I found this a very interesting read. Many of you may know all this already.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2014/07/14/the-secrets-behind-disneys-2-2-billion-theme-park-profits/
Good article. Seems that they've done their research.
I sort of knew this but only in bits and pieces, the article pulls everything together very well.
I must be reading the contract extracts incorrectly, because I thought DLP had to pay TWDC each time they have different characters (therefore they don't bother) but the way I read this it seems to suggest that they pay a %age of the take each year, not linked to which characters they have.
But if that were the case, surely they'd have loads of different characters all the time - of course, the ones they have are great, but we have met them a million times and new ones would make trips to DLP even more appealing.
I'm assuming they have a blanket license deal for the broad Disney IP use in the park, but they may still need to license individual costumes for the CMs, something that could get pretty costly I imagine if you refreshed regularly. :)