Lionsgate is partnering to open a South Korean theme park based on its film properties.

“Lionsgate Movie World, spanning approximately 1.3 million square feet (approximately 122,000 square meters) and centered around multiple renowned Lionsgate film properties, is Lionsgate’s first branded outdoor theme park and the latest milestone in the continued ramp up of Lionsgate’s location-based entertainment business around the world. The project will be developed into seven movie zones, each themed around blockbuster Lionsgate properties which have collectively grossed nearly $9 billion at the global box office. These include ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘The Twilight Saga’ and ‘Now You See Me’ as well as the eagerly-anticipated March 2018 release ‘Robin Hood’.”

This joins their project in Dubai.

According to The Economist:

“Newfound enthusiasm for theme parks partly reflects upheaval in the media industry. As it has become harder to reap riches in television and film, companies are eager to spin gold from both their vast content libraries and to attract attention to their new offerings. Disney and Comcast have enjoyed considerable success doing this through their parks businesses, which have chugged along as reliable profit engines. Universal Studios has contributed more to Comcast’s profits over the past five years than either the broadcast network NBC or the Universal Pictures film studio, its corporate siblings. At Disney, the company’s theme-park division has generated a better return on assets than its film studio in four of the past five years.”

My take: I believe Disneyland was the first media-related theme park, and I’ve been there! Not quite transmedia, media-related theme parks are an experiential form of IP merchandizing and a way to extend film franchises into the real world.