After Shutting Down Disneyland, Mr. Beast Says He’s Building His Own Theme Park

Never heard of Mr. Beast? Well, you’re not alone – but ask anyone under the age of 18 in your family, and they’ll probably tell you that he’s the biggest rising star on the planet. The world’s most-subscribed-to YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has become a media mogul. Now, just months after renting out Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park, Mr. Beast wants to get into the theme park business.

Mr. Beast talked about his start on YouTube in a recent interview with Bloomberg, where he (and his team) revealed that he wants to turn his company, now known as Beast Industries, into a new Walt Disney Company–a diversified conglomerate creating as many forms of entertainment as possible. Jeff Housenbold, now CEO of Beast Industries, pitches Donaldson’s Mr. Beast persona as the company’s Mickey Mouse.

“There’s such a bigger opportunity here than just being a YouTuber,” he said. “Jimmy will always be the cornerstone, but Jimmy doesn’t scale. He already filmed 26, 27, 28 days a month.” Instead, Housenbold says, Beast Industries will build out its own “cinematic universe.”

To kickstart his career, Mr. Beast and his friends studied the kinds of videos that went viral and tried to understand what kept viewers engaged with that content. He gained fame with videos primed for engagement, like “$1 Vs. $1,000,000,000 Yacht”, “Last To Leave Circle Wins $500,000”, and “1,000 Blind People See For The First Time” – many with a philanthropic twist. The bio on the MrBeast YouTube channel boasts a lengthy list of accomplishments, including “raised $20,000,000 To Plant 20,000,000 Trees,” “removed 30,000,000 pounds of trash from the ocean,” and “survived 50 hours in Antarctica.”

Mr. Beast has expanded his empire to include everything from the ghost kitchen hamburger chain, MrBeast Burger, to packaged food and candy, such as Feastables and Lunchly. His Amazon Prime show, Beast Games, premiered in 2024, and Donaldson gave away over $25 million throughout the series. It’s already been renewed for two more seasons.

As Bloomberg notes, Mr. Beast has “more followers than almost any person or company on Earth, letting him drive fans to whatever he’s selling.” According to the author, Donaldson is “even flirting with opening a theme park.”

This wouldn’t be Mr. Beast’s first foray into the theme park industry. Earlier this year, Donaldson released a video called “$1 vs $500,000 Date.” In it, he and his fiancée, Thea Booysen, alongside some friends, rented out Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park. (The video now has 141 million views.)

Two years ago, Mr. Beast rented out Fuji-Q Highland theme park in Tokyo for a video called “$1. Vs. $250,000 Vacation.” In 2019’s “Last To Leave Roller Coaster Wins $20,000”, Donaldson rode a Six Flags Over Texas roller coaster over 100 times in a row. That same year, he and his friends won over 10,000 stuffed animals at Six Flags Over Texas in “I Won Every Prize At A Theme Park.”

Mr. Beast didn’t share much about his future theme park plans, like a location or any potential attractions. But for a creator who has “recreated Squid Game in real life” and “ran a marathon in the world’s largest shoes,” the idea doesn’t seem that far off.

What kinds of attractions would fit in a Mr. Beast theme park? Share your ideas with Inside the Magic in the comments!