Shanghai is becoming the most profitable Disneyland park in the world: Analyst

• FBR Capital's Barton Crockett says Disneyland Shanghai is "on pace to be the most profitable Disney park globally."
• In its first year of operation, Shanghai is "propelling a good chunk" of Disney's earnings growth right now, Crockett tells CNBC.

Robert 'Bob' Iger, chief executive officer of Walt Disney Co., greets government officials during the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Disney Resort in Shanghai, China, on Thursday, June 16, 2016.

Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The first year of business for Disney's Shanghai theme park exceeded expectations for the company and Wall Street analysts alike.

"We were arguing that this was on pace to be the most profitable Disney park globally," Barton Crockett, senior analyst at FBR Capital Markets, told Squawk Box on Friday. "I believe we were above [Wall] Street at that time and I think everything's played out pretty close to what we thought."

Disney CEO Bob Iger said Friday that Disneyland Shanghai has seen over 11 million visitors in its first year and around half of the park's visitors are coming from outside Shanghai. Iger spent 17 years and $5.5 billion to make the Chinese theme park a reality, which ranks in the middle of Disney's parks for the number of annual visitors.

When the park opened, Crockett said Disneyland Shanghai would garner around 10 million visitors.

"The theme parks are the main driver of earnings growth right now for Disney, and Shanghai is really propelling a good chunk of that right now," Crockett added.