While licensing has a long history in major theme parks, it’s being deployed in increasing numbers by smaller regional venues, family entertainment centers and escape rooms who are competing in an increasingly crowded entertainment market, amusement park executives told us at the IAPPA Attractions Expo in Orlando.

Although the industry traditionally swings between focusing on licensed and non-licensed rides and attractions, many regional parks are increasingly replacing their own themes with branded ones. For example, Palace Entertainment’s Kennywood Park near Pittsburgh is replacing its time-honored log jammer with a Pittsburgh Steelers-themed “Steeler Country” section in the NFL’s first licensing deal with a theme park. It will be replete with a “Steel Curtain” 4,000-foot-long rollercoaster, experience center, restaurant and merchandise shop when it opens in May. That follows Kennywood opening a Thomas the Tank Engine section (Thomas Town) in July to fill in a former “Kiddieland” area.

Similarly, SeaWorld Entertainment’s SeaWorld Orlando is readying a six-acre Sesame Street section with a daily parade and six character-based rides for spring 2019, replacing Shamu’s Happy Harbor. The Orlando park is the last of SeaWorld’s facilities to install a Sesame Street section.

“This [Steeler Country area] expands our reach beyond the immediate market; one of the ways we are doing that in order to compete with other attractions is through licensing,” says Kennywood’s Jerome Gibas. “The Thomas Town section has brought in customers that were attracted to the brand as much as the park.”

At the same, the cost of installing branded sections has moved to within the reach of regional parks, says Premier Rides’ Jim Seay, whose firm developed the Superman Ultimate Flight rides for Six Flags Entertainment. Six Flags can typically build a branded section for $20 million.

But a single ride also can also stretch into the financial stratosphere. Wanda Entertainment, for example, is spending $140-$150 on a single roller coaster Premier is designing and building for the Wanda Movie Park in Guangzhou, China that opens in late 2019, says Seay.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum is SeaWorld’s rebranding of six former Shamu Happy Harbor rides as Sesame Street versions so that, for example, the Jazzy Jellies parachute drop becomes Cookie Drop. “Licensing has grown up and been monetized down to the regional level,” says Seay. And the marketing exposure that an IP owner gains from giving park-goers that ability to live the brand makes up for any concessions IP owners may make on royalties and guarantees to fit within a regional park budget, says Seay.

Indeed, the “licensing world is paying more attention” to regional parks and new venues which gives operators “more creativity” in marketing the rides and attractions since consumers are already familiar with the brands, says Sally Corp.’s John Wood, whose firm introduced a Sesame Street dark ride (in which customers board a guided vehicle that takes them indoors past specialty lit scenes with sound, music and special effects) at the show that will open in 2019 as part of the Sesame Street section at PortAventura World in Spain.

To some extent, whether a park develops its own rides or chooses licensed versions depends on their willingness to wait for internally developed IP, says Dynamic Attractions’ Jerry Pierson, whose firm designs and builds rides for Disney and NBCUniversal.

“It is a question of your patience. If your patience is low and you need a sustained bump (in revenue) then you are going to go with an IP that is recognizable,” says Pierson. “The parks can create their own IP, but that doesn’t always reach beyond the boundaries of the park itself.”

And even creating rides with licensed IP is fraught with challenges. Sally Corp. unveiled plans for “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and “The Walking Dead” dark rides at the IAPPA show in 2016, but found few buyers among the park operators and the licenses expired, says Wood. For its part, Dynamic Attractions had discussions with Hasbro last year about creating GI Joe-themed rides, but found that “parks were on the fence” about a ride with links to the military, says Pierson.

Instead, in addition to Sesame Street, Sally Corp. introduced a “Shaun the Sheep” dark ride in September and is seeking customers for it at the IAAPA show. And Hasbro announced plans with licensee Kilburn Live to open family entertainment centers in the U.S. and Canada based on My Little Pony, Monopoly, Mr. Potato Head, GI Joe, Clue, Battleship, Hungry Hungry Hippo, Trivial Pursuit, Chutes and Ladders and others.

“For us, it was difficult to get the market to move on [Five Nights, Walking Dead rides], but we got a lot of publicity out of it so it was still worthwhile,” says Wood. “It was kind of a square peg in a round hole, but if they had listened to the kids, they wouldn’t have worried about it.” Yet, in the case of The Walking Dead, the IP has been successfully applied to other theme park rides. Thorpe Park in London deployed the brand on a rollercoaster earlier this year, while Madrid Amusment Park in Spain has “The Walking Dead Experience.”

Contacts:

Dynamic Rides, Jerry Pierson, EVP U.S. Operations, 407-506-9276, jerry.pierson@dynamicattractions.com

Kennywood, Jerome Gibas, General Mgr., 412-461-0500 x1157, jgibas@kennywood.com

Premier Rides, Jim Seay, Pres., 410-923-0414, jseay@premierrides.com

Sally Corp., John Wood, CEO, 904-355-7100, jwood@sallycorp.com