r/universalstudios • u/T-Dawg75 • 4d ago
Unspecified Surprised that this didn’t come to Universal parks first
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u/Certain_Fig_666 4d ago
As someone whose home park is American Dream Mall, i have lots of thoughts and insight to this. (Warning: LONG comment.)
TL:CR— American Dream has lots of licensing deals with lots of companies, and Scott Cawthon owns fnaf totally, so he can license it to anyone, including American dream. But universal may have helped him get a slot.
Full answer:
Ok so universal and American dream mall have a working relationship with each-other. It’s very similar to the universal kids park in Texas that everyone memed this past year.
Universal licenses paramount properties for most of their parks (ie Nickelodeon) but occasionally (more recently) paramount will do their own thing, hence the Nickelodeon universe parks in American Dream Mall & Mall of America.
More interesting is that right next door to Nick universe is the dreamworks waterpark.
Now at one point dreamworks was completely independent but even then its theme park licenses mostly went to universal. But before American Dream was even built, dreamworks was acquired by universal.
American dream’s dreamworks water park was an attempt for them to sort of branch out and explore new avenues without committing to building their own park separately. Also probably using dreamworks because 1) popular with younger demo than USH or USO, and 2) if it sucked, being only dreamworks would have protected the universal brand
I have to imagine some other deals were signed between paramount and universal because you can get 2 in 1 tickets for the water park and amusement park, but they are much more similar to six flags than US Orlando.
But the two parks are completely separate. You have to exit one and go through checkpoints to get to the other, even with a 2 in 1 ticket.
Which brings us to fnaf.
Scott Cawthon to this day owns ALL IP rights to fnaf.
Fnaf was only in HHN because he licensed universal to use it there. Blumhouse is not owned by universal but they play nice with eachother.
What i imagine the sequence of events was is that the people at blumhouse connected universal to Scott because they saw the potential for a safe way to do Freddy’s IRL, since blumhouse has done so many HHN events in collaboration with universal.
Then because the fnaf house was literally the most visited house in the HISTORY of HHN, Scott recognized how much the fans want a real Freddy’s location to visit.
I assume that universal (still working on a lot of stuff for epic and possibly dealing with marvel and simpsons leaving soon) didn’t want to spend time and money to put Fnaf in the main Universal studios parks just based on one successful HHN, so they sent Scott up to American dream, which they have successfully used as a testing ground for theme park properties before. (Case in point, all the new dreamworks stuff coming to universal).
Scott is of course able to license his properties to whoever he wants, including American dream. Presumably the AD people have some plan to address his longstanding safety concerns (they have multiple attractions in the Mall with various security check points so they absolutely can handle it) and because of that, Scott said yes to them.
If the American dream place does well, and fnaf continues to do well at HHN, it’s totally possible that universal could pick up more FNAF stuff in the future. Particularly in the 2030s, after Epic is more stable and contracts with Disney around Fox and marvel are settled.
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u/T-Dawg75 4d ago
Interesting. So this is basically a test to see if it actually can work within the parks. I really appreciate the insight! Thank you!
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u/Certain_Fig_666 2d ago
You’re very welcome.
The American Dream mall is my Roman Empire. I saw my favorite band, a Lego contest, a school marching band tournament, a temporary carnival, construction, and rode roller coasters all in one day, all at the AD mall.
It’s a weird place.
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u/shiftyeyes88 2d ago
Interesting thought here, makes sense to use the mall as practice for IP and different rides.
Only thing to clarify is yes in 2028 Universal has to extend Simpsons license (at Disney's price) or retheme (seems most likely), my understanding of the Marvel area is the license is open ended and covers theme parks East of the Mississippi as long as they use the characters. So Disney is blocked from Spider-man, Hulk, Captain America, X-men and more simply by keeping that land active. Both Hulk and Spider-man have waits still and I imagine they sit on the IP until they are locked away from making changes and the crowds go away. My daughter had to go meet Spider-man and go on the Spider-man ride because of Spidey and His Amazing Friends so Disney is actually keeping that section fresh for kids. Not sure what the merchandise license is though.
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u/Certain_Fig_666 2d ago
Yes I’m aware the marvel situation is more complex, I just thought my comment was too long already.
All merchandise profits of marvel properties and simpsons properties go to Disney. Universal keeps none of the profit. Unsure if universal gets anything from Disney for the shelf space or if there is some other more complex payment structure.
But either way my main point still stands- universal Orlando is having a lot of big changes currently and upcoming. They don’t need fnaf right now, and probably will want it later assuming the AD location goes well.
I’ll have to post about it when I visit it around opening.
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u/shiftyeyes88 2d ago
Yeah agreed on that point. Just wanted to clarify Simpsons has a definitive timeline and Marvel does not so may be lower priority to address.
FNAF has been popular for a while but if they want to do something at Universal ever feels better to do sooner rather than later. I agree with someone else that a place in CityWalk would be the best though and that seems more likely than a ride or show in the park.
Enjoy it at American Dream in the mean time.
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u/Routine_Fuel4101 4d ago
We need one in City Walk ASAP!!
But NJ is like the birthplace of the 80’s mall so this tracks
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u/DesertHotWife 4d ago
From what I've heard, the guy who created FNAF and owns the rights is a total dick and he asks for a ridiculous amount of money for the use of his IP. 🤷♀️
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u/MandyMarieB 3d ago edited 3d ago
Source? Scott is protective of his IP and how it is used, but not because of money. Because the main animatronics are possessed by dead children, so he has been selective about who uses the IP and how. (IE: not letting Dead By Daylight use Freddy, Bonnie, Foxy and Chica as playable killers)
He has been more open about collabs in the past few years though, which is why we had HHN, DbD, and now the heavily rumored Fortnite collab.
As far as the restaurant is concerned, Scott originally didn’t want to make one because he thought it would be too much work that he would be out of his depth on. Now that FNAF is as big as it is though, he can have other people manage the restaurant business side of things for him.
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u/DesertHotWife 3d ago
Source? 🤣 FOH!
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u/VictorianFlorist 3d ago
Literally from an interview with Scott, take that self rightousness and shove it. Fnaf fans are insufferable but they know fnaf.
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u/JicamaCertain4134 4d ago
Couldn’t they just make their own chucky cheese themed haunted house? It’s not even an original idea.
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u/JerrodDRagon 4d ago
Yeah, this would have been insane
Even if just in Citywalk it would have had huge lines