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Genting Theme Park refurbishment (FOX studio theme park)


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^They are purchasing the entertainment elements of the company, save for a few sports broadcasting segments, so everything Fox licensed for this park would be under the Disney domain when the deal is done. I'd imagine they'll let this park run pretty loosely though because the deal was set up long before the Disney purchase, much like was done for IMG Worlds of Adventure with the Marvel section.

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Do they own it though? They didn't buy all of Fox, just the movie studios. Everything else is still owned by Newscorp.

According to Wikipedia Genting is owned by 'Resort World by Genting Group' and Fox World in Dubai is owned by Al Ahli Holding Group. Both parks are only licensing the Fox name, though those agreements are now pending. So Disney does not own those parks. I suspect Disney will allow the agreements to stand however because Disney likes money and those parks aren't going to be a threat to the Disney parks.

 

As for the Disney deal, Fox is keeping the physical 50-acre movie studio plus Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Desportes, BigTen Network, Fox Sports 1&2 and Fox Broadcasting (the network TV channels). Everything else goes to Disney.

 

Now when they say Disney is getting the film and televison studios what they mean is Disney is getting the rights to the studio names: 20th Century Fox, Fox TV, Fox Animation, Fox Searchlight Pictures, FX, NatGeo, Blue Sky Studios, etc. and by extension the rights to everything ever produced by them. So essentially Disney is getting the entirety of the Fox film and TV catalog (unless it was produced by one of the news channels), which includes the rights to 'Star Wars A New Hope' (something Lucasfilm never had) and every Marvel character except those owned by Sony ie Spider-man (I wonder how that will affect Islands of Adventure), plus the Simpsons (I wonder how that will affect Universal) and the Ice Age films. And they gained Fox's 30% share in Hulu, so now Disney owns 60% of Hulu.

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I seriously doubt any agreement to use IP at a park being physically constructed is "pending": unless the parties involved were grossly incompetent the agreement is signed and delivered. The fact that Marvel is still at IOA (and will be indefinitely) should be enough to show people that these agreements can't simply be torn up by Disney at a moment's notice too.

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I seriously doubt any agreement to use IP at a park being physically constructed is "pending": unless the parties involved were grossly incompetent the agreement is signed and delivered. The fact that Marvel is still at IOA (and will be indefinitely) should be enough to show people that these agreements can't simply be torn up by Disney at a moment's notice too.

This is absolutely true. Case in point: The Marvel deal at IMG was done before Disney bought Marvel. And yes, Disney DID review everything and want some sign offs on quality of what went into that park after the fact, but deal was done, contracts signed, and Disney respected that.

 

Now, that being said, I have worked on many video game projects that were licensed IPs where there was so much corporate political nonsense that the contracts didn't even get signed until the game was almost finished, so in the case that maybe the ink is NOT on the paper, that would be a huge issue, but I'm going to make the assumption that isn't the case here.

Edited by robbalvey
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I seriously doubt any agreement to use IP at a park being physically constructed is "pending": unless the parties involved were grossly incompetent the agreement is signed and delivered. The fact that Marvel is still at IOA (and will be indefinitely) should be enough to show people that these agreements can't simply be torn up by Disney at a moment's notice too.

This is absolutely true. Case in point: The Marvel deal at IMG was done before Disney bought Marvel. And yes, Disney DID review everything and want some sign offs on quality of what went into that park after the fact, but deal was done, contracts signed, and Disney respected that.

 

Now, that being said, I have worked on many video game projects that were licensed IPs where there was so much corporate political nonsense that the contracts didn't even get signed until the game was almost finished, so in the case that maybe the ink is NOT on the paper, that would be a huge issue, but I'm going to make the assumption that isn't the case here.

Ok cool, so we're thinking the likeliest outcome is that Disney goes to Genting and says, "Hey, make all this stuff look good," and otherwise they just sit back and as long as the royalty payments clear, they just leave it be?

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Is the park still set for a 2018 opening? The Disney/Fox deal will need to go through government approval (which would take 12 to 18 months) so Disney may not have a say on Resorts World's plans until the acquisition is complete, at which point the park would already be finished and open.

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Here's an interesting development. Multiple news outlets are reporting that Genting has filed a suit in the United States against 20th Century Fox and the Walt Disney Company for dragging their feet on the development of the park and pulling their license / IP agreements.

 

Here's the Los Angeles times: https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-fox-disney-malaysia-lawsuit-20181126-story.html

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I doubt they are worried about competition or being associated with a casino. More than likely this goes back to what was discussed earlier: is the quality up to what they feel the Marvel brand should be now?

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Yeah, I saw the news yesterday. I guess I shouldn't be surprised if the Disney / Fox merger is putting a wrench in these Fox World theme parks.

 

I'm hoping this park turns out alright given the legal / licensing issues. The plans for this park and the construction photos make it look super interesting, and I was planning to visit at the end of next year after it (hopefully) opens.

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I doubt they are worried about competition or being associated with a casino.

They absoultely are. Disney has stated many times they don't want to be associated with gambling. This has come up many times with their cruise ships and why you don't see casinos on any of Disney Cruise Lines.

Edited by robbalvey
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Here's an interesting development. Multiple news outlets are reporting that Genting has filed a suit in the United States against 20th Century Fox and the Walt Disney Company for dragging their feet on the development of the park and pulling their license / IP agreements.

 

Here's the Los Angeles times: https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-fox-disney-malaysia-lawsuit-20181126-story.html

 

You can read the entire filing here:

 

https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/genm-complaint.pdf

 

Tough to say what Disney's argument is precisely because they haven't made it yet, obviously. If indeed Fox wasn't living up to their end of the bargain when it came to their input as the lawsuit suggests intentionally to try and extract more money out of Genting and then later to just get out of the project, then Disney's probably going to have to pay a lot of money to make that problem go away.

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Legally Fox is still in charge until the merger closes. This is expected to happen on January 1st, 2019. But Fox has been making a ton of moves to clean up contracts and stop anything which cannot be finished before the merger occurs. But at this point in time Disney is supposed to have zero say in the contract or its negotiation. Although that’s rarely completly true, Fox executives know how Disney operates and are likely working towards what they think or know what Disney wants.

 

From a quick read through of the lawsuit it’s pretty obvious Genting is in violation of the contract. The only question that needs answered is if it really is Fox’s fault that it was unable to meet the deadlines. A lot of the complaints sound pretty standard for attractions based on IP. I think a lot of the problems are due to Genting having zero experience building attractions based on IP. They own Universal Singapore but Universal would have handled everything.

 

I would not be surprised if the companies do work it out in the end. Disney has shown that they are willing to work in good faith on contracts which they inherit through mergers. But I am amazed that either company thought they could build an IP based park for only $130 million.

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For example, FEG originally wanted

GENM to feature Percy Jackson rather than Independence Day in an attraction. As a result,

GENM engaged a vendor to complete media content and interior design for a Percy Jackson

attraction at significant cost. Yet in January 2016, FEG changed its mind and asked that Percy Jackson be removed from Fox World and replaced with Independence Day after all. In good faith,

GENM accommodated this request, though it meant having to start from scratch to design a

completely different attraction for Independence Day. FEG acted similarly in connection with

asking GENM not to use any IP from the television series Sons of Anarchy in the Park, even after

GENM had already started developing a marquee attraction based on that series, and had agreed

to pay additional license fees in order to obtain the rights to that Fox IP.

 

At least someone was paying enough attention to can the Percy Jackson attraction.

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I doubt they are worried about competition or being associated with a casino.

They absoultely are. Disney has stated many times they don't want to be associated with gambling. This has come up many times with their cruise ships and why you don't see casinos on any of Disney Cruise Lines.

This is my understanding as well. They were huge donors in support of Florida's recently-passed Amendment 3, which effectively limits the expansion of gambling in the state.

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I doubt they are worried about competition or being associated with a casino.

They absoultely are. Disney has stated many times they don't want to be associated with gambling. This has come up many times with their cruise ships and why you don't see casinos on any of Disney Cruise Lines.

 

I still don't buy that as the reason for trying to get out of this deal though. I understand them being anti gambling for anything that carries the Disney brand (the same way they won't release R rated movies under Disney label), but this is slightly different IMO since it's not directly Disney branded.

 

Really believe it goes back to the place just being sketchy and Fox/Disney wanting out because it will damage the brand. This was 2-3 years ago now, but someone I know who was brought in as one of the vendors in an important role did not hesitate to say that he left after a few months because of what a mess the project was.

 

The wording in the Universal contract says something along the lines of "the area must be kept up to current industry standards," which is why you saw Spiderman get 4K projectors and the complete re-build of Hulk...Don't think Genting is even doing that currently, so...

 

This is my understanding as well. They were huge donors in support of Florida's recently-passed Amendment 3, which effectively limits the expansion of gambling in the state.

 

The Seminole tribe was also a huge backer of that proposition. In that case, IMO, Disney was just looking to block competition.

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