3. Profit margin > foot traffic

There’s another lesson that the boy wizard has to teach the big two theme park operators: not only can less be more, it can be a lot more when you’re moving significantly more than just tickets.

Robes, scarves, wands (both the standard and interactive varieties), and, of course, food and drink options have been so phenomenally successful at Universal Orlando, they paid for the $260 million Hogsmeade Village in just four months (despite Universal’s own internal predictions suggesting it would take five years). To say this is the wave of the future for all themed endeavors is a profound understatement.

The Weasleys, interactive wands, and you. Image © Universal.

While many analysts are rather skeptical of Universal’s chances of besting Disney in terms of attendance in any one section of the globe, its ability to trump its adversary in profit margin has been much more warmly regarded. And, obviously, Universal doesn’t need more theme parks to widen the margin even more – it just needs a series of intellectual properties that it can fully exploit in terms of merchandise and culinary offerings once the Wizarding Worlds have been fully deployed.

With the likes of the Simpsons on the way in Hollywood and King Kong in Orlando, that’s a remarkably solid continuation – and it’s not even taking Universal’s worldwide online store into effect, helping to reach those areas, like Dubai and South Korea, that don’t have access to an Universal Studios.

This, then, would be the key to winning the battlefield: in true asymmetrical-warfare fashion, Universal needs to avoid the battlefield altogether and move the conflict zone to its own turf, where Disney's superior numbers are mitigated and new strategies must be learned.

Or else.
 
 
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2 Big Reasons Why Theme Parks May Live to Regret Copying Hollywood
2 Unavoidable Reasons Why Amusement Parks Will Become Extinct
3 BIG Reasons Why Marvel's Super Heroes Haven't Saved Disney's Theme Parks (Yet)