If you’ve been wondering what’s been taking the expected Fox theme park in Genting Highlands so long to open, this piece of news will likely be the answers. Looks like the theme park might not even open in the first place, or at least not as a Fox themed one.
In a recent report, Genting Malaysia Bhd. has sued 21st Century Fox and Walt Disney Co. for attempting to pull out of the agreement of the Fox theme park, originally slated for launch this year.
Genting is seeking more than US$1 billion (US$1.75 billion to be exact) in damages in a suit filed on the 26 of November 2018 at the Central District Court in California, USA. According to Genting in their lawsuit, this comes amidst Disney’s finalisation of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox and not wanting to be associated with a gambling-related business.
According to the lawsuit procured by Deadline Hollywood called Genting Malaysia Berhad v. Fox Entertainment Group LLC, 18-cv-09866;
“Unlike Fox, which was perfectly happy to have the Park situated a stone’s throw from the casinos of Resorts World Genting so long as it could continue to extract financial concessions from GENM, Disney wanted no association with a gaming company like GENM due to Disney’s ‘family-friendly’ brand strategy, as evidenced by its well-documented history of lobbying against the opening of gaming facilities near its parks.”
The Fox World theme park, which was announced WAAAAYYY back in 2013, was originally slated for launch in 2016. However, after numerous delays and what seems like a soon to be launch in 2019, this news of termination seems to have thrown a spanner in the works. In fact, the only thing that has been launched so far is the Fox World Studio Store back in April 2018.
According to Genting, they have already invested around US$750 million-plus into the theme park and will also be seeking punitive damages.
No official statement from both Disney and Fox have been given so far and it’s no surprise that with this piece of news, Genting shares have seen a huge drop in its value, in fact, it’s the lowest seen by the company in eight years.
Looks like we’re not going to see a theme-park in Genting Highlands anytime soon and whether it’ll remain Fox World or not remains to be seen.
Source: Bloomberg and Deadline Hollywood
