This is an update on the Paramount Park in Murcia.

http://murciatoday.com/paramount-theme-park-project-in-alhama-suffers-another-blow_28446-a.html

I wonder now if Paramount is banging themselves for selling the 5 American parks back in 2006.  I feel like they would enjoy the extra revenue generated from places where you can get away with overpricing for stuff like jacking up food prices.

 

I've been rooting for this Murcia, Spain project since its inception, but things are not looking good.  And part of me wants back a Paramount themed park somewhere in the world, even if it has to be in Spain.  Universal and Disney seem to be the only competitors in the movie/studios theme park business.

The parks proposed across the globe would not be owned or operated by Paramount (or Viacom or CBS) but instead pay big, big licensing fees to use its names, properties, characters, etc. The same goes for Tokyo Disney Resort, by the way, which is neither owned nor operated by the Walt Disney Company. Instead, its owners – the Oriental Land Company – pay Disney enormous amounts of money to license Disney's intellectual property. In return, Disney offers its own Imagineers to design for the Tokyo Resort and, doubtlessly, remains vigilant in the presentation and use of its IP. 

 

My understanding is that the arrangement expected of the Paramount Parks (operated and owned elsewhere, with Paramount simply paid for licensing) is about equivalent to what Paramount would've enjoyed IF Cedar Fair had taken them up on their offer to extend the Paramount licensing. If Cedar Fair had elected to go that route, Paramount would have no involvement in owning or operating the park, but it would still have use of the Paramount IP.

 

I was eager to see how the Paramount Parks overseas would develop. I have an affinity for the "Paramount Parks" brand thanks to PKI, and I adore some of their more theatrical endeavors (TR:TR, FOF, even IJST). When it became clear that the Paramount Parks designed for Europe had none of those concepts, I was "meh." To then find that Paramount Park in Spain would've been a clone of Disneyland, just inserting Paramount's far less worthwhile IPs, I balked. A blatant ripoff of Frontierland, just anchored by Rango? A blatant Fantasyland copy based off of Sleepy Hollow and Stardust? Even the park's Tomorrowland equivalent anchored by Star Trek just felt inadequate.

 

Point is, if you can't best the Disneyland formula (and you can't) then don't copy it. I wrote this two years ago and updated its intro upon this news.

Plain and simple, the PEOPLE who made Paramount Parks Paramount Parks are strewn to the four winds. There is no theme park expertise left at CBS. Some wags would (wrongly) say there never was.

See also, somewhat like Disney in Japan, Six Flags China.

Which explains why we're hearing that Six Flags in China is a $4 billion project... more than the cost of Tokyo DisneySea. Granted, that's likely including much more than just the amusement park, but still. Not the kind of cash Six Flags Entertainment Corp. would likely be tossing around.