Comcast's CFO Says Orlando Softness Has Not Changed This Quarter, and Blames Epic Universe's Own Opening Year for Part of It

In July, Comcast told investors Orlando had gone soft in June and blamed higher fuel prices, higher travel costs and weaker consumer sentiment. On Wednesday its finance chief added a less comfortable explanation: Epic Universe's own blockbuster first year.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference, Comcast chief financial officer Jason Armstrong turned to the parks. He noted "near-term headwinds" following a 2025 opening that "lifted all boats in the Orlando market for us," then said the slowdown has not eased.

"What we started to see in June was softness in Orlando, and we articulated that on the [earnings] call," Armstrong said, per Deadline. "As we move through the [current] quarter, I would tell you I don't think anything's changed. We're continuing to see softness in that market."

That is the update. The July call said the trend "has continued into the third quarter." Seven weeks later, with most of the quarter gone, the answer is still the same.

The new part: a pull-forward

What Armstrong added on Wednesday was a cause absent from Comcast's July explanation.

"Equal parts a little bit macro, gas prices, airfare ..." he said, before pivoting. "But also, there clearly was a pull-forward. You've seen the park. You know, Epic's a fantastic park. There was a ton of pent-up demand."

"If you rewind the clock a year ago, that was sort of the discussion. Here we are a year later, comping against that, and so I think that's playing a little bit of a role now."

In plain terms, Armstrong is saying the crowds who would have visited Orlando in 2026 partly went in 2025 instead, to see Epic Universe when it was new, and year two is being measured against that spike. It is a reason the company did not give in July, when it pointed to higher fuel prices, higher travel costs and weaker consumer sentiment, and said the softness was hitting Orlando broadly rather than Epic Universe.

Epic Universe's opening celebration in May 2025. Armstrong says the demand pulled forward into that year is part of why 2026 looks soft. Image: Universal Orlando Resort

His defense: change the comparison

Armstrong's answer to the softness was to shift the comparison back a year, and he was explicit about doing it.

"We feel confident that it was the right investment," he said. "How are we doing versus two years ago? ... We are up materially in every metric. That's attendance, per caps, and overall financial performance. And we're rating really well in guest satisfaction. So to me, those are the indicators of future performance. That's what we're focused on."

Note what is and is not there. Against 2024, Armstrong named attendance, per capita spending and financial performance. Against 2025, he named none of them.

Guests ride the Constellation Carousel in Epic Universe's Celestial Park. Armstrong says the parks are "rating really well in guest satisfaction." Image: Universal Orlando Resort

About that stock drop

Comcast shares fell hard on Wednesday, and Deadline reported the stock "fell more than 7% today after his Q&A at the media confab." The shares closed at $24.59, down 6.6 percent from Tuesday's close of $26.33, after touching an intraday low of $24.19, a drop of more than 8 percent at its worst. Deadline's larger figure was a reading from during the session, not at the close.

Do not pin all of that on the theme parks. The same session covered broadband, where Armstrong said Comcast does not expect its broadband subscriber losses to improve in the third quarter and called competitors' fiber pricing "irrational." Per Light Reading, he said: "When we see fiber pricing, standalone fiber pricing, in the $30 to $40 range for a Gig ... that's what we mean by irrational." Light Reading ties the day's 6.61 percent slide to that third quarter broadband expectation. Deadline's own text puts the drop after the question and answer session as a whole, though its headline credits the Epic Universe remarks with dinging the stock. Armstrong also used that session to announce what he called "the largest cost transformation in the company's history," expected to save billions of dollars, with more to come on the third quarter earnings call at the end of October. Per Light Reading, that effort is aimed largely at Comcast's connectivity and platforms side rather than NBCUniversal and Sky.

The split is still on schedule

Armstrong also reaffirmed the timeline for separating NBCUniversal and Sky from Comcast's broadband and wireless business, which will take Universal Destinations & Experiences with it.

"We've given a target of middle of next year and don't see any issues with that. We're off and running towards it," he said. He pointed to "Mike Cavanagh and Michael Angelakis" as the leadership question already answered.

He also ranked what the new company will hold: "You've got a top three studio. You've got a top two global experiences business. You have a streaming business that's mostly domestic focused but [has] made its way to profitability and the future's bright."

Sources

• Deadline, Comcast CFO Notes Ongoing Epic Universe Softness, Dinging Stock; NBCU Split on Track
• Light Reading, Largest cost transformation in Comcast's history will save billions, says CFO
• Comcast Q2 2026 earnings call transcript, July 23, 2026

Image credits: All images Universal Orlando Resort.