Steven Spielberg's relationship with Universal Destinations & Experiences
Director Steven Spielberg has a long-time collaboration with Universal Destinations & Experiences due to his relationship with Universal Studios while working as a Universal intern staff in the late 1960s as well as the films he directed or produced for the studio, such as Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Back to the Future, The Land Before Time, Jurassic Park and Schindler's List. In March 1987, Spielberg signed on to be a creative consultant for Universal theme parks when the Music Corporation of America (MCA) owner of Universal Studios was planning to build its first full-fledged theme park in Orlando in an effort to compete with Walt Disney World. Universal Parks Chairman and CEO Thomas L. Williams stated in regards to praising the Universal Creative team and a few popular people for the new Florida park:
Take, for example, Steven Spielberg. He was the creative consultant on our first [full] theme park, Universal Studios Florida. Steve was the guy who came up with that park's core concept, that we were going to put our Guests in their favorite scene from their favorite film. Ride the Movies, if you will.
Since 1987, Spielberg has consulted on a dozen attractions, including E.T. Adventure, Jaws, Jurassic Park: The Ride, and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. In exchange, he receives 2% of all park ticket revenue and a portion of park concession receipts generated by Universal theme parks in Florida, Japan, and Singapore in perpetuity, valued at up to $30 to 50 million a year; the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in Los Angeles is not covered under the Spielberg deal. The director also had the opportunity to trigger a June 2017 exit deal clause and collect a single payment equal to the value of the contracts. Comcast, the current parent company of Universal, acknowledged that this payment could already be worth as much as $535 million. Some analysts predicted that the one-time payment could ultimately be $1 billion. The deal also prevents any film Spielberg directed or produced to go to any theme park but Universal; the exceptions are the Indiana Jones films, which are owned by Lucasfilm, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which Disney co-owns with Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and Animaniacs, which is owned by Warner Bros.. Both Indiana Jones and Roger Rabbit have been featured in Disney theme parks since 1989 and 1994 respectively, while the Animaniacs characters appeared at Six Flags parks for a period during the 1990s.
Universal Products & Experiences
Universal Products & Experiences is the consumer products & brand licensing division of Universal Destinations & Experiences that manages the global expansion of its IP portfolio through consumer products, games, and retail experiences. It creates merchandise, toys, apparel, and digital initiatives based on brands & franchises such as Jurassic Park, Minions, and horror properties.
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In May 2006, Universal Studios Consumer Products Group established its mobile entertainment unit named Universal Mobile Entertainment, the new mobile entertainment division would handle mobile publishing based on Universal Pictures' IP franchises alongside NBCUniversal's television franchises such as Battlestar Galactica for mobile platforms, Jeremy Laws who was Universal Studios Consumer Products Group's licensing executive had been named senior VP of the new mobile unit.
In May 2009, Universal Studios Consumer Products Group was merged with Universal Studios' fellow division Universal Studios Partnerships to form one consumer products & licensing division that all of the studio’s consumer product licensing, film and home entertainment promotions and corporate alliances for Universal's theatrical, home entertainment, theme parks and stage productions alongside licensing consumer products within the group aa the former being renamed into Universal Partnerships and Licensing. Universal Studios Partnership header Stephanie Sperber assumed the title role of the merged consumer products division as executive VP, whilst senior VP Amy Taylor would oversee Universal Partnerships & Licensing's North American promotions, worldwide licensing and retail development; it would rebrand themselves to Universal Brand Development by 2016. Five years later, in June 2014, Universal Partnerships & Licensing had interrogated consumers about products from its fellow NBCUniversal units NBC Entertainment and the children's channel Sprout with the unit having oversold consumer products of NBC's productions such as The Tonight Show and Sprout's famous iconic brand Chica. GE purchased Vivendi's share in NBCUniversal in 2011.
In May 2017, Universal Brand Development strengthened its focus on gaming with them starting publishing its own gaming titles based on Universal Pictures's franchises including from its animation units Illumination and DreamWorks Animation (which its parent NBCUniversal acquired in 2016) for gaming consoles and mobile platforms in-house with the establishment of its mobile game and VR division entitled Universal Games and Digital Platforms with Universal Brand Development appointed former Disney Games mobile team executives which were SVP of production James Molinets, VP of creative Timothy FitzRandolph and SVP of tech & operations Fabian Schonholz leading Universal Brand Development's in-house publishing division whilst Universal Brand Development continued licensing its IP franchises to other companies while its gaming division had also appointed former Disney gaming header Chris Heatherly joined UBD leading the new gaming unit as Executive VP of games and digital platforms under UBD with Universal's gaming executives Bill Kispert and Pete Wanat had joined the new gaming unit as general manager and VP of production of the new gaming unit. However, Universal Brand Development would shut down its gaming & VR publishing division Universal Games and Digital Platforms two years later in September 2019.
In September 2022, Universal Brand Development was moved from Universal Filmed Entertainment Group into NBCUniversal's theme park division Universal Parks & Resorts with the latter's merchandising & retail division Universal Parks & Resorts Merchandising Group whom handles & sold products within Universal's theme parks worldwide had been merged into the former brand licensing & IP merchandise division with the unit being renamed into Universal Products & Experiences with Universal Brand Development's president Vince Klaseus continued leading the rebranded licensing unit.
In November 2025, Universal Products & Experiences launched its own website that brings all of Universal's products & offering retail merchandising from Universal theme parks worldwide online entitled ShopUniversal.com.
