Paramount Parks (Thrills are Paramount AU)

Paramount Parks is an amusement park operator headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Paramount Parks was officially founded in 1992, when the then Paramount Communications bought out the Kings Entertainment Company, which owned six regional theme parks, in which Paramount purchased only five. Ever since then, they have continued to grow, and now they own a total of 17 theme parks across the world. This includes regional destination parks such as Paramount's Kings Island and Paramount's Great America, massive tourism destination parks, such as Paramount's Adventure Harbour and Paramount Park London, and they also operate the three Nickelodeon Universe theme parks.
== History ==
=== Early Paramount (1992-2006) ===
In late 1992, Paramount Communications (now known as Paramount Global) bought out the Kings Entertainment Company. The deal included five regional theme parks: Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Carowinds, Canada's Wonderland, and Great America. In 1993, all of the parks were given the "Paramount's" prefix, all except Canada's Wonderland, which instead got the prefix "Paramount", due to it being grammatically incorrect if they used the previously mentioned prefix. This is also the year that the parks started to use movie properties, along with the Hanna-Barbera characters, which were in the parks under Kings Entertainment. Starting in 1995, Nickelodeon was seen in the parks, which would later be important for the future direction of the company. In 1997, Paramount's Great America opened the Paramount Media Plex (now known as the Paramount Gateway). The same was done to Paramount's Kings Island in 2009 and to Paramount's Carowinds in 2015. In 1998, Paramount acquired another park in the US, that being Lagoon in Utah. Paramount got the operational rights to Terra Mítica in Spain in 2001 (Paramount sold the operational rights in 2004), and they began to operate Bonfante Gardens (now Gilroy Gardens) in 2003. Paramount would build their first ground-up park in 2001 in Paramount's Adventure Harbour. Other original parks followed suit in Asia, which were Paramount's Discovery Bay in Japan, and Paramount Park Tianjin in China. In 2006, Paramount partnered up with Great Wolf Resorts to build a location next to Paramount's Kings Island. This started their relationship with the company, which will be important later on in it's history.
=== New Paramount (2007-Present) ===
In 2007, Paramount Parks announced that they would change their strategy to be more internationally focused, and to update their existing parks from just parks to regional destinations. This included new, immersive themed areas, usually with rides themed to Paramount movies. They also opened up more accommodation, such as Paramount's Kings Island opening the Nickelodeon Camping Resort near Kings Island in 2008, and opening various Paramount branded hotels near their parks. Then, they started to open new theme parks internationally, such as Paramount Park Spain in 2015, Paramount Park Osaka in 2016, Paramount Park Kunming in 2022, and Paramount Park London and Paramount Park Korea in 2024. In 2012, Paramount bought out Great Wolf Resorts. 2021 saw Paramount discontinue their operation of Gilroy Gardens due to it not fitting in with the companies current vision. In 2024, Paramount proposed a merger with Spanish company, Parques Renudios, due to their licensing of Paramount properties in their various properties, especially in Movie Park Germany. It is said that the merger will be finalized in January of 2025.
== Intellectual Properties ==
=== Current Intellectual Properties ===
Paramount Parks is very well known for using various IP's in their various parks. Here is a list of their current intellectual properties.
* The Addams Family
* BET
* CBS (Includes the rights to various TV series, such as Star Trek, and the Terrytoons library)
* CMT
* Comedy Central
* Dinotopia
* Doctor Who [Europe only]
* Hanna-Barbera [North America only]
* Logo TV
* MTV
* Nickelodeon (Includes the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Garfield characters)
* Paramount Animation (Includes the rights to the animated films Rango and Wonder Park)
* Paramount Pictures (Includes most of the movie properties, such as Top Gun, and Braveheart)
* Paramount Players (Includes the pre-2018 Nickelodeon Movies films and the Smile horror franchise)
* Pop
* Showtime
* Thunderbirds [Europe Only]
* Tomb Raider
* Top Gear [Europe Only]
* Transformers
* TV Land
* VH1
=== Cancelled Intellectual Properties ===
These properties were only ever planned to be used, but were cut for various reasons.
* Aardman Animation (Meant for Paramount Park London, but was scrapped due to the park's long development.)
* LEGO (Meant to be used to replace various Hanna-Barbera themed sections, with the only known version being announced in a survey for Paramount's Carowinds. An expansion to their Nickelodeon area was put there instead.)
* Peanuts (Originally planned as the theme for the children's sections at Paramount Park London, Paramount Park Kunming, and Paramount Movie Park Korea. The deal fell through, and the concept was retooled. The areas at Paramount Park Kunming and Paramount Park London were re-themed to the 2019 animated film, Wonder Park. The Korea version was originally going to have this theme, but was scrapped in 2020 due to the movie's failure at the box office, so the area was slightly changed and renamed from Wonderland to Little Adventures.)
* Rabbids (Meant for Paramount Park London, but was scrapped early in development.)
== Theme Parks ==
=== Current Theme Parks ===
Name 	Location 	Year Opened	Year Acquired	Description
Nickelodeon Universe American Dream Mall	East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States	2019 	N/A 	Located inside of the American Dream Mall, the park is only operated by Paramount, while the Triple Five Group owns the land and the mall it's in.
Nickelodeon Universe Mall of America 	Bloomington, Minnesota, United States 	1992 	2007 	Located inside of the Mall of America, it was the first Nickelodeon Universe park, the park is only operated by Paramount, while the Triple Five Group owns the land and the mall it's in.
Nickelodeon Universe New Orleans 	New Orleans, Louisiana, United States 	2010 	N/A 	Located on part of the land of the former Six Flags New Orleans park, this is the flagship Nickelodeon Universe park, the park is only operated by Paramount, while Southern Star Amusements owns the land.
Paramount Canada's Wonderland 	Vaughan, Ontario, Canada 	1981 	1992 	One of the former Kings Entertainment Company parks.
Paramount Movie Park Korea 	Jung-gu, Incheon, South Korea 	2024 	N/A 	The park is only operated by Paramount, while Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment owns the land it sits on, a part of the INSPIRE Entertainment Resort.
Paramount Park Kunming 	Chenggong District, Kunming, China 	2022 	N/A 	A part of the Paramount Kunming Entertainment Resort, one of Paramount's flagship parks.
Paramount Park London 	Swanscombe, Kent, England, United Kingdom 	2024 	N/A 	A part of the Paramount London Entertainment Resort, one of Paramount's flagship parks.
Paramount Park Osaka 	Suita, Osaka, Japan 	2016 	N/A 	A part of the Paramount Osaka Entertainment Resort, built on the land of the former "Expoland" [1970-2007] theme park.
Paramount Park Spain 	Alhama de Murcia, Murcia, Spain 	2015 	N/A 	A part of the Paramount Spain Entertainment Resort.
Paramount Park Tianjin 	Jinnan District, Tianjin, China 	2011 	N/A 	The first Paramount Park in China.
Paramount's Adventure Harbour 	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 	2001 	N/A 	The first ground-up park constructed by Paramount Parks.
Paramount's Carowinds 	Charlotte, North Carolina, United States 	1973 	1992 	A part of the Carowinds Entertainment Resort, one of the former Kings Entertainment Company parks, one of Paramount's flagship parks.
Paramount's Discovery Bay 	Sawara Ward, Fukuoka, Japan 	2007 	N/A 	The first Paramount Park in Asia and in Japan.
Paramount's Great America 	Santa Clara, California, United States 	1976 	1992 	A part of the Great America Entertainment Resort, one of the former Kings Entertainment Company parks, one of Paramount's flagship parks.
Paramount's Kings Dominion 	Doswell, Virginia, United States 	1975 	1992 	A part of the Kings Dominion Entertainment Resort, one of the former Kings Entertainment Company parks.
Paramount's Kings Island 	Mason, Ohio, United States 	1972 	1992 	A part of the Kings Island Entertainment Resort, one of the former Kings Entertainment Company parks, one of Paramount's flagship parks.
Paramount's Lagoon 	Farmington, Utah, United States 	1886 	1998 	The only park Paramount acquired in the United States besides the Kings Entertainment Company parks.
=== Upcoming Parks ===
Name 	Location 	Planned Opening	Description
Nickelodeon Universe Mall of China 	Chongqing, China 	N/A 	The park will be located in the Mall of China, the park will be only operated by Paramount, while the Triple Five Group owns the land and the mall it's in.
Paramount Park Bali 	Bali, Indonesia 	2025 	The park will be a part of KBS Park, the park will only be operated by Paramount, while PT Kios Ria Kreasi will owns the land it sits on.
Unnamed Second Gate to Paramount Movie Park Korea	Jung-gu, Incheon, South Korea	2026? 	The park will be a part of INSPIRE Entertainment Resort, Paramount will only operate the park, while Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment owns the land it sits on.
== Entertainment Resorts ==
Paramount operates multiple entertainment resorts. Here is a list of entertainment resorts fully owned by Paramount.
* Carowinds Entertainment Resort
* Great America Entertainment Resort
* Kings Dominion Entertainment Resort
* Kings Island Entertainment Resort
* Paramount Kunming Entertainment Resort
* Paramount London Entertainment Resort
* Paramount Osaka Entertainment Resort
* Paramount Spain Entertainment Resort
== See Also ==
* Paramount Parks (Thrills are Paramount AU)/Cancelled Projects
* Paramount Parks (Thrills are Paramount AU)/Commercials
* Paramount Parks (Thrills are Paramount AU)/Meetable Characters
Category:Thrills are Paramount AU