By Mark Seavy   

As U.S. theme park operators continue to consolidate, IP is emerging as a major attraction in the category.  

Brands have long played an important role in theme parks, but as operators increase in size so does their leverage in negotiating deals with licensors, industry executives said. This is evidenced by the planned opening of several high-profile branded facilities.   

For example, the fruits of this increased bargaining power can be found in the recent merger of Six Flags Entertainment and Cedar Fair, which combined now own 42 parks—including 27 theme parks and 15 water parks. 

Many of these projects—including the new licensed Flash Vertical Velocity roller coaster (opened March 1st) at Six Flags in Jackson Township, NJ and an expanded DC Universe (opened March 29th) at Six Flags Fiesta in San Antonio, TX—were well underway prior to the merger. The much larger company is expected to focus on licensing moving forward in expanding on Cedar Fair’s strategy, which was largely limited to Peanuts and Camp Snoopy at the Knotts Berry Farm park in Burna Park, CA.   

The Six Flags and Cedar Fair merger, and its greater focus on licensing, comes amid European park operator Parques Reunidos proposing to sell U.S. subsidiary Palace Entertainment and its 20 parks to Herschend Family Entertainment, which operates Dollywood, Dollar City, and other facilities. With the acquisition, Herschend gains ownership of the Kennywood Amusement Park in West Mifflin, PA, which is home to a licensed Pittsburgh Steelers Steel Curtain ride. The ride was closed in 2024 for renovations but is expected to reopen this year. 

“There has been a continuation of consolidation within the theme park industry,” said Jim Seay, President of ride supplier Premier Rides, which is developing a Sky Rocket II ride that BG Capital’s Steel Pier in Wildwood, NJ is weighing a licensing deal for. “Because of that, I would expect them to be negotiating IP opportunities from a position of strength. They will be able to make a strong case to IP owners that the use of their IP is going to be beneficial to the licensor because they have this large attendance base and demographic.”   

In fact, the IP opportunities are extending to parks operated by licensors themselves.  

Universal, for example, will open its Epic Universe in Orlando, FL on May 22nd, providing a showcase for its IP, a licensed Super Nintendo World, and positioning it as a new competitor for Disney’s many parks in the region. It will also open a Despicable Me Minion Mayhem ride at Universal Studios Singapore and has added a licensed Donkey Kong-themed Mine Kart Madness ride to its park in Japan. Additionally, Universal is expanding on its Halloween-themed offerings with the opening of Universal Horror Unleashed later this year at Area 15 in Las Vegas, NV.  

“Universal is a media juggernaut and, because of that, they have an almost unlimited tie to IP through their own parks,” a licensing executive said. “The park group is running on full cylinders and looking at out-of-the-box opportunities and Universal, to its credit, has built a Halloween year-round brand that is very strong.”   

Warner Bros. Discovery, meanwhile, is sharpening focus on its owned IP in adding a Scooby-Doo Spooky roller coaster to Warner Bros. Movie World in Oxenford, Australia. It is also expanding a licensing agreement with Rixos Resorts’ Land of Legends in Belek, Turkey to add a new Star Trek Wild Galaxy attraction and hotel suites based on the animated Star Trek Prodigy series that is carried on Nickelodeon.   

And there is Mattel Adventure Land, which will feature a large Barbie Beach House when licensee VAI Resort opens it later this year in Glendale, AZ, after several months of construction-related delay.  

“With the parks that are being consolidated, or expanded from a technology standpoint, [it allows for] a guest experience that is superior,” Seay said. “All of those technologies are very affordable for corporations that have a lot of facilities. But for individual parks, they have a brand-new system that can only be amortized across a single park.”