A Dragon Ball Z theme park is coming to the north of Paris, part of a six-billion-euro package that ranks among the largest entertainment investments France has attracted in decades.

President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman committed to the roughly $7 billion project, which covers three separate amusement parks. One of them will be built around the long-running Japanese anime series.

Macron’s Framing

The president did not undersell it. Writing on X on Monday, he said nothing comparable had been seen since Disneyland Paris opened.

He put the employment figure at more than 20,000 jobs.

The announcement capped a two-day state visit by the Saudi Crown Prince, during which the two leaders apparently found common ground on an unexpected subject. Macron described sharing his passion for manga alongside his determination to bring investment into France.

That is an unusual foundation for a multibillion-dollar agreement, though not an implausible one. Both leaders are relatively young by head-of-state standards and grew up during the period when Japanese animation broke into global markets.

The Choose France Strategy

The deal fits a pattern Macron has been building for years.

His Choose France summits have functioned as a mechanism for attracting foreign capital, and the results have been substantial. In June he announced that companies from around the world had committed $108 billion across 71 projects.

He described the philosophy directly, saying the essence of Choose France is seeking out the most ambitious projects and making France the place where they become real, in order to create jobs and make the country shine.

Why Dragon Ball Z

The choice of property is not arbitrary.

Dragon Ball Z began in Japan in the 1980s and became one of the few anime series to achieve genuine mass popularity outside its home market, particularly in the United States. The franchise has extended across films, video games and merchandise, generating decades of accumulated audience.

France is also, notably, among the largest manga markets in the world outside Japan, with a readership that has been building since the 1990s. Locating an anime park there is less exotic than it might appear from elsewhere.

A Broader Theme Park Boom

France is competing in a crowded field. Major entertainment investment has surged across several markets.

In June, Comcast pledged more than $8 billion to develop Europe’s first Universal resort in the United Kingdom. Situated about 45 minutes from London, it is planned to include immersive themed lands, a 500-room hotel and an entertainment complex.

Disney is pursuing an expansion of historic scale. In 2023 the company announced $60 billion for its experiences division, which encompasses theme parks, cruise ships and consumer products. Roughly $30 billion of that is directed toward its domestic parks, Disney World and Disneyland.

The industry appears convinced that physical, in-person entertainment has durable value in an era otherwise dominated by streaming.

The Cautionary Number

There is a figure in this story that deserves more attention than the headline investment.

The Guardian reported in June that Disney has still not recovered its $4.2 billion investment in Disneyland Paris, more than 30 years after the park opened.

That is worth sitting with. Disneyland Paris is the most visited theme park in Europe, backed by the most valuable entertainment intellectual property on earth, operating in the same region where this new project will be built. Three decades in, the arithmetic has not closed.

The reasons are well documented and mostly structural. European weather limits the outdoor season. Continental visitors historically spend less per day than American park guests. Construction and labour costs in France are high. And the original project carried debt that took years to restructure.

None of those conditions have disappeared.

The Questions Worth Asking

Several uncertainties sit underneath the announcement.

Whether an anime property, however beloved, can anchor a park with the drawing power of a legacy family brand. Dragon Ball Z has a passionate audience, but it skews differently from Disney’s multigenerational appeal.

Whether the 20,000-job figure refers to construction, permanent operations, or a combination that includes indirect employment.

And whether three parks in one location represents genuine ambition or an overestimate of regional demand, given how the nearest comparable development has performed financially.

For now, France has secured a headline commitment and a memorable one. Whether Goku proves more profitable than Mickey is a question that will take considerably longer than a state visit to answer.