Legoland and Alton Towers owner Merlin Entertainments is to create new visitor attractions based on the Shrek films in a deal with DreamWorks Animation.
The two companies have secured a site next to the former County Hall building and London Eye in London for a 20,000 sq ft attraction and interactive “experience” featuring characters from the four Shrek films, which have grossed a combined $3.5bn in box office revenue.
DWA chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg told the Financial Times: “It will be a convergence of theatre, audience participation, character engagement and, most of all, a lot of laughs.
“We’ve designed it and finished the research and development side and we’re ready to deploy it.”
The two companies have agreed to develop six attractions over the next nine years, he added.
Katzenberg said the attractions could be very lucrative.
“If [Merlin] is able to build out a quantity of them it can become a very solid annuity for us,” he said. “The good news is they are not hugely capital intensive and they have a very good return. Once you build it and open it they can play forever.”
DWA is also likely to explore attractions based on its other characters and series, Katzenberg said.
DWA’s Merlin deal is the studio’s first foray into an area dominated by Walt Disney, which operates theme parks in California, Florida, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Paris.
Merlin, the world’s second-largest theme park operator behind Disney, operates smaller attractions, with more city centre facilities, such as Madame Tussauds.
Chief executive Nick Varney said he hoped the deal would be “the start … of a wider collaboration with DWA”.
The Shrek deal represents Merlin’s sixth city-centre “midway” concept, and ahead of its maiden preliminary results on Thursday, Varney said the group was considering a seventh.
He added: “We have eyes on a potential acquisition deal.”
Merlin made its stock market debut last year through the sale of a 30% stake by the company’s private equity owners, Blackstone, CVC, and Danish holding and investment company Kirkbi, which owns the Lego and Legoland trademarks and 75% of the Lego Group.