PARAMOUNT PARKS

'Paramount Parks' was an operator of theme parks and attractions, which annually attracted about 13 million patrons. Viacom had assumed control of the company as part of its acquisition of Paramount Pictures in 1994.
The company once owned and operated five theme parks in North America and managed Bonfante Gardens in Gilroy, California. From late 2001 until late 2004, Paramount Parks also managed Terra Mítica, an amusement park in Benidorm, Valencia, Spain.

Contents

History

Sale to Cedar Fair

Former Properties

Amusement Parks

Water Parks

Other

External links

Former Paramount Park Sites

History

Paramount Communications, previously known as Gulf and Western, in turn had acquired the parks from Nelson Schwab and his management group. Schwab and his KECO Entertainment acquired the group in a management-led LBO from the Taft Broadcasting Company, which had built Kings Island in Cincinnati using cast off rides from Cincinnati's Coney Island [1] and to this day there is a small area in the Cincinnati park called "Coney Island" (Named "Coney Mall" in later years) still featuring some of those original rides.
The parks were part of Viacom's Blockbuster Entertainment division until 2002 when they were moved back to Paramount Pictures. After another Viacom corporate shuffle in 2004 the parks became part of Viacom Recreation, a division of Nickelodeon and MTV Networks.
In early 2006, as Viacom went through a corporate split (creating a new version of Viacom and renaming the original company CBS Corporation), Paramount Parks was assigned to CBS Corporation.
Each of the individual Paramount parks maintained their own individual names and identities until 1993, when they were each granted the "Paramount's" prefix (Paramount's Kings Island, Paramount's Great America, etc).

Sale to Cedar Fair

On January 27, 2006, the CBS Corporation announced its intent to sell Paramount Parks due to the fact that it didn't fit well within the company's core business (producing and distributing television content). A number of groups expressed interest in purchasing the company, several placed bids, and on May 22, 2006 it was announced that regional theme park operator Cedar Fair Entertainment Company had outbid competitors and intended to purchase all five parks in the Paramount chain, including and the management agreement of Bonfante Gardens.
On June 30, 2006, Cedar Fair announced that it had completed its acquisition of Paramount Parks from CBS Corporation in a cash transaction valued at $1.24 billion. Shortly following the transfer of ownership, Cedar Fair began the process of integrating the two companies by eliminating the Paramount Parks corporate office in Charlotte, North Carolina and transferring all decision-making to Cedar Fair's offices in Sandusky, Ohio.
The individual parks continued to operate under their Paramount names during the 2006 season, however Cedar Fair began removing the Paramount name and logo from the parks in January 2007. The names of the parks were changed back to their original pre-Paramount names with the Cedar Fair corporate logo added.

Former Properties

Amusement Parks

★ Bonfante Gardens (Gilroy, California); renamed Gilroy Gardens in February 2007

★ Paramount Canada's Wonderland (Vaughan, Ontario)

★ Paramount's Carowinds (Charlotte, North Carolina), (Fort Mill, South Carolina)

★ Paramount's Great America (Santa Clara, California)

★ Paramount's Kings Dominion (Doswell, Virginia)

★ Paramount's Kings Island (Mason, Ohio)

★ Terra Mitica (Alicante, Spain) [2]

Water Parks

★ Boomerang Bay (Carowinds, Kings Island, and Great America)

★ Splash Works (Canada's Wonderland)

★ WaterWorks (Kings Dominion)

★ Raging Waters (San Jose, California); bought by Ogden Corporation in 1999 [3]

Other

★ '' (Las Vegas, Nevada)
Note: All Paramount Parks offered the water park free with park admission

External links

★ Paramount Parks official website

★ Cedar Fair official website

Former Paramount Park Sites

★ Gilroy Gardens (Formerly Bonfante Gardens)

★ Canada's Wonderland

★ Carowinds

★ Great America

★ Kings Dominion

★ Kings Island

★ Star Trek The Experience