Merlin Entertainments are exploring possibilities of the usage of further Sony licences.

A dedicated Sony theme park has been mooted by Merlin Entertainments.

These discussions come on the back of the success of the Merlin-operated Chessington, which has recently opened the world-first Jumanji-themed roller coaster Mandrill Mayhem. The B&M wing coaster provides the IP of Jumanji and was a significant investment at £17m

The roller coaster is part of the World of Jumanji themed zone at Chessington and was created through a strategic alliance between Sony and Merlin. The multinational companies hold a long-term agreement to develop rides, lands, retail outlets and themed hotel rooms based on Jumanji and other Sony IPs.

As Sony houses a gigantic film library of more than 4,000 titles, other entertainment programmes and its PlayStation games, the skies the limit in terms of creative development.

CEO Merlin Entertainment, Scott O’Neil and Sony Pictures partnerships EVP Jeffrey Godsick, have both spoken about the possibilities of capitalising of both Jumanji at Chessington and Super Nintendo World with Universal: “It’s not lost on us what’s been really successful,” said O’Neill.

Godsick added that news is forthcoming about a proposed Ghostbusters IP, which is already in motion at the Merlin-operated Heide Park in Germany courtesy of the attraction Ghostbusters 5D: “We’re looking at everything across the board – not just in movies – in all of the IP content that we have,” he concluded.

Image: Merlin Entertainments