I wish the old HTF threads existed. There was a huge debate back in the day surrounding Pokémon potentially being the future Kidzone franchise (long before Nintendo was known).
All sorts of aggressive statements about its relevancy. A little ironic in a post Pokémon Go world.
If a franchise can blow up four or five different mediums (video games, TV, trading card games, social phone games) over the period of 2 decades, yes it could also blow up in a theme park. Very few franchises have transcended multiple mediums in the same way. A movie and the tie-in toy aisle is not the same thing. Star Wars and Potter are two such special properties, I believe Pokémon fits that bill.