France’s $7 Billion Dragon Ball Theme Park Just Hit a Massive Legal Snag — the Rights Holders Haven’t Approved

France’s $7 Billion Dragon Ball Theme Park Just Hit a Massive Legal Snag — The Rights Holders Haven’t Signed Off

Last week, Emmanuel Macron pulled off the kind of announcement that makes the entire internet sit up and listen: France was building a $7 billion (€6 billion) Dragon Ball–themed theme park just outside Paris, funded by Saudi money and billed as the biggest project since Disneyland Paris. Fans immediately started booking imaginary flights. But now the party has hit a wall — and it’s a big one.

According to a fresh report from French newspaper Le Monde, the project has not actually secured approval from the Dragon Ball rights holders. As in, the people who actually own Goku. That “golden ticket” every legitimate theme park needs? Sources say it hasn’t been handed over yet.

Wait — Who Actually Owns Dragon Ball?

This is where it gets complicated, and honestly, kind of hilarious. Dragon Ball isn’t one company’s toy. The rights are split across multiple owners: Bird Studio (the late Akira Toriyama’s studio), Japanese publisher Shueisha, and for the anime side, Toei Animation. According to Le Monde, “several sources familiar with the project, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the proposal…has not — at least not yet — secured this essential golden ticket.”

So you’ve got a mega-project, tens of thousands of jobs, and billions of dollars on the table — but nobody officially licensed the IP. That is a pretty spectacular thing to skip.

The Oddest Part of the Whole Story

Here’s the twist that makes this story so juicy: the Saudi investment firm behind the French park, Qiddiya Investment Company, is a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund — and it’s the same company funding Saudi Arabia’s own planned Dragon Ball theme park. So the same Saudi-backed group expects to build DBZ parks in two countries, and apparently can’t point to a signed license for either of them.

This isn’t just a paperwork headache. It raises a genuine question: can you build an amusement park around a character you don’t own? The short answer is no. The long answer is a looming legal battle that could embarrass two governments at once.

If you missed the original announcement, catch up on why France is building the $7 billion Dragon Ball Z park in the first place — including Macron’s very real fandom.

Why Fans Are Losing It (In a Good Way and a Bad Way)

Reaction online has been split down the middle. On one side, you have fans who are thrilled that the biggest anime IP in history is finally getting the blockbuster theme park treatment it deserves. A 30-kilometer-but-it’s-Paris Cergy-Pontoise mega-development with three parks, 22,000 jobs, and a scale “not seen since Disneyland Paris”? That’s a dream scenario for Dragon Ball heads.

On the other side, you have the skeptics — and they’re loud. They point to the fact that Qiddiya’s Saudi park has been delayed and quietly re-scoped for years. They note that Toei and Shueisha are famous for guarding their IP with an iron fist. Oh, and they remember that the whole thing got tangled up in a diplomatic firestorm, with three journalists’ unions protesting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s state visit over the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

When Macron’s office was asked about partnering with Saudi Arabia despite its human rights record, the response — “At no point, when we attract a project, do we seek to lecture others” — went over about as well as you’d expect.

What Happens Next? (The Speculation Section)

Here’s where fan theories start to get wild, and honestly, this is speculation territory — but that’s half the fun. Let’s game out the scenarios:

• Scenario A — The Quiet Fix: The rights holders approve everything behind closed doors, and we never hear about it again. Toei and Shueisha make bank, France gets its park, Saudi gets a PR win. Cleanest outcome, but you have to wonder why it wasn’t announced on day one.
• Scenario B — The Rename: If a deal can’t be struck, Qiddiya pivots and rebrands the park around generic “manga” characters or original creations — the way some doomed projects turn into “Family Fun Zone” instead of “Goku Land.” Fun fact: this exact problem is why so many anime-adjacent parks stay deliberately vague about which IPs they’re using.
• Scenario C — The Legal War: The park breaks ground anyway and Toei sues. Given how aggressively anime IP has proven its box office and licensing value in recent years, you can bet the owners will protect their cash cow. Nobody wants to be the company that let a $7 billion Goku go unlicensed.
• Scenario D — The Slow Fade: The project stalls, jobs vanish, and seven years from now we read a “remember that crazy Dragon Ball park in France?” retrospective. It’s happened to bigger ideas.

The Bigger Picture: Anime Is Serious Money Now

The reason this story matters beyond the drama is that it shows just how valuable anime IP has become. Dragon Ball is estimated to be one of the highest-grossing media franchises in history — we’re talking tens of billions of dollars in merchandise, games, and films. When a national government and a sovereign wealth fund are willing to throw seven billion dollars at a park based on one franchise, that’s the clearest signal yet that anime has fully graduated from “nerd hobby” to “global infrastructure project.”

It also proves something else: the owners are not going to be pushed around. Toriyama may be gone, but Bird Studio, Shueisha, and Toei are very much alive — and they hold the keys. Whoever wants to build a Dragon Ball park has to come to the table, hat in hand, license in triplicate.

So, Is the Park Actually Happening?

Here’s the honest answer: nobody knows. Not even the people building it, apparently. The Le Monde report uses the phrase “at least not yet” — which is corporate-speak for “we’re still negotiating and we have no idea if it’ll work out.”

Construction dates? None announced. Opening dates? None announced. Rights agreement? None announced. All we have is a memorandums of understanding, a pile of hype, and a very expensive question mark sitting 30 kilometers from the Eiffel Tower.

For the record, if you’re already planning that 2027 pilgrimage to ride a Super Saiyan roller coaster — you may want to wait for the official confirmation before booking anything.

One thing’s for sure: if they do manage to pull this off, it’ll be the single greatest proof that anime has truly conquered the world. And if they don’t? Well, we’ll have one heck of a cautionary tale about building first and asking permission later.

What do you think — will France’s Dragon Ball park actually happen, or is this headed for the scrap heap? And would you even want a Dragon Ball theme park after all this drama? Drop your take in the comments — we genuinely want to hear where you stand.