France and Saudi Arabia announced Monday they will jointly finance a €6 billion ($7 billion) Dragon Ball Z theme park northwest of Paris. It marks one of the entertainment industry's largest international partnerships to date. According to Polygon, the collaboration emerged from a 2025 meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who discovered a shared passion for Akira Toriyama's manga franchise. Qiddiya, the Saudi entertainment company, will finance and develop the project, positioning international theme parks as a key growth strategy for entertainment franchises and signaling confidence in the durability of licensed entertainment properties.
Qiddiya is simultaneously constructing a Dragon Ball park in Qiddiya City, a still-developing entertainment complex near Riyadh that will serve as an anchor attraction for the region's tourism sector. That facility will feature over five rides, 30 attractions, a 230-foot tall Shenron statue, the franchise's iconic wish-granting dragon, plus hotels and restaurants. Qiddiya's Paris park expands the company's vision of Dragon Ball as a truly global theme park franchise, extending its reach beyond a single regional market into one of Europe's major entertainment destinations.
No opening date or timeline was announced.
This Dragon Ball park joins two other entertainment venues France is developing near Paris, suggesting strong investor appetite for experiential entertainment attractions in the region. Qiddiya's expansion reflects a fundamental shift in how entertainment companies now generate revenue, with films, streaming, merchandise, and immersive physical experiences all feeding into a franchise's total value. International entertainment investors, particularly from sovereign wealth funds, increasingly shape the industry's global growth trajectory. Theme parks have evolved from licensed sidelines into core business units for major franchise owners seeking to deepen consumer engagement and build lasting revenue streams.
This announcement demonstrates Dragon Ball Z's enduring commercial value decades after its 1984 debut. Dragon Ball spans anime series, films, merchandise, video games, and now major theme park investments globally. Entertainment properties increasingly view theme parks as central to franchise economics rather than licensed sidelines. Paris and Riyadh together position Dragon Ball as a franchise operating across every major entertainment revenue category simultaneously.