Let's talk about the Paramount/Warner Bros. deal
So now it's Paramount that is buying Warner Bros. Netflix is out of the deal, and WBD shareholders are set to vote on Paramount's bid. Assuming no one in the U.S. federal government objects (LOL - the feds' fingerprints are all over the swap of Paramount over Netflix here), the two companies will join in the third quarter of this year.
What does this mean for theme parks? Neither company owns and operates its own parks anymore, but both companies have divisions that license and develop attraction experiences. Last month, Paramount Consumer Products & Experiences hired Dave Cobb as its VP Creative, overseeing the company's creative vision for Paramount-branded attractions and experiences worldwide.
Will this deal see Cobb overseeing creative for WB-branded attractions, too? Cobb has a long history with Warner, having been the creative director for the award-winning Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi theme park on Yas Island when we was with Thinkwell.
Personally, I would love to see Dave getting the chance to oversee an even larger portfolio. But giving Dave a say without also providing the resources to implement his teams' creative vision is no win for anyone. There are a ton of issues to be discussed about this deal. But I hope that perhaps it can result in greater commitment to support world-class theme park attractions and experiences themed to the IP in these studios' possession.
Replies (3)
I think Paramount/WB has a lot more important things to sort out than licensing their IPs for theme park attractions. Paramount is already a sinking ship, and bringing on the additional ballast of WB, and this merger is substantially worse than what we saw with Cedar Fair/Six Flags. I think the new company will need to make some seriously shrewd business decisions just to keep the lights on, and burning capital to develop attractions and experiences or to spend money dictating terms to those you're selling IP rights to is prob ably something a company in such dire financial straights would want to avoid.
Yes, the possibilities are endless with the vast and interesting IP lineup of the combined company, but Paramount/WB needs to focus on surviving as a studio and rebuild their core business before they even think about dealing with other aspects of their business.
I was watching Disneyland Handcrafted last night, and that reminded me of a point that I think gets lost too often in Hollywood coverage.
Walt's gamble in building Disneyland did not just pay off for the company. It saved the company. Disney is the only (now) major Hollywood studio to survive under its original ownership. Everyone else - WB, Fox, Paramount, Universal, Columbia, United Artists - has been sold or folded into other companies. But Disney's theme parks have provided it with the economic security to be the one that buys, not sells.
So I do not underestimate the power of the themed entertainment segment in Hollywood. Personally, if Paramount and Warner Bros. had invested in instead of exiting that business, those companies may have enjoyed much better futures than they face today.
Oh great. Everything is merging and being bought out and combining all the time. I say we just do it all now, rebrand all the parks to "Disniversal" or something, and they all get to license whatever boardroom-approved "evergreen" IPs that nobody really cares about.