Movie Animation Park Studios (MAPS), in Perak, Malaysia, is more “free” to promote itself without a licence agreement with Dreamworks, its CEO has said.
The Star reports that MAPS CEO, Shafeii Abdul Ghaffor, says the termination of the licence with Dreamworks will give the park more freedom to expand and promote itself.
“We are now free to promote aggressively and we believe we can attract more visitors,” he said, whereas he says that they were previously restricted by conditions in the licence agreement.
“There is no point keeping something that is no longer valuable for the company,” he said.
Shafeii also announced the opening of a new zone in MAPS. The park will collaborate with Malaysian animation characters BoBoiBoy in an upcoming “Malaysiaku Merdekaku” programme. He is confident that the new IP will cover the reduction in visitors from the loss of Dreamworks.
Developers called off plans to open a Dreamworks attraction at their park earlier this month.
Developers Animation Theme Park Sdn Bhd could not reach an agreement with Dreamworks to open the Dream Zone, say Perak Corp.
The zone was set to include Megamind Megadrop – which would be Malaysia’s tallest drop tower – and Casper’s Birthday Blast.
Public to name new zone
The work to remove the Dreamworks branding continues. The seven rides in the zone are scheduled to open to the public on August 31. Members of the public are invited to name the new zone in a Zone Naming Contest. It will run until Aug 25. The winner will walk away with RM1,000 and other prizes.
MAPS, Asia’s first animation theme park, opened last June. The RM520 million ($120m) theme park stretches over 21 hectares in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. It features more than 40 attractions in six themed zones. Animated themes include The Smurfs, Boboiboy and animated Dreamworks characters.
Earlier this year Perak Corp had negotiated a deal with theme park operator Only World Group to co-manage and co-operate the Malaysian theme park. The park fell into trouble in June when an external auditor’s report showed huge losses for Perak Corp.
Movie Animation Park Studios is open 10am to 6pm on weekdays and from 10am to 10pm on weekends, public holidays and school holidays.
Image courtesy of MAPS Perak
https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/metro-news/2018/08/18/more-freedom-sans-licence-agreement-delays-in-the-opening-of-dream-zone-led-to-contract-termination/
