Universal's New Park/Site B Blue Sky Thread

[zg44]

Yes, they do own them. However, they own just as many or more already proven IP's they could use to fill out another park. And Universal, thanks to the success of Harry Potter and further shown with winning over the extremely protective Nintendo, has made a name for going above and beyond to work with the IP holder down to the smallest details. Don't think for a moment they would chose something like "Mortal Engines" at this point in planning over any number of other established popular IP's regardless if they own it not.

As far as the "cult status" thing... They aren't going to build something because "hey, even if it fails, it'll become a cult classic!" No singular entity has any control over what films become cult classics. Its not something that can be forced and forseen ahead of time... Its just something that happens naturally over time. Sometimes a LONG time...

That and Comcast is way more aggressive as an owner than Vivendi was back when IoA was built.

There's no chance that they'll even consider a scenario where the 3rd park could languish in the <5-6 million visitor range; they'll want to make sure that it can ramp up towards the 9-10 million mark quickly. The only way to do that is to make sure you have guaranteed IPs that can deliver that kind of launch and sustainable attendance.

Harry Potter, Nintendo, Jurassic World, Dreamworks/Illumination's bigger franchises, etc.; those can deliver them.

I'd also guess that they'd go to TimeWarner/Tolkien to see if there's a chance at Middle Earth and possibly even a DC land.

Given that there's no Six Flags in Florida; there's a decent chance that TW would be willing to license a DC Land for the 3rd park given what they must be earning off the Wizarding World.

But yeah you want guaranteed IPs; a 3rd park has to launch properly in this day and age, it's hard to imagine anything other than most of the 3rd park being "major IPs"...

 

[Imperius]

I'm guessing they would have to pry D.C. Theme park rights from six flags cold dead hands.

 

[tielo]

Universal isn't Disney. They just put out a huge marketing campaign going against everything this would be.

I don't think the Dreamwork/Illumination movies are like the Disney/Pixar movies. They are less "snowflaky" more "edgy" if you compare them. They could go with "this is for the cool kids" or something.

@tielo There was an insane amount of money poured into this, I just don't see how they get that money back.

I don't say they should start a theme park for the ip yet, but if it's going to be a thing they would have it in their pocket. I hope the movie will be awesome the comic is great.

 

[Imperius]

I don't see any edge in illumination movies. Disney movies have had far scarier villains and deaths.

 

[zg44]

I'm guessing they would have to pry D.C. Theme park rights from six flags cold dead hands.

Yeah, my understanding of it is that Six Flags has full control of US theme park rights for DC until the contract expires (it's not a "forever" contract like Marvel's contracts, at least that's my understanding of it).

Maybe there's some way that Warner puts in a "Florida carveout" when the contract is renewed to let them license DC to Florida theme parks (i.e. Legoland or possibly a 3rd Universal park).

 

[zg44]

‘Lord of the Rings’ Lawsuit: Tolkien Estate, Warner Bros. Settle | Variety
Here's some news: Warner and Tolkien Estate settled their lawsuit.

At least this means that there's no more ongoing litigation involving the rights that Warner held (movies/digital/gaming); could at least lead to an opening for a discussion of theme park rights.

 

[fryoj]

‘Lord of the Rings’ Lawsuit: Tolkien Estate, Warner Bros. Settle | Variety
Here's some news: Warner and Tolkien Estate settled their lawsuit.

At least this means that there's no more ongoing litigation involving the rights that Warner held (movies/digital/gaming); could at least lead to an opening for a discussion of theme park rights.

Yeah, the question is, who has the theme park rights. It's not really spelled out in the story who ended up with what. If it's WB, we are good. If it's Tolkien, notsomuch.

 

[Scott W.]

That and Comcast is way more aggressive as an owner than Vivendi was back when IoA was built.

There's no chance that they'll even consider a scenario where the 3rd park could languish in the <5-6 million visitor range; they'll want to make sure that it can ramp up towards the 9-10 million mark quickly. The only way to do that is to make sure you have guaranteed IPs that can deliver that kind of launch and sustainable attendance.

Harry Potter, Nintendo, Jurassic World, Dreamworks/Illumination's bigger franchises, etc.; those can deliver them.

I'd also guess that they'd go to TimeWarner/Tolkien to see if there's a chance at Middle Earth and possibly even a DC land.

Given that there's no Six Flags in Florida; there's a decent chance that TW would be willing to license a DC Land for the 3rd park given what they must be earning off the Wizarding World.

But yeah you want guaranteed IPs; a 3rd park has to launch properly in this day and age, it's hard to imagine anything other than most of the 3rd park being "major IPs"...

Was there not something in the Marvel contract that forbid Universal from putting a competing comic book IP (DC) in their parks?

I found the comments about IOA's design being a reaction to people's complaints about the Studios that most rides were inside, no water rides, etc. I have a small feeling that this park could be a reaction to all the complaints about the current resort and the biggest complaint I think would be the lack of kids or family friendly attractions.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Yeah, the question is, who has the theme park rights. It's not really spelled out in the story who ended up with what. If it's WB, we are good. If it's Tolkien, notsomuch.

If it's Tolkien, we'll have to wait till the grandson's death for anything; which won't be enough time for Universal to properly develop a land at their fourth gate; given if they are ambitious to open around 2021-2023.

 

[fryoj]

If it's Tolkien, we'll have to wait till the grandson's death for anything; which won't be enough time for Universal to properly develop a land at their fourth gate; given if they are ambitious to open around 2021-2023.

With as much land as they have, I wouldn't be surprised if they pencil in an expansion pad on the back of the property in case they get this one. I'm sure they don't want to repeat the IOA deal where they didn't do anything for a long time after the park opened. They can build the park, open, and have an expansion ready for when the newness dies off. Whether thats LotR or something else we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

With as much land as they have, I wouldn't be surprised if they pencil in an expansion pad on the back of the property in case they get this one. I'm sure they don't want to repeat the IOA deal where they didn't do anything for a long time after the park opened. They can build the park, open, and have an expansion ready for when the newness dies off. Whether thats LotR or something else we'll just have to wait and see.

And I'd agree, but I don't think that Lord of the Rings is currently in the cards for the first expansion of Gate IV.

I think that it could be more possible that we may see something In-House, IP or Original content exclusive for the park.

 

[zg44]

Was there not something in the Marvel contract that forbid Universal from putting a competing comic book IP (DC) in their parks?

I found the comments about IOA's design being a reaction to people's complaints about the Studios that most rides were inside, no water rides, etc. I have a small feeling that this park could be a reaction to all the complaints about the current resort and the biggest complaint I think would be the lack of kids or family friendly attractions.

The only restrictions that I've seen in the Universal-Marvel contract apply to IoA, the second gate. There's nothing in terms of restricting outside IP in a potential third gate that I know of in that contract.

From what I understand, the Six Flags ownership of DC theme park rights in the US expires sometime around 2027-2028 (based on expiration of other Warner-Six Flags agreements).

I think there's a decent chance that Universal could work something out where there's a "Florida carveout" in the next Warner-Six Flags agreement, which would probably result in a significantly higher payout if a DC Land could be built into the 3rd Universal park.

Yeah, the question is, who has the theme park rights. It's not really spelled out in the story who ended up with what. If it's WB, we are good. If it's Tolkien, notsomuch.

Yeah, the lawsuit was just dismissed and there wasn't money trading hands, so I don't think we'll find out unless there's actual news of theme park rights that leaks to the media.

 

[quinnmac000]

Crunchyroll Announces Partnership with NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan

Again another action which suggests Universal may potentially use or bring anime to the states for upcoming park.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Crunchyroll Announces Partnership with NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan

I wouldn't say anything about that just yet, as it seems to be more for Japan than domestic as it stands now, and it will most likely bring more of a gain for some of Osaka's seasonal events in particular.

 

[quinnmac000]

I wouldn't say anything about that just yet, as it seems to be more for Japan than domestic as it stands now, and it will most likely bring more of a gain for some of Osaka's seasonal events in particular.

Of note, Crunchyroll doesn't distribute in Japan. This is for the international market...i.e what Netflix does with Castlevania, what Amazon does with Strike Channel. It also states that in the release

The platform today announced a partnership with NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan (NUEJ) to co-develop new anime titles with an international audience in mind.

 

[zg44]

Crunchyroll Announces Partnership with NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan

Again another action which suggests Universal may potentially use or bring anime to the states for upcoming park.

They already own the theme park rights to stuff that their Japanese studio produces, so I don't know that this changes anything. Crunchyroll is an important distributor but I don't think anime will ever be anything but niche.

It makes sense that they'd work closely with one of their major international distributors though to design anime for the international market.

NUEJ was the old Geneon/Pioneer; Comcast/NBCU have merged it with a bunch of other businesses to its current form. They merged Paramount Japan into it too.

 

[quinnmac000]

They already own the theme park rights to stuff that their Japanese studio produces, so I don't know that this changes anything.

It makes sense that they'd work closely with one of their major international distributors though to design anime for the international market.

NUEJ was the old Geneon/Pioneer; Comcast/NBCU have merged it with a bunch of other businesses to its current form. They merged Paramount Japan into it too.

Big picture why are Netflix, Amazon, Universal all getting into international anime distribution? Why are so of the top rated shows on Disney XD imports of japanese animes? Because people worldwide are watching. What is their goal with theme parks? To get people all around to world to come to their theme parks and resorts and spend money. How is universal doing that? They already partnered up with Funimation which is a huge anime distributor for worldwide, now they are using Crunchy roll which is a major site where international anime fans watch anime. Thus if they create a hit show, they will exploit that for their upcoming parks.

People easily scream anime is niche yet Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, and many other names are still easily recognized pop culture references.

 

[Imperius]

US parks aren't going to be putting anime as a land anytime in the near future IMO.

 

[zg44]

Big picture why are Netflix, Amazon, Universal all getting into international anime distribution? Why are so of the top rated shows on Disney XD imports of japanese animes? Because people worldwide are watching. What is their goal with theme parks? To get people all around to world to come to their theme parks and resorts and spend money. How is universal doing that? They already partnered up with Funimation which is a huge anime distributor for worldwide, now they are using Crunchy roll which is a major site where international anime fans watch anime. Thus if they create a hit show, they will exploit that for their upcoming parks.

People easily scream anime is niche yet Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, and many other names are still easily recognized pop culture references.

Yes, US anime distribution has become profitable again after a terrible decade in the 00s (when most of the US anime distributors went bankrupt), but that doesn't necessarily mean much for theme parks, especially in the US.

Crunchyroll is one of the most important US distributors of anime, and it has a total of 1 million subscribers. You have to keep that in perspective. Netflix and Amazon Prime each have more than 50x that in the US.

Anime based theme park stuff makes a lot of sense in Osaka, but I don't think the US is near ready for that. You make a fair point about certain anime that are well known in pop culture like Sailor Moon, DBZ, Naruto even, but I don't know that that's enough to justify a theme park based experience. I'd never say never, but that sounds like far off in the future if you're talking about stuff based on this Crunchyroll-NUEJ deal.

 

[LJGonz]

How much IP would Universal want to move towards a new park (and away from current UOR) in the future? Because to me, that's really the question when it comes to all this stuff about Nintendo or Jurassic Park or whatnot.

If you're Universal and you know you'll probably have a 3rd park up and running around 2025-2030; then at what point do you start considering how/when to shift IP towards it?

That fact that I'm 17 now, which is close to 18 which is close to 20 and 20 is ten years away from 30 is freaking me out. Sounds super stupid but by the time Universal's 3rd park is up I'll be almost 30 which is old for me. Holy that small sentence just gave me a 1/4 life crisis lol.

Edit: super irrelevant sorry.