France and Saudi Arabia reached a $7.2 billion agreement for the construction of three theme parks near Paris — one of which will be inspired by the widely-famous Japanese franchise Dragon Ball Z.
President Emmanuel Macron confirmed the agreement in a Monday evening social media post, and detailed that the three parks will be built in the northwestern Paris suburb of Cergy-Pontoise.
Macron affirmed that the project will lead to the creation of 22,000 jobs and stressed, “Nothing like this has been seen since Disneyland Paris.”
Dragon Ball Z figurines on display during 2025 Los Angeles Comic-Con at Los Angeles Convention Center on September 26, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Angela Papuga/Getty Images)
Macron also confirmed that the project is funded by Qiddiya Investment, a unit of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). Further details on the broader three-park project have not been disclosed by the French government at press time.
“You know my passion for manga. You also know my determination to attract to France the investments that create jobs and make the most ambitious projects possible,” Macron’s message read in part.
“This is the very essence of Choose France: to seek out the most ambitious projects and make France the country where they become reality. To create jobs. To make France shine,” he added, and concluded, “We’re not done surprising the world. Very proud of this achievement.”
Sources from the Élysée Palace told BFMTV that the plans to build a Dragon Ball theme park in France stem from talks that Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held in the past, during which both discovered their “shared passion” for manga, “particularly, Dragon Ball Z.”
As Breitbart News reported, the Saudi Crown Prince arrived to France over the weekend for an official two-day visit.
Dragon Ball is one of the most famous and successful Japanese media franchises in the world, created by late artist Akira Toriyama in the 1980s. Dragon Ball centers around the adventures of Son Goku and his friends as they searched for the eponymous Dragon Balls to summon the wish-granting dragon Shenron. The series significantly expanded upon into a more action-packed setting with its first direct sequel, Dragon Ball Z.
The series’s massive success and popularity has led to multiple manga series and anime shows, movies, video games, and widespread merchandise. Toriyama passed away in 2024 at the age of 68.
This black and white photo taken in May 1982 shows Japanese manga artist Akira Toriyama, whose death was announced on March 8, 2024. The 68-year-old was the author of the hugely popular and influential titles “Dragon Ball” and “Dragon Ball Z”. (STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images)
A similar Saudi-funded project to create a Dragon Ball theme park in the Saudi capital of Riyadh was announced in 2024.
The Dragon Ball franchise has also left a significant cultural impact in other regions of the world over the past decades — most notably, in Latin America, where it began airing in the 1990s. Macron appears to be a fan of the series and in April, during a press conference alongside Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the two heads of state struck the series’ iconic Kamehameha pose.
In 2018 the Japanese franchise found itself at the center of a diplomatic impasse between Japan and the local government Ciudad Juarez, Mexico after the local Mexican authorities agreed to a request for a public screening of the final episodes of Dragon Ball Super. Per the BBC, an agreement was reached between both sides to allow the screening of the series’ second-to-last-episode to an audience of about 15,000.