Saudi-France €6B Plan Near Paris Could Bring a Dragon Ball Z Theme Park

A “once-in-a-generation” investment pitch for Japanese pop culture just moved from concept to contract: France and Saudi Arabia have signed a memorandum of understanding worth €6 billion to build three theme parks near Paris, with one of them almost certainly centered on Dragon Ball Z. The deal was formalized during a two-day visit to France by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and it could reshape how large-scale entertainment projects intersect with anime and manga fandom in Europe.

€6 billion near Paris: three parks, staged openings, and a likely Dragon Ball Z anchor

On Monday, August 24, 2026, France and Saudi Arabia agreed to the framework for a long-term development plan that targets three theme parks in the Cergy-Pontoise area, roughly 30 kilometers northwest of Paris. The site is tied to the long-closed Mirapolis theme park grounds, which have been inactive for years.

France’s Élysée Palace confirmed that one of the parks will be dedicated to manga, with Dragon Ball Z strongly expected to be the specific franchise focus. Construction and openings are planned in phases over several years, but no official opening date has been announced yet.

The project will be led by Qiddiya Investment Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Industry impact expectations are also part of the pitch: the development is projected to create around 22,000 direct jobs—slightly above the roughly 20,000 positions employed by Disneyland Paris.

How a manga passion became a mega-deal: the December 2024 origin story

While the memorandum is a major state-level move, the stated genesis of the idea has an unusually personal origin. A Macron adviser said the initiative “was born from a conversation” between the French President and the Saudi Crown Prince in December 2024 in Riyadh.

During that meeting, the two reportedly discovered a shared interest in manga—specifically naming Dragon Ball Z. In other words, the story presented publicly is that a billionaire-scale cultural investment traces back to a discussion framed around common fandom rather than a traditional industry negotiation.

Why France is the chosen location: manga demand, Dragon Ball’s proven track record

The geographic logic is spelled out through market size. France is described as one of the world’s biggest manga markets, second only to Japan. In 2022, sales in France reportedly exceeded 48 million copies, while Italy in the same year sat at about 7.4 million. That makes the French market more than six times larger than Italy’s, which is presented as a key reason the country became the target for a project of this scale.

Dragon Ball is positioned as a particularly strong fit for that demand. The franchise is said to be the third best-selling manga title of all time in France, with roughly 33 million copies purchased. Its momentum in the country is linked to early ’90s exposure: the anime arrived in 1988 and the manga followed in 1990, helping entrench Japanese comics long before today’s global streaming-era fandom.

• France is framed as the second-largest manga market globally after Japan.
• France’s 2022 manga sales are cited at over 48 million copies.
• Dragon Ball is claimed as France’s third best-selling manga, with about 33 million copies sold.
• That longstanding fanbase is used to justify why a manga-focused park would be commercially credible.

Europe’s first manga-scale infrastructure push—and the environmental friction it may face

This project is also being positioned as historic for Europe: it’s described as the first time a manga work is placed at the center of an infrastructure investment of this magnitude on the continent. The implication is that manga culture has become not just entertainment, but a global economic and cultural asset—one that can attract state-backed development similar to other major theme-park franchises.

At the same time, the plan is not presented without complications. Even though a dedicated evaluation for the Dragon Ball park has not yet been conducted, the former Mirapolis site has already been assessed due to earlier redevelopment efforts. Those studies reportedly flagged multiple concerns, including biodiversity protection, water resource management, potential contaminated soil, increased traffic, and greenhouse gas emissions. Any major theme park would also introduce new pressures from construction activities and the arrival of millions of visitors.

Finally, the French parks are not happening in isolation. Saudi Arabia has already signaled a manga-themed park tied to Akira Toriyama’s work: Qiddiya previously revealed plans for a first Dragon Ball park in Qiddiya City. That earlier plan includes 30 attractions based on the series’ iconography and characters, including a Shenron statue estimated at around 70 meters tall that is intended to serve as a structural centerpiece for one of the roller coasters. The Paris-nearby development would therefore function as a second European presence for a project the Saudi side is building toward as one of its most ambitious manga-franchise initiatives.

The remaining uncertainty is what the other two parks will feature: their themes have not been disclosed yet. But even without those details, the memorandum sets a clear marker for 2026—manga culture is stepping into the same infrastructure conversations once reserved for mainstream cinematic and entertainment properties.