Buying Robots for Theme Parks Is Easy; Creating a Cyber Star Is Hard

On September 24, the world's first large-scale embodied AI theme park officially opened at Chimelong Spaceship Park in Hengqin, Zhuhai, jointly built by AgiBot and Chimelong.

The park deploys over 300 robots across more than 100 interaction points, and on opening day hosted the world's largest regular human-robot dance and the first robot aerialist performance.

Robot performances have become a common sight in recent years, with science museums and theme parks racing to embrace them as a traffic magnet.

The cultural entertainment industry shows a stark divide: offline spending and theme park foot traffic are rebounding, yet profitability pressure is mounting, largely due to high costs, especially labor.

Kaifeng Qingming Shanghe Park, for example, saw revenue edge up from 673 million yuan in 2023 to 746 million yuan in 2025, while profit fell from 285 million to 212 million yuan. Gross margin dropped from 67.6% to 51.8%, and net margin from 42.4% to 28.5%. Direct labor costs rose from 79.8 million to 141 million yuan, a nearly 77% increase in two years, accounting for nearly 40% of sales costs.

Animal-centric parks like Chimelong and Haichang face even higher costs for feeding, medical care, and ecology. Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park has over 30,000 marine creatures consuming about 1,500 kg of food daily.

By contrast, robots may be cheaper than human NPCs or large animals. A Goldman Sachs report in August projected the average humanoid robot price will fall from $41,800 in 2025 to $21,300 in 2035, a nearly 49% drop over the decade.