The first official Bluey attraction in a Disney park has just launched with the “Bluey’s Best Day Ever” stage show and meet and greet at the Fantasyland Theatre in Disneyland. It looks to be a fun show for the kids and has apparently been extremely popular so far.

Alton Towers in the UK are also about to open a Bluey themed roller coaster in their Cbeebies Land area. Theme Park Worldwide did a video on it recently:

I’ve got to say, it’s pretty surreal to see a local Aussie show that’s produced and set in South East Queensland doing so well on the world stage.

Edited March 24Mar 24 by Noll_57

It's just a pity that Bluey is owned by the BBC

40 minutes ago, gauge said:

It's just a pity that Bluey is owned by the BBC

Not fully owned by BBC. Bluey has a mix of ownerships between ABC, BBC and Disney that's all fairly convoluted

2 hours ago, gauge said:

It's just a pity that Bluey is owned by the BBC

no its not. BBC have the global broadcasting rights, they don't own the IP.

BBC owns all licensing and merchandising to Bluey because the ABC didnt think to purchase the rights. Millions of dollars should be coming back to Australia instead it all goes to the BBC

9 minutes ago, gauge said:

BBC owns all licensing and merchandising to Bluey because the ABC didnt think to purchase the rights. Millions of dollars should be coming back to Australia instead it all goes to the BBC

It's not that the ABC didn't think about it, they traded the rights to BBC in exchange for production funding. The ABC typically only fund up to 30% of an externally produced show, they can't afford to fund every show at 100%.

There was no way to know that Bluey would be more successful than any other kids show they fund - especially when a full production run couldn't be made without additional funding from the BBC. That funding came with the condition that BBC Studios would over the global distribution and merchandising rights.

The ABC doesn't have the capability to manage global distribution or merchandising, so Ludo preferred this arrangement, and without it Bluey would likely never have been made at all.

The ABC can't spend tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money gambling on every kids show becoming a global hit.

Maybe, but with a budget of over 23 million a week ... just a poor decision

It wasn't a poor decision at all. it was a risk for BBC. they gambled, and it also incentivised them to push the product harder than they might have if they weren't going to benefit from it.

George Lucas famously cut his fee with 20th Century in exchange for merchandise rights. This wasn't his cunning plan to make a ton of money - this was his compromise to have the film produced. The studio was trying to keep costs down (the original budget blew out due to cost overruns onsite in Tunisia). The studio didn't see the value in the merch but were happy to save money on his director's fee reducing the costs of production. It could have flopped. 20th Century could have spent $11m on production and roughly $25m on distribution costs only to have it flop at the box office. That's the gamble.

Instead Star Wars grossed over $775m, and Lucas' merchandise rights have generated over $40 BILLION - But it could have just as easily gone the other way. And that's the same risk for BBC.