Universal Studios plans new theme parks

Universal Studios has big plans to take on regional amusement park chains in the United States and around the globe with a pair of smaller scale and lower cost theme park concepts aimed at families with young kids and horror movie fans.

Universal Parks & Resorts is already planning a global expansion of its recently announced concepts for a kids-focused theme park near Dallas and a Halloween Horror Nights experience in Las Vegas, according to a Comcast quarterly earnings call last week.

“So we’re definitely having an eye toward expanding internationally, not just domestically, and they won’t all be places for a big giant primary theme park,” Nbcuniversal CEO Jeffrey Shell said on the earnings call. “We will look at different concepts for different markets.”

In early January, Universal Parks & Resorts unveiled plans to open a new theme park aimed at families with young children in the North Texas city of Frisco and a new permanent horror-themed experience at the Area15 entertainment district near the Las Vegas Strip. Opening dates have not been announced for the as-yet-unnamed theme park concepts, but work is set to begin in 2023 on both projects.

Universal’s new regional theme park concepts take aim at Legoland’s core demographic of young children as well industry players like Six Flags and Cedar Fair in the U.S. and China’s OCT and Chimelong that operate amusement parks in smaller markets.

The smaller scale theme park “extensions” could fuel growth at Universal’s larger destination parks in California, Florida, China, Japan and Singapore, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said on the earnings call.