Merlin Entertainments and Sony Pictures have revealed plans for new rides, attractions and lands based on Sony’s intellectual property (IP).
Ahead of this week’s opening of the world’s first Jumanji-themed land at Chessington World of Adventures, Merlin CEO Scott O’Neil and Sony Pictures partnerships EVP Jeffrey Godsick spoke to Variety about their IP plans.
“When you come into a company like this, you recognise really quickly that IP matters, more than just about anything,” O’Neil said.
“There’s always room for creative expression and individual attractions. However, there is a flight to quality and in the consumers and our guests’ mind some of that quality is tied to ‘Is this a brand I know? Is this a brand I love?'”
New Jumanji land at Chessington
He added: “We quote movies, we laugh about movies we’ve seen, we cry about movies we’ve seen, it gives us emotion.
“And then if you marry that with bringing it to life and bringing that brand to life, we sit right in a really interesting space at the perfect time.”
Chessington’s £17 million ‘World of Jumanji’ land is based on Sony Pictures’ $2 billion film franchise. It features the world’s first Jumanji-themed coaster, Mandrill Mayhem, and the Mamba Strike and Ostrich Stampede rides.
Merlin and Sony Pictures’ agreement to open new rides, lands and hotel rooms based on Jumanji at its attractions across the world was announced in March 2022.
Video game and music IP
So far, the company has added a Jumanji maze attraction and a family-friendly dark ride called Jumanji – The Adventure to the Gardaland theme park in Italy.
However, Godsick said the companies are “looking at everything across the board – not just in movies – in all of the IP content that we have”.
O’Neil said Merlin “will be exploring all sorts of opportunities”, and referring to Universal’s Super Nintendo World, he said “it’s not lost on us what’s been really successful”.
Sony has a film library of more than 4,000 titles, as well as TV, video games, anime and music. “[Sony’s] is as good a catalogue as you’ll find anywhere in the world,” he said.
Images: Merlin Entertainments / Sony Pictures
