Things continue to look grim for Disneyland and the amusement park business as a whole. Disneyland closed its doors in mid-March in the interest of public health for just the fourth time in history and has remained shut down ever since. It's now expected that the park won't open up for business again until January 2021. And even when it does open, there will be major changes and much smaller crowds, one way or another.

A new report did a deep-dive on what is going on in the theme park industry behind-the-scenes. In the report, it's noted that UBS, a Swiss banking giant, told its clients that Disney likely won't be reopening its theme parks until January 1. That would mean a total shutdown of nearly nine months. As we previously reported, it's estimated that Disney is losing $20 to $30 million per day from the parks being closed, which makes this a rather bleak revelation, from a business perspective.

Once Disneyland and Disney World do open their doors once again, it will be a dramatically different experience. To help stick with social distancing guidelines, it's expected that capacity will be heavily limited at the parks. Not only that, but many industry analysts believe that theme park attendance will take a big dip anyway, as many people will not be eager to gather outside in large crowded areas for some time. An alleged plan for the future of Disney Parks leaked online that revealed these reopening plans would include no parades, no castle shows and no fireworks. Health checks, such as taking guest's temperatures, would be performed at the park. Plus, visitors would be required to sign a waiver that would clear Disney of any liability if they were to get sick at the park.

These seemingly extreme measures open up a host of other questions. With the health and safety measures, Disney, and other theme park operators, will undoubtedly have to hire additional staff to handle these tasks. With visitor capacity reduced, it will heavily decrease the potential profitability of places like Disneyland. This could make expensive additions, such as Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Avengers Campus, which was supposed to open this summer, harder to justify in the long run.

Other theme parks are in similar boats. Universal Studios and Universal Orlando are closed until at least May 31, but that tentative date will likely be extended as well. Disney's multi-media empire was uniquely tailored to a fully-functioning world. Theme parks. Theatrical movies. Retail experiences. They all require people to be out and about to work. It's hard to imagine the Disney empire crumbling entirely as they are already making strides for the future, such as its streaming service Disney+. But it is becoming increasingly easy to imagine that the Disney powerhouse we knew before this all started may not be able to re-establish itself in the same way on the other side. This news comes to us via the Los Angeles Times.