Dreamworks to be sold to Paramount!

Since it does include the name Paramount I thought this might be of interest. Nothing was mentioned about implications for the future as of yet. The deal is set to be worth 1.6 billion dollars.

Paramount will gain:

- All 59 movies in the Dreamworks library, (including American Beauty & Gladiator).

- Distribution rights to Shrek series

Paramount will not gain:

- The rights to the rest of the Dreamworks SKG inc. animation library. They said the reason for this was that this paortion of the company went public last year.

...There's more to this story, but this is what I got real quick from the story on my Roadrunner homepage. Would this help the theme parks down the road in the future? Or am I just dreaming about the possibilities too much?

Only problem is, Paramount Parks are run by CBS.

But being owned by the same parent company makes it a little easier to do licensing stuff.

Yeah, but they have lifetime licensing rights between Paramount Parks and Paramount Pictures.

Paramount Pictures and CBS are both owned by....

VIACOM! http://www.viacom.com/

How does this work with the Dreamworks movies that are used by Universal -- Shrek?

Same as it works for Universal Studios Hollywood having a Nicktoons Section, and Paramount Parks to have a Scooby Doo Dark Ride.

Naming and branding rights has to be one of the most confusing things in this field. That is what I figured was going on, but still...

I know! I mean, Scooby Doo was created by Hanna Barbera, which was owned by Taft, which opened Kings Island and Kings Dominion, then bought 4 other parks before/during the KECO years, then Paramount Stepped in, and Hanna Barbera was sold to Warner Brothers, who owned SFI, who sold that, and then you have both characters at both parks.

Nickelodeon had studios at Universal and what not, but was a Paramount owned thing. So you have Nicktoons at Universal. Once Paramount has parks, they eventually decide since they dont' have Hanna Barbera anymore to start Phasing them out and introducing Nick toons into all the parks.

Oh, and Silverwood AND Kennywood have Garfield, but neither Silverwood nor Kennywood are related.

And don't get me started on the Peanuts gang...which, btw, are not only in Cedar Fair parks, but MoA, which is no longer a CF Park (though for how long, we don't know), and Snoopy is ALSO at Universal Japan.

Oh, and Both Alton Towers and Dreamworld Aussie have/have had Nick toons stuff. Alton was never affiliated with Paramount, though, and Dreamworld isn't either.

I think it would be interesting to see what really happens here, but I'm officially confused . ;)

HFEC had nicktoons too for awhile during the Kidsfests at both SDC and DW. DW had SpongeBob this past season...

...round and round into a beautiful oblivion...

Keep in mind that Dreamworks and Dreamworks Animaiton are two seperate companies. The Animation arm is publically traded.

Thank you for adding to the confusion. ;)

Dreamworks definitly has more 'timely' or 'classic' films better for themeing future Park Properties to. Maybe They'll wise up like Japan did and have a Ring themed Dark ride...

I do my best, Swoosh.

Dollywood had a Spongebob ride when I was there in June. I don't know if Dollywood bought rights to any other Nick Toons characters.

PKI will phase out all HB characters (including on rides and buildings) except Scooby for the 2006 season.

SF has a Scoody doo ride as well and when I got on it I was soo confused.

Just keep in mind that "rights" and "EXCLUSIVE rights" are two vastly different concepts....with vastly different pricetags... ;)

My understanding of the Scooby situation is the Paramount parks have rights from the Hanna Barbera days, while the Six Flags parks have rights because the live action/CGI pictures were made by Warner.

If you look at the merchandise at the games at parks, it's apparent there is a ton of cross-licensing going on.

No, Paramount has rights to the cartoon characters of Scooby because Paramount Parks was once under the company that owned Hanna Barbera, and Paramount still has rights to use Hanna Barbera characters (though they're giving them up gradually, save for Scooby), and they still pay licensing fees for Scooby.

Six Flags has rights to Scooby because they have licensing of Warner Bros., who now owns Hanna Barbera, which owns Scooby. SFI having Scooby has nothing to do with the movie.