RIDE TO RICHES
From movies to video games, theme park attractions offer a way to cash in on popular franchises,
How much would you pay to have a real drink in Mos Eisley Cantina while the band plays on? How about a hovercraft tour of lovely Panem, with the guide pointing out where Katniss Everdeen lived? Or why not grab your leathers and take a ride with the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club?
In a world where Disney owns Marvel and Star Wars and looks to dominate pop culture for the foreseeable future, it’s one of its oldest legacy businesses — theme parks — that will face serious competition in the next few years.
“For us, it is part of a global, 360-degree strategy to expand our brands into other territories,” says Jean de Rivières, senior vice-president of Ubisoft Motion Pictures. Ubisoft is one of the biggest video-game makers in the world, with franchises that include Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six and Just Dance, and de Rivières is part of the team working to create a theme park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that is set to open in 2020.
“It is that idea of gamification, and how people play with us, so we would like to move that into parks . . . We would like a park that is gamified, so that anybody can come and play. We’ve seen movie and comics (intellectual properties) translating really well to the real world. I think we have room here,” he says.
Ubisoft is far from alone; the world will soon see theme parks featuring everything from Night at the Museum and Sons of Anarchy (20th Century Fox Worlds), The Hunger Games (thanks to Lionsgate) and Super Mario (via Universal parks).
The reason for the growth is simple. Theme parks are on a financial upswing. Last year, the top 25 theme parks worldwide saw attendance increase 4.1per cent, with 223.5 million total visitors, according to the Themed Entertainment Association.
This year, according to an August report in the New York Times, NBCUniversal’s theme park unit had operating cash flow of $617 million (U.S.), a 49-percent increase from the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, Comcast is investing billions in expanding its Universal Parks. One analyst says Lionsgate could make $100 million in additional revenue from what it defines as “location-based entertainment” over the next few years, and that does not include merchandise sales.
While many blockbuster parks are being built by partners with expertise in the theme park world, the companies that own the brands are much more involved than they once were. Historically, franchises were licensed to parks for rides, but now — in a reflection of how important these characters have become to the bottom line — companies are being more careful and hands-on with the properties.
“We really are not just selling the licence and running away. We are willing to bring anything to the table, especially in terms of creativity and storytelling, immersion and innovation that are at the core of what we do,” says De Rivières, who was heading to Malaysia in December to work on the project. “The challenge is to make all this work together and make sure we don’t lose Ubisoft values.”
De Rivières is also an executive producer on the in-production Assassin’s Creed film, starring Michael Fassbender. If the movie is a hit, the brand could go even more mainstream, in turn fuelling even more interest in theme parks.
That’s the media cycle all these franchises are trying to manage; this thrill ride is likely only beginning.
“The strategy is to expand, clearly. There’s nothing more I can add to what we have now, but it’s not a one-off. It is a real, deep, long-term strategy,” de Rivières says.
“When we find the right partner in other territories, we will do it.”