I have watched a lot of anime announcements get overhyped into nothing. This is not one of them. On August 24, France and Saudi Arabia signed off on a Dragon Ball theme park deal worth roughly $7 billion, and it is only one piece of a three park complex going up outside Paris. If you have ever wanted to ride a coaster wrapped around Shenron, keep reading, because there are now two of these parks in development and the details are wild.

What Is the New Dragon Ball Theme Park Deal?

On Monday, August 24, 2026, the Elysee Palace confirmed that France and Saudi Arabia had signed a memorandum of understanding for a roughly 6 billion euro investment, translating to about $7 billion USD depending on the outlet and the day's exchange rate. The money funds three separate theme parks, and one of them is built entirely around the world of Dragon Ball, according to a report from Dexerto.

The agreement was signed during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's two day state visit to France, one day after he and French President Emmanuel Macron appeared together at the closing ceremony of the Esports World Cup in Paris, The Japan Times reports. Ile de France regional president Valerie Pecresse had spent the prior 18 months working on the groundwork for the project and described it publicly as being on the scale of Disneyland.

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Where Will the Dragon Ball Theme Park Be Built?

The three park complex is going up near Cergy-Pontoise, roughly 30 to 45 minutes northwest of central Paris depending on how you're getting there. According to reporting on the site, it will sit where the old Mirapolis amusement park once stood before it shut down in 1991, according to SoraNews24, which is a fittingly full circle location for a new French theme park era.

Why Dragon Ball, Specifically?

This part is honestly kind of charming. Advisers close to Macron say the idea grew out of a personal conversation between him and the crown prince, where the two discovered they were both genuinely into Dragon Ball Z, per The Japan Times. Reports differ slightly on exactly when that conversation happened, with some outlets pointing to talks in Riyadh in late 2024 and others to a 2025 visit, but the throughline is the same: two heads of state bonded over Goku, and a multi billion dollar theme park followed.

Macron leaned into it publicly too. Back in April, he and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi struck the Kamehameha pose together at a joint press conference, Breitbart notes, so this deal was less of a surprise to anyone who had been paying attention to his social media than the headlines made it sound.

"Nothing like this has been seen since Disneyland Paris."

Wait, Isn't There Already a Dragon Ball Theme Park?

Yes, and this is the part a lot of headlines are glossing over. Qiddiya Investment Company, the same Saudi firm financing the new French park, first announced a dedicated Dragon Ball theme park in Riyadh back in March 2024, just weeks after creator Akira Toriyama passed away, as BBC News reported at the time. That original park is still in development and it's massive: over 500,000 square meters, seven themed zones covering everything from the original series through Dragon Ball Super, more than 30 attractions, and a signature 70 meter tall Shenron statue with a roller coaster built right through it, according to Theme Park Insider.

Qiddiya partnered with Toei Animation on the project and brought in Orlando based Falcon's Creative Group to master plan the attractions, per a BusinessWire release. Guests will reportedly be able to walk through recreations of Kame House and Capsule Corporation, though no opening date has been announced for that park either. So as of this week, there are two separate Dragon Ball theme parks moving forward at the same time, one in Saudi Arabia and one now confirmed for France.

My Honest Take as Someone Who Covers This Stuff Weekly

In my experience tracking anime adaptation and licensing news for years now, franchise theme parks almost always slip their timelines by a lot, and I would bet real money that "years away" from Macron's own team is doing a lot of quiet work in that sentence. What stands out to me here isn't the ride list, since we don't have one yet for the French park, it's that Dragon Ball is now valuable enough geopolitically that two heads of state are using it as a bonding point in international investment talks. That is a very different kind of milestone than a new season announcement, and it tells you where the franchise's cultural weight actually sits in 2026.

How Are Fans Reacting?

Online reaction has split roughly the way you'd expect. A big chunk of the fandom is thrilled that Dragon Ball is getting Disneyland Paris level treatment, especially with the franchise's 40th anniversary year still generating new announcements. Others are pointing back at the same criticism that followed the original Saudi Arabia park in 2024, when human rights groups raised concerns about the country's record on women's rights and LGBTQ+ rights, as Euronews covered at the time. That debate has not gone away with a second park now on the table, it has mostly just moved to a new location.

What Happens Next?

Right now this is a signed memorandum of understanding, not a shovel in the ground. No ride lineup, no zone map, and no construction start date have been released for the Cergy-Pontoise site. For comparison, the Saudi Arabia park announced its concept back in March 2024 and is still without a confirmed opening date more than two years later, so patience is going to be required here too. Expect the next real update to come out of Qiddiya or the Elysee Palace once design partners are locked in, likely alongside more concept art the way the Riyadh park's reveal played out.

The Bottom Line

Dragon Ball just went from anime franchise to international investment talking point, and it now has two separate theme parks in the pipeline to prove it. The Paris area complex is real, it's signed, and it's backed by serious money, but it's also years away from opening its gates. Until ground actually breaks in Cergy-Pontoise, the smartest thing any of us can do is keep an eye on Qiddiya's announcements and enjoy the fact that Goku somehow became a bridge between two heads of state.