Who owns the rights - or Dreamworks arriving in European theme parks! (UPDATED)
With Disney attractions it is easy: Disney owns the rights. So if you want to enjoy them there is only one way: visit a Disney theme park. Other parks might try to copy a ride, but that’s that (just think about the many bad copies found in EuropaPark, Germany, such as “Pirates of Batavia”). But it seems a different thing with some theme / amusement park attractions based on material of other studios. At least that is the only way I can explain to myself how suddenly a Dreamworks / Universal attraction is ending up in Germany…
No need to get excited or fear all new competition for the Disneyland Resort Paris - there are no new plans for a Universal Resort or a Dreamworks theme park in Germany. We are talking about a single attraction here. To be exact: Shrek 4D!
Originally I thought Shrek 4D was a Universal attraction as it could only be found in the Universal Studios theme parks (Hollywood & Orlando in the US, not sure about the Japan park). I assumed Universal had obtained the rights from Dreamworks similar as Disney had obtained the rights say for the StarWars for StarTours. OK. It made sense. Afterall Spielberg had licensed E.T. already to Universal in the past.
Then Dreamworks released Shrek 4D on a DVD-set together with Shrek 2. Hmm. I was surprised. So it seemed Dreamworks must have retained the rights to release the movie of the attraction on the home-DVD-market. Why would Universal allow something like that. Afterall it takes all of the surprise out of the storyline. And it also takes the need away for fans to go and visit the parks if they want to know what happened between Shrek 1 and 2.
Anyway, I forgot about it … till I read on the German board for theme & amusement park aficionados freizeitparkweb, that the german theme park “Movie Park” had announced “Shrek 4D” as new attraction for the 2008 season!!
So it seems that interested parks at least in countries where there is no Universal park can get the right to this 4D movie to show it in their parks. Strange decision. Normally one would expect Universal to be interested in keeping their attractions exclusive, so to attract Europeans to their parks in the US as well, especially if a character like Shrek is concerned, which certainly has the necessary image among Europeans as well to function as the decision maker to visit Universal with the family during an Orlando trip.
This makes me wonder: might it be that Dreamworks has all the rights for the attraction movie? Afterall for them it doesn’t matter whether the attraction stays exclusive to Universal, in fact Dreamworks gets more money if another parks pays license fees. That’s quite good if you are Dreamworks. But on the other hand in such case ”your” product might get associated with a park “you” can’t control. In this case “Movie Park” is struggling in the recent years, so…
I also just learned that Shrek 4-D is already featured in a non-Universal park in Australia: Warner Bros. Movie World (which is NOT in any way connected anymore to the Movie Park in Germany). So it seems Dreamworks is cashing in by licensing the attraction and the characters to more or less any halfway fitting park that is willing to pay the bill. Again: while it helps the bottom line I personally think you loose too much control and also reduce the exclusivity value of the attraction.
Anyway - if the reports are correct and as Shrek 4D really comes to the “Movie Park” (the reports have NOT been officially confirmed to my knowledge, even so Screamscape has added the rumor as well in the meantime) this once again shows how important it is for a theme park operator to develop its own attractions, as Imagineering does for the Disney parks. It just helps keep your parks really unique.