Fox looks to bring ‘Ice Age’ characters to China theme park rush

“China offers something that probably no other country in the world does”, Jeffrey Godsick

21st Century Fox Inc. is seeking Chinese sites for amusement parks featuring themes from “Ice Age,” “Alien” and “The Simpsons,” as entertainment companies rush to build vacation spots for the country’s surging middle class.
Rupert Murdoch’s film and television company is looking for local partners to help set up “more than one” Chinese park in the next few years, Fox Consumer Products President Jeffrey Godsick said in an interview in Hong Kong. The studio is also in talks with Asia’s two largest Internet companies – Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. – about licensing digital content and other partnerships, Godsick said.
Fox follows Comcast Corp. and Walt Disney Co. in trying to leverage the global appeal of their film franchises to provide getaways for hundreds of millions of newly affluent Chinese families. The company would like to follow up the expected completion of its first theme park in Malaysia next year with an expansion into China, where some sites are within a three hour’s journey of 30 million potential customers, Godsick said.
“China offers something that probably no other country in the world does,” he said, adding that Fox has found some receptive ears in key locations. “We’re talking with several major companies. The government is always involved and the government has been very supportive in certain places.”
While Godsick declined to provide a time frame or specify locations, he said thrill rides based on the animated hits “Ice Age” and “Rio” were likely in the mix. Officials near Chengdu, Sichuan province, and Ningbo, Zhejiang province, have been in talks with Fox about possible projects, according to government websites.
Comcast said in October that it would team up with Chinese investors to spend more than 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) to build a Universal theme park in Beijing. The Shanghai Disney Resort is similarly scheduled to open at the end of this year.
Fox plans to finish its first theme park in Malaysia in November 2016. The site — close to a casino resort near Kuala Lumpur — covers 25 acres (10.1 hectares) and will feature more than two dozen rides and attractions, it said in 2013.
The studio said in July it plans to build a second, 75-acre facility in Changwon, South Korea. That park would be attached to a resort stretching more than 700 acres.
In addition to theme parks, Fox has been meeting with representatives from Alibaba and Tencent about other kinds of content partnerships, Godsick said. A team from Tencent met with Fox right before Jack Ma led a group of Alibaba executives to the company during an October tour of Hollywood studios.
“They are all amazing, because they have numbers that to us, from an American standpoint, are staggering,” Godsick said. “We’re looking for partners that want to be innovative.”
Fox is exploring the possibility of opening a store on Alibaba’s e-commerce sites, Godsick said. The discussions include ways to fight digital piracy.
Tencent said in December that it would partner with Fox to stream more than 300 hours of programming from the National Geographic Channel.
Fox is also bringing its Ice Age Live! to China this year. The show, featuring characters such as “Sid” and “Manny,” will tour about 10 cities including Beijing and Shanghai, Godsick said.
The company is setting up an educational exhibition using its characters to teach children about actual ice ages, the last of which ended about 12,000 years ago. The exhibit at museums and science centers would likely arrive in Asia by 2017, Godsick said. Bloomberg