excited to be able to visit Disney's parks on Monday after a difficult few months of confinement, Yoon said.

Disney is limiting the park's capacity from its average of around 80,000 visitors per day to a strict limit of 24,000. Restrictions include temperature checks and other health and safety requirements, yet there is still "a lot of excitement" among Chinese consumers.

What's Next For Disney

Disney said its shopping, dining and entertainment complex Disney Springs will go through a phased reopening on May 20 in Orlando's Disney World. Rosenblatt Securities analyst Bernie McTernan said in a note that this is a positive first step for Disney, although there are still many unknowns.

Assuming Orlando follows a similar path as Shanghai, Disney World could completely reopen on July 22, which is 41 days ahead of current forecasts of September, the analyst said. This would add $210 million to the segment's operating income estimates in the fourth quarter, or $315 million if Disneyland in California also reopens, he said. 

Disney shares were trading 2.06% higher at $107.74 at the time of publication Friday.

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Photo by Baycrest via Wikimedia.