Nowadays, if you want to ride with Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman, you usually have to go to a Six Flags theme park. But that could change in the future, as Warner Bros. is reportedly exploring new theme park partners for its comic book brand, DC Studios.
Bloomberg reports that DC Studios is currently in talks with several theme park operators, including Universal, to license their characters for new attractions. The talks “are at an early stage and do not yet involve contract negotiations,” according to the report, but they are happening. Furthermore, this would not end the deal with Six Flags. It would just put the DC characters in another set of theme parks.
Universal is the only specific theme park operator mentioned in the article, and it would clearly be the largest. It already has the Marvel Studios license in its Orlando parks and has an agreement with Warner Bros. for its harry potter franchise, as well as all the large internal ones: Jurassic Park, How to train your dragonMonsters, etc.
No matter who, if anyone, acquires the rights, the main thing the deal does is make more immersive lands possible. Right now, at Six Flags parks with attractions in DC, there are certainly themes in and around the attractions. But there isn’t a whole Gotham City section of a park or Metropolis or anything, like we see at Disney or Universal with star wars either harry potter. This deal, especially if Universal ends up getting it, opens up that possibility.
However, this news also emerged almost simultaneously with the even bigger news of Netflix acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery. netflix just started opening Small, almost mini theme parks called “La Casa Netflix”, so you have to think that the idea could become something bigger with all the new properties it is acquiring. Or, the powers that be could shut down any talks that began before the deal was signed. Why would Netflix want to help Universal by allowing them to make Batman attractions if Netflix owns Batman?
There are certainly many factors at play here. But the main takeaway is that at some point in the future, there’s a good chance DC will team up with Marvel for much bigger and better immersive theme park experiences. Where do you want DC to appear?
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