Universal Studios Expands Regional Theme Park Concepts Across US and Global – Orange County Register

Universal Studios has big plans to acquire regional theme park chains across the United States and around the world with two smaller, more affordable theme park concepts aimed at families with young children and horror movie fans.

Universal Parks & Resorts is already planning a global expansion of its recently announced concepts for a kids-focused theme park near Dallas and a Halloween Horror Nights experience in Las Vegas, according to a Comcast quarterly earnings call last week.

“So we definitely have our eye on expanding internationally, not just domestically, and they’re not all going to be locations for a big, huge primary theme park,” Jeffrey Shell, CEO of NBCUniversal, said on the earnings call. “We will look at different concepts for different markets.”

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In early January, Universal Parks & Resorts unveiled plans to open a new theme park for families with young children in the North Texas city of Frisco and a new permanent horror experience in the Area15 entertainment district near the Las Vegas Strip. Opening dates for the as-yet-unnamed theme park concepts have not yet been announced, but work on both projects is slated to begin in 2023.

Universal’s new regional theme park concepts target Legoland’s core demographic of young children, as well as industry players such as Six Flags and Cedar Fair in the US and China’s OCTs and Chimelong, which operate amusement parks in smaller markets.

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The smaller theme park “extensions” could spur growth at Universal’s larger destination parks in California, Florida, China, Japan and Singapore, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said on the earnings call.

Universal’s smaller, family-oriented theme park concept near Dallas “will work in many places around the world that might not support a large theme park like Orlando or Beijing, but could support something else,” Shell said on the call.

The proposed 97-acre Universal Kids Resort will include attractions based on DreamWorks and Illumination films, according to the earnings call. Concept art features themed areas and attractions dedicated to Shrek, Trolls and Jurassic World.

The Halloween Horror Nights experience coming to Las Vegas could expand to a number of locations around the world, Shell said on the conference call.

Universal’s library of classic horror characters includes Frankenstein, Dracula, Werewolf of London, Wolf Man and The Mummy. Halloween Horror Nights has also collaborated with a new generation of horror filmmakers such as Jason Blum (Insidious, The Purge), Jordan Peele (Nope, Us) and James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring). . ).

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Universal’s theme park division expects to increase investment in 2023 as work begins on expansions to Horror Nights and Universal Kids theme parks and continues on new Universal Beijing theme park in China and upcoming Epic Universe theme park in Florida.

“The investment required to develop these expansions is nowhere near the scale of Epic or Universal Beijing, allowing us to capitalize on our already large market opportunity and could serve as a model to help drive even greater growth in theme parks in the future.” , says Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said on the conference call.