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Potential New Universal UK Park

rob666 said:
Hey, I'm in the know, Potter will be there.
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I was told it’s true by my second cousins best friends taxi driver who drove the Universal CEO to the site. They were specifically measuring land to see if they could fit a hogwarts replica on the site.

Apparently they’ve got a choice to make between which one of the turrets they can’t have as the site isn’t big enough if they are also going to have Doctor Who land
 
Relife said:
Over on the Universal forums all the chatter seems to be that Universal GB will not have Potter due to rights issues with WB. The source seems to be someone who claims to be in the know
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I feel vindicated. I've only been saying this since, oh I don't know, it was first floated.

Gloating over.

Wait, I'm not their source, am I? I'm definitely not in the know. I'm just a goose.
 
Isn't the Studio Tour basically running at max capacity anyway? They manage 2 mill visitors a year and that's never gonna increase unless they do an expansion and I find that unlikely. Considering the price for licensing Potter at Epic Universe alone is in the $500million+ range, the amount a UK licensing agreement would be similar and as the Studio Tour is likely bringing in around 135-150mill a year I can see the Warner Bros coin counters being very enthusiastic about greenlighting such a deal.

Not to mention Rowling and WB take a cut of every piece of Potter labelled goods and merch as well, them not licensing Potter cos it might hurt their £130-£150 mill a year Tour seems shortsighted. UGB's Potter area would probably bring in twice that per year in licensing fees and cuts of merch and F&B and it's not like the Studio Tour won't still be as popular.

It just seems to me that at the end of the day, there's more value in Potter being at UGB for Warner than there is trying to protect their Studio Tour that might not even need protecting.
 
There’s going to be more Potter than the original 7 books in the next few years before this place gets built so they could easily branch out into the better parts of fantastic beasts and so on if they wanted to.

I still reckon they won’t clone-stamp Florida so no Potter, Jurassic etc. World of Illumination would be my reckoning - Minions by the barrelfull, Mario/Nintendo film tie ins, Sing/Secret Life of Pets etc.
 
xtpower said:
Isn't the Studio Tour basically running at max capacity anyway? They manage 2 mill visitors a year and that's never gonna increase unless they do an expansion and I find that unlikely. Considering the price for licensing Potter at Epic Universe alone is in the $500million+ range, the amount a UK licensing agreement would be similar and as the Studio Tour is likely bringing in around 135-150mill a year I can see the Warner Bros coin counters being very enthusiastic about greenlighting such a deal.
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Warner Bros Discovery are also around $40bn in debt and frantically cost cutting so potentially very receptive to some free money.
 
Bowser said:
Warner Bros Discovery are also around $40bn in debt and frantically cost cutting so potentially very receptive to some free money.
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Oh yea, they basically passed on their big Sports package (the NBA) to save money, even though by doing so they'll get reduced money via advertising. Not to mention the completed films they shelved purely to gain via tax cuts.

The only sticking point would be JK imo and I doubt she'd be against Universal doing more Universal things with the Potter IP, they've not let her down yet.
 
Let's be honest here, no-one outside of the higher ups at both companies knows truly what the situation is. Which is why I don't think anyone who claims to have an inside source or know someone who knows someone is getting anything more than hearsay. There's way more at play here than whether a Studio Tour will survive UGB with Potter, because at the end of the day if Universal truly wanted Potter at UGB it'd get done - the amount of money it would generate would make any worries about the Studio Tour meaningless.

No, I think this is one side 'Warner' trying to maximise their value because they need something like this to happen and the other side 'Universal' are debating whether it's worth paying more for Potter when they probably can replace it with LOTR at a drastically smaller amount. Because if the fee's for the Epic Universe Potter licensing are true $500m+, Universal will actually have to consider whether Potter is worth what Warner will ask for it - possibly £1b (higher rate due to the Studio Tour and their debt) in licensing alone and then potentially increased royalties on all Potter themed items.
 
xtpower said:
when they probably can replace it with LOTR at a drastically smaller amount.
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One guess as to which film studio owns the merchandising, copyright and image rights to the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit series? You guessed it! Warner Bros. Discovery.

The complicated licencing arrangement means that they'd have to get the Tolkien Estate to agree to give them theme park rights, Middle-earth Enterprises /. Embracer Group for general merchandising rights. Warner Bros. Discovery to use anything from the Peter Jackson films, including likenesses, set designs, character designs, etc.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
One guess as to which film studio owns the merchandising, copyright and image rights to the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit series? You guessed it! Warner Bros. Discovery.

The complicated licencing arrangement means that they'd have to get the Tolkien Estate to agree to give them theme park rights, Middle-earth Enterprises /. Embracer Group for general merchandising rights. Warner Bros. Discovery to use anything from the Peter Jackson films, including likenesses, set designs, character designs, etc.
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Embracer Group actually owns the Theme Park Rights too.
 
I feel like the 'Potter for Universal GB' is going to keep going in circles, even after opening, as you can't really falsify any rumours and speculation that emerge, this is just going to keep on going. Especially when it won't matter if they obtain another major tentpole IP (eg Pokémon) to anchor the park, Disney does it and so did Universal before 2010.

Just get on with it...
 
Over on Inside Universal, the guy who broke the news of UGB in the first place (in a PortAventura is being bought by Universal thread no less) posted this:

it is going to be a long 7 years for everyone here ,,,
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My take is that it's got the unofficial go ahead over at Comcast and they have a tenative opening time of 2031. But then I am an unabashed optimist, regardless it does sound good. Tomfoolery only posts when he has info and his track record is second to none.
 
Could the general election announcement cause any delay in Universal coming to a decision about this project?

Presumably they will be in discussion with ministers and civil servants about elements of the project such as road and rail improvements and how those are to be paid for and delivered.

An election period and the purdah rules could cause a delay?
 
AT86 said:
Could the general election announcement cause any delay in Universal coming to a decision about this project?

Presumably they will be in discussion with ministers and civil servants about elements of the project such as road and rail improvements and how those are to be paid for and delivered.

An election period and the purdah rules could cause a delay?
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Absolutely. The Department for Levelling up will not be allowed to grant it status as a project of national importance during this time, no other government department will be able to make any sort of announcement regarding support of the project either.
 
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