Licensing can be a sweet deal for a movie studio. But even its rivals do business with Warner Bros., too, most notably Universal, which pays a, uh, decent amount of money for the rights to use Harry Potter and the Wizarding World in its theme parks worldwide. Six Flags pays the studio for the right to put Bugs Bunny in its parks and to name roller coasters after various members (and foes) of the Justice League.

has remained connected to the theme park business as a licensor. (Yes, that is why Six Flags has the American theme park rights to the Warner-owned DC Comics and Looney Tunes characters.) But the studio chose to bail on the theme park business in the 1990s, selling the chain to Premier Parks, which then renamed its company 'Six Flags.'Įven after the sale, Warner Bros. But it wasn't branded to the movie studio. Younger or more recent theme park fans might not know that Warner Bros. dive back into the theme park business with full force? is ready to play the game dominated by its two biggest rivals. World Abu Dhabi is every bit the thematic equal of many Disney and Universal theme parks, signaling that Warner Bros. Unlike Warner Bros.' previous entries in the business, Warner Bros. took another step into the theme park business, too, opening a branded theme park with development partner Miral in the United Arab Emirates. sandwiched between the others.Īnd this summer, Warner Bros. The three have stood atop the Hollywood box office for the past two years, with Warner Bros. as part of Warner Media - offers a line-up of studios, networks and distribution channels that looks a lot like those at Disney and Universal. With its recent acquisition by AT&T, Warner Bros. (That's all of their theme parks, by the way.) With movie studios, animation companies, and television networks in their corporate families, Disney and Universal have the intellectual property and marketing channels necessary to make their parks into what millions of consumers around the world now believe are 'must see' destinations.īut Disney and Universal aren't the only big media companies with that kind of library and reach. Should the Big Two in the theme park business expand to become the Big Three?ĭisney and Universal dominate the list of the world's most-visited theme parks - all 10 of the world's top 10 parks, 14 of the top 15, and 17 of the top 25 parks are branded to either Disney or Universal.

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