Plans to open the world’s first Fox-branded theme park have come to a screeching halt, with resort and casino operator Genting Malaysia filing a US$1bn (€883m, £784m) lawsuit against both Twenty-First Century Fox and Disney for abandoning the project.
Fox seemingly emerged as a competitor in the theme park market in 2013, announcing a licensing partnership to develop the first international Twentieth Century Fox theme park.
Originally scheduled to open in Malaysia in 2016 at Resorts World Genting near Kuala Lumpur, US$300m (€264.8m, £235m) was earmarked to develop the park, which would have featured major Fox IPs, such as Ice Age, Alien and Night at the Museum. Genting says it’s already invested more than US$750m (€662m, £587.8m) in the project.
Disney is currently preparing a US$71.3bn (€63bn, £55.9bn) purchase of Fox’s assets, a deal which is expected to be completed by the end of Q1 2019.
In 2015, the park’s opening was pushed back to 2017, with the Genting Group at the time citing weak local currency as the reason for the delay, with a sharp depreciation of the Malaysian ringgit increasing costs.
The lawsuit from Genting says that, with Disney’s help, Fox breached the 2013 contract to license its IPs for the Fox World development at the Resorts World Genting complex near Kuala Lumpur.
According to Genting, Fox deliberately delayed the project to force a renegotiation of the licensing contract. Genting alleges that Disney is now “calling the shots”, with the company wanting to end its association with Genting because a gambling company doesn’t fit its family-friendly approach.
In the filing, Genting goes on to say that Fox issued a notice of default with the hope of terminating the agreement, which it said was “entirely consistent with Disney wanting to kill the deal” to benefit itself.
“Given that Fox had no right to terminate the agreement, Fox and Disney are liable for what will exceed a billion dollars in damages attributable to the bad-faith behaviour of both Fox and Disney,” said the complaint.
Further Fox theme parks were also set for both South Korea and Dubai, with talks also held to develop at least one park in China.
Plans for the 101,000sq m (1,087,155sq ft) park in Malaysia included a mix of 25 movie-inspired thrill rides, dark rides, children’s rides and water rides. The plans also included shops and themed outlets.
Both Disney and Fox are yet to comment on the lawsuit.
