London, Tuesday, 28 October 2025.
Merlin Entertainments and Parques Reunidos accelerated Paramount-branded integrations across the UK, US and Europe in 2025, marking a coordinated shift to region-specific IP partnerships that create multiyear content pipelines and family-targeted capital programmes. Merlin is delivering the UK’s first PAW Patrol land at Chessington and expanding Peppa Pig across parks — including a major new Peppa attraction in Dallas–Fort Worth — while Parques Reunidos confirms a wider Paramount alliance for European sites even as it reallocates focus after a US divestment via Palace Entertainment. For retail, F&B and operations teams this heightens urgency around programming and build schedules, guest-flow and capacity planning for family rides, and franchise-aligned merchandising assortments and seasonal windows. Portfolio owners and investors should expect changing valuation levers as operators monetise global IP through licensing-led growth. Immediate priorities are synchronising pipeline timing with product assortments, SKU rationalisation for themed retail, and merchandising strategies that capture uplift in per-cap spend from captive family audiences.
Strategic acceleration: Paramount IP deepens at two major operators
Merlin Entertainments and Parques Reunidos have each announced intensified, Paramount-branded integrations across their park portfolios in 2025, signalling a coordinated industry move toward region-specific IP partnerships to underpin multiyear content pipelines and capital programmes [2][1]. Merlin confirmed a new PAW Patrol® land at Chessington World of Adventures Resort — described as the UK’s first and only PAW Patrol land — and said it will expand Peppa Pig attractions across multiple sites including a new Peppa Pig attraction in Dallas–Fort Worth [2][3]. Parques Reunidos published a strategic partnership with Paramount to develop immersive Paramount-themed experiences across its European parks and cited initial investments such as a new Nickelodeon area at Mirabilandia (Italy) and an A Quiet Place maze at Movie Park Germany as early deliverables under the agreement [1].
What operators are committing to on the ground
The published announcements detail specific deliverables and investment focus: Merlin’s Chessington project will include four PAW Patrol-themed rides, themed guest accommodation and a customised retail offer aimed at pre-school families, while Merlin also highlighted a Peppa Pig theme-park opening in Dallas–Fort Worth as part of its broader Peppa programme [2][3]. Parques Reunidos emphasised that the Paramount agreement will enable faster delivery of strategic projects and listed concrete early examples — an A Quiet Place Halloween maze at Movie Park Germany and a Nickelodeon area at Mirabilandia featuring brands such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — indicating a mix of seasonal and permanent asset types in the pipeline [1].
These IP-led builds create immediate operational imperatives for programming teams and park operations: family lands change peak usage profiles, requiring revised guest-flow modelling, capacity planning for low-threshold family rides, and new seasonal programming windows tied to TV and film IP activations [2][1][3]. Retail and F&B units will need franchise-aligned assortments and SKU rationalisation to capture uplift in per-cap spend from captive family audiences; Merlin’s announcements explicitly reference customised retail offers accompanying themed lands, underscoring the commercial tie-ins operators expect to monetise alongside rides and accommodation [2][3].
Portfolio strategy and investor considerations
For portfolio owners and investors, licensing-led growth shifts valuation levers from pure attendance forecasts to IP monetisation metrics — including licence fee structures, merchandise margins and F&B revenue uplifts — and lengthens capital planning horizons because multiyear content pipelines need sustained investment and co-ordinated marketing with IP holders [GPT][2][1]. Parques Reunidos framed its Paramount agreement as a mechanism to ‘launch strategic projects in a more agile way’ and to ‘evolve our value proposition’, language that signals an intent to prioritise franchise-driven, family-focused product strategies across its European portfolio [1].
Corporate posture and reported reallocation of focus
Parques Reunidos’ public messaging pairs the Paramount tie-up with a stated programme of targeted investments in themed areas and seasonal experiences across Europe; at the same time, a user-supplied claim that Parques Reunidos completed a U.S. divestment via the Palace Entertainment sale was not substantiated by the materials provided here and cannot be independently verified from the supplied sources [alert! ‘no source provided in supplied materials for Palace Entertainment sale; claim originates in the assignment prompt and lacks a corroborating public link’]. Parques’ own release focuses on European growth and lists immediate European activations under the strategic partnership with Paramount, which supports an interpretation of a Europe-first operational emphasis in the company’s disclosed 2025 pipeline [1].
Priorities for operators and licensors as pipelines scale
As both operators scale Paramount-themed investments, key near-term priorities emerge: synchronising project timelines between creative/licensing approvals and park construction schedules; establishing SKU rationalisation and merchandising windows to match franchise release cycles; integrating family-capacity modelling into attraction design; and aligning seasonal events with IP-specific promotional calendars to maximise attendance and spend — all areas explicitly suggested or implied by Merlin’s and Parques Reunidos’ descriptions of the projects and commercial intents [2][1][3].
Bronnen