The Year America’s Top 20 Stalled, Only Fandom Parks Grew — the Land Left Behind, and What a K-Culture Town Would Take

Above a drone shot of palm trees at sunset, the message reads:

"JOIN US FRIDAY & SATURDAY AS WE SAY GOODBYE."

That is the farewell notice on the homepage of Fiesta Village Family Fun Park, a 52-year-old fixture of California's Inland Empire that closes this weekend.

K콘텐츠 기업의 미래는 글로벌 팬덤 파크
디즈니·유니버설 초대형 리조트는 커지고 지역 파크는 땅값·부채에 밀려 문을 닫고 있음. 미국 테마파크 양극화 속에서, 대체 불가능한 팬덤(돌리우드·넷플릭스 하우스의 오징어 게임)이 세 번째 길. 비어 가는 중간 지대는 K-컬처 타운의 기회 좌표
K-EnterTech HubJung Han

The same week, Disneyland Resort welcomed its one billionth guest, and Universal's new Orlando park kept pulling in crowds. The American theme park industry is splitting into two roads. Destination mega-resorts run by Disney and Universal keep getting bigger, while regional parks that cannot keep pace in the capital-intensive ride arms race are pushed out through closures and layoffs.

Behind the split are visitor numbers that never fully recovered after the pandemic, rising labor and operating costs, and the soaring price of new attractions as ride technology advances. Yet within this divide, the regional parks that survive share one trait: their draw is not hardware but fandom. Personality-driven IP, local identity, and repeat visitors from the surrounding community are carving out a third road.