Madrid, Tuesday, 14 October 2025.
Paramount has accelerated a global licensing push, striking strategic themed-experience deals with Parques Reunidos and Merlin Entertainments that signal a shift from owning assets to monetizing IP. Earlier this year Parques Reunidos confirmed a long-term Paramount partnership while selling its U.S. Palace Entertainment arm to Herschend to redeploy capital toward licensed projects; Merlin is developing the UK’s first PAW Patrol land and expanding Peppa Pig and other Paramount-driven offerings into U.S. footprints. The most intriguing fact: operators are intentionally recycling physical assets to fund rapid IP rollouts, turning studio brands into a scalable, lower-capital route to family visitation gains. For retail and onsite commerce teams this means tighter alignment between master-planning, themed retail assortments, price architecture and capacity-led merchandising—plus new license-fee economics, sustainability and accessibility obligations that will affect lifetime cost models and per-capita revenue forecasts.
Deal roundup: Paramount moves from ownership to licensing at scale
Paramount has accelerated a 2025 licensing push, formalizing long-term themed-experience agreements with two of Europe’s largest operators: Parques Reunidos and Merlin Entertainments—moves that shift the studio’s park strategy toward third‑party rollouts of IP rather than direct ownership of new resorts [1][2]. Parques Reunidos announced a strategic partnership with Paramount to introduce immersive Paramount-branded areas and cited recent projects already delivered under the agreement, while Merlin confirmed a Paramount collaboration that will deliver the U.K.’s first PAW Patrol themed land at Chessington and additional Paramount-driven product across its portfolio supported by expanded live-entertainment partnerships [1][2][3].
Parques Reunidos: portfolio focus and early activations
Parques Reunidos framed its April announcement as a long-term strategic tie with Paramount to bring themed rides, interactive experiences and family areas inspired by Paramount franchises into its parks; the operator highlighted two early investments—a Halloween maze at Movie Park Germany based on A Quiet Place, and a Nickelodeon area at Mirabilandia, Italy—as examples of projects already delivered under the partnership [1]. Parques’ public statement positions those activations as the opening phase of a longer investment pipeline across its international portfolio [1].
Merlin doubles down on preschool IP and live entertainment
Merlin’s announcement confirms the creation of the UK’s first fully themed PAW Patrol land at Chessington World of Adventures Resort, including multiple rides, themed accommodation and bespoke retail—an explicit attempt to capture pre-school family demand and broaden Merlin’s audience mix [2]. Merlin separately named RWS Global as a preferred entertainment-production partner to scale in-park shows and seasonal programming across key UK and U.S. destinations, signalling a coordinated content and live-entertainment strategy to support IP-led lands and year‑round commercialisation [3].
Why studios prefer licensing: capital efficiency and speed to market
The pattern of studio-to-operator licensing seen here reflects a broader industry tendency to monetise intellectual property through partner operators rather than build and operate greenfield parks—an approach that reduces upfront capital commitment for studios and allows park operators to deploy proven family IP to drive attendance and per‑capita spend [4][6]. Paramount’s recent corporate moves—hiring senior products-and-experiences leadership to scale licensing and consumer products—underscore the studio’s strategic pivot to extracting value from brands via partnerships and product ecosystems rather than solely through content distribution [6].
Operational implications for operators and planners
Operators integrating major studio IP must translate brand requirements into master plans, retail assortments, capacity modelling and lifecycle cost forecasts—areas where licensing agreements impose new constraints and obligations such as brand-consistent retail assortments, licensed-fee schedules and sustainability and accessibility commitments [1][2][3][alert! ‘no single provided source giving comprehensive list of contractual obligations; this sentence synthesises common industry implications from the cited partnership announcements and wider sector practice’]. Merlin’s selection of an external entertainment partner to deliver 100+ live experiences in 2025 illustrates how operators are outsourcing scaleable content production to support IP-led lands and seasonal programming, which in turn affects labour models and annual operating budgets [3].
Finance and corporate strategy context
These licensing deals arrive amid a wave of consolidation and strategic repositioning in media—transactions and takeover attempts among major studios have sharpened the focus on library monetisation and new revenue streams—factors that make park licensing an attractive, lower-capital lever to commercialise IP globally [4][5]. Paramount’s executive-level hires into products and experiences further indicate a push to convert studio franchises into global consumer ecosystems that feed licensed park builds and onsite commerce [6].
Bronnen