Fox announces Twentieth Century Fox World theme park, to open in Malaysia in 2016

December 17, 2013, 1:31 AM · Twentieth Century Fox is getting back into the theme park business.

Today, Fox announced the name and broke ground for a theme park in Malaysia. Twentieth Century Fox World will open at Resorts World Genting in the southeast Asia nation in 2016.

Twentieth Century Fox World
Concept art: Fox Consumer Products & Resorts World Genting

The Resorts World brand ought to be familiar to theme park fans — Universal Studios Singapore is part of Resorts World Sentosa, another major casino resort development affiliated with Malaysia's Genting Group, which has developed casino resorts around the world under the Resorts World brand.

Genting Malaysia Chairman Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay said that the company will invest US$300 million in building the park, which will stand on 25 acres in the resort. (For comparison, Universal Studios Singapore is 49 acres.) Fox and Genting promise 25 rides and attractions in the new park, including ones based on Alien vs. Predator, Ice Age, Night at the Museum, Planet of the Apes, and Rio.

Ice Age ride
An "Ice Age"-themed family roller coaster ride. Concept art: Fox Consumer Products & Resorts World Genting

If you'd like to parse the concept art for additional clues about the park and its prospective line-up, here's a high-res version of the Twentieth Century Fox World concept art.

Fox previously had a Fox Studios Baja park in Mexico, a tour attraction located at the filming site for James Cameron's Titanic.

Replies (10)

December 17, 2013 at 4:58 AM · Sounds great, but 300M does not sound like a lot of money considering what some of the new advanced coasters and rides cost to produce.

25 acres is a postage stamp compared to other parks. The waterpark alone at SFGA Gurnee sits on 16.5 acres.....

The numbers just aren't jiving considering they want to have as many rides as stated in the article.

December 17, 2013 at 5:25 AM · The derelict spacecraft from Alien at the top of the concept piece has me particularly excited.
December 17, 2013 at 8:00 AM · Let's remember that Genting said "rides and attractions." I've seen many people in this business stretch the definition of attraction far beyond rides: meet-and-greets, walk-throughs, themed displays, etc.

Given that, I also see several flat rides in the concept art: a carousel, a wave swinger, a "Dumbo" spinner. Those can be bought off the shelf for relatively little, freeing more money for the themed rides.

The layout looks to me a little like USS without the lagoon, or the Waterworld spur. (The Titanic even is in the same place as the Madagascar ship.) It's a compact, urban park. If it comes off as well as USS, it should do nicely.

December 17, 2013 at 9:43 AM · Hopefully this is more successful than the last Fox Studios Backlot park in Sydney, Australia (1999-2001). This looks much more interesting than the Sydney park. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Studios_Australia#Backlot_Theme_Park
December 17, 2013 at 9:46 AM · With the small budget, maybe they'll relocate Battlestar Galactica from Singapore to save some $$$. If Malaysia's Sunway Group is involved you could count on it.
December 17, 2013 at 1:21 PM · Malaysia seems like an odd place to build a theme paek.
December 17, 2013 at 8:01 PM · The market seems to make a lot of sense for a regional park. About 20 million people live within 400 miles from the park (very rough based on a map and Wikipedia info). About 5.7 million live in metro Kuala Lampur, site of the park, and it draws about 9 million tourists per year. Will be a year round park but will be rain challenged with rain about 200 days a year, much of it in the rainy half of the year.
December 18, 2013 at 12:54 PM · Yet another grossly underfunded so-called theme park. $300 million for a new park with 25 rides? Are you kidding me? Disney spent between $200-300 million on Radiator Springs Racers alone!
December 18, 2013 at 6:58 PM · Didn't 20th Century Fox plan a park in Miami recently?
December 22, 2013 at 3:52 PM · 25 acres is not enough space. I'm afraid this park is going to be very cheap and some sort of Disney/universal/SeaWorld wannabe. Such a shame.

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