Is Universal Spending too much on IP?

You've gotta spend money to make money. How much did Disney spend on Lucasfilm (and paid licensing fees for Star Tours before they bought it)? How much did Disney pay Aerosmith and subsequently to partner with Henson? How much did Disney spend on Marvel? What is it costing Disney to license the Twilight Zone?

Sure, Disney almost exclusively features internal IPs that the company either developed themselves or bought outright, but you can't simply ignore the costs to create and market those IPs or what Disney paid to fully own those IPs. It does seem like Universal is heading in a similar direction, favoring internal IPs over licensing outside properties, but I doubt you would find anyone criticizing the financial benefits of the partnerships with Rowling or Spielberg. Universal would not be where it's at today without those 2 very important partnerships. Spielberg's influence at Universal theme parks forced Disney to build a movie studio park in reaction to the presence of USF and success of USH. Galaxy's Edge and PtWoA don't exist if not for WWoHP, which was a seismic shift in the themed entertainment industry. If anything, Universal would probably admit those deals were worth every penny they've paid (and continue to pay).

Gotta agree with Rus. We're not talking about Toon Lagoon or something over here, we're talking about industry-defining attractions.

The IPs Universal have secured over the years and the technical direction for them are the main reasons their parks are as successful as they are so Universal would say they are worth every penny. Spielberg and Rowling are very, very astute corporate decisions regardless of the cost.

@PP: The IPs Universal have secured over the years and the technical direction for them are the main reasons their parks have managed to survive.

I’m honestly surprised Disney licensed Bluey… and I’m surprised ABC Australia/BBC have agreed to the cheap treatment given to it.

@Chad H - I think IPs geared towards small children are really fickle, fly-by-night types. Most creators understand what's hot right now is cliche tomorrow with low probability of longevity. If you own a hot property, you'd be smart to cash in ASAP before that IP cools off, and Disney clearly offered a deal that quickly capitalized on the popularity of Bluey.

Look at how many kids properties Disney has cycled through over the past decade, and it's likely Bluey will fall into that same bin as being white hot for a year or 2 (or maybe 3) and then fading into the background behind the next hot property. That's why I thought Merlin was silly in building an entire theme park around Peppa Pig, because even that IP, which at least showed some legs, is not nearly as hot as it was a decade ago.

I would agree that the Potter deal is worth whatever Uni is paying for it giving its massive impact on the parks and the parks dependence on the Wizarding Worlds. Due to the continued popularity and the impossibility of retheming, JK and WB (Paramount?) will be in the driver's seat during the 2029 renegotiations.

But there has to be some buyer's remorse regarding the Spielberg deal in which he gets 2% of all ticket sales in perpetuity. In terms of poorly negotiated in perpetuity deals, that one is up there with Marvel's 1994 licensing agreement.

The process of making a great franchise based theme park land is quite interesting. While Star Wars and Marvel have been very successful for the Mouse in other areas, the theme park impact of these two mega brands has been at best mixed. In addition to poor execution, I attribute this to the relative lack of iconic locations that can be translated to a theme park setting such as the Isle of Berk, Radiator Springs, Pandora and the various Wizarding Worlds.

"I attribute this to the relative lack of iconic locations that can be translated to a theme park setting"

I actually think it's the opposite. Both of those IPs have so many iconic locations, it's impossible to pick just one to represent each of the IPs - Imagineers specifically detailed this struggle throughout the development of Galaxy's Edge, and most critics feel that Batuu is a cop out from a team that couldn't come to a consensus. So in both Marvel and Star Wars, you ended up with generic locations that rely on vibes more so than actual place setting. I do think when combined with the Galactic Starcruiser experience, Galaxy's Edge at DHS had a much better sense of place and time within the IP, but that project was abandoned and Disney further backtracked on the place setting of Batuu by mixing aspects of various timelines together.

When you have to read a treatment to understand why the land you're walking into doesn't look specifically like anything from the source material, that's never a good thing. That's one of my main worries about Piston Peak (the other being the thrill quotient of the main attraction), because Radiator Springs at DCA is a direct shot for shot replication of what we see in the movies. Piston Peak did feature in Planes: Fire and Rescue, and obviously takes its cues from other places within the Cars IP, but will people recognize, connect, and understand this new setting in the same way that Radiator Springs causes jaws to drop.

He who controls Nintendo controls the universe.

Russell, to paraphrase a famous John Madden quote about quarterbacks, if you have so many iconic locations you actually have none.

@Zarex - I would tend to agree (and I think the same problem will be encountered when anyone decides to themeparkify LOTR), but I think some of the initial ideas to create individual areas of the land themed to various environments in the SW Universe was a better choice. Perhaps the "Make your own Star Wars story" ethos that permeated WDI's approach to Galaxy's Edge forced Batuu onto the world instead of giving us the authentic Star Wars land that every die-hard fan wanted.

It does feel like that's what they may be doing with the Avengers CAMPUS expansion, particularly the Stark Flight Lab that takes a lot of inspiration from Infinity Wars/Endgame. I'd also say it's difficult for my mind to set Avengers CAMPUS in New York when it exists in DCA (even if it did have more specific visual queues to the metropolis), so some of the non-descript styling and placemaking is understandable - though I am thoroughly impressed with the W.E.B. Slingers queue and station that really capture a New York-esque setting without feeling disingenuous. Frankly, this is where Disney should just blatantly copy Universal and install portals created by Doctor Strange to better transition from DCA to an appropriately New York City-themed Avengers CAMPUS.