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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

SPECIAL REPORT: Keeping the Crowd Spell-Bound

The new wizard haunt in Universal City could change the theme park business, especially for many San Fernando Valley-area companies that design and build attractions. In two weeks, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter will open at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park, built on a space that for years had been the Gibson Amphitheatre. Wizarding World will feature the 3-D thrill ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and the park’s first outdoor roller coaster, Flight of the Hippogriff. Beneath Hogwarts Castle, visitors will be to walk the streets of Hogsmeade, lined with retail shops and restaurants as well as carts selling items based on the popular book and film series. While not the first Wizarding World to open – that honor belongs to the attraction opened in 2010 at Universal Studios Florida – the L.A. version builds on the expertise Universal Parks & Resorts, the studio’s theme park division, gained from that experience. But the opening has caught the attention of local professionals working in the themed attractions space. “The whole industry is holding its breath, hoping this will be as spectacular as they imagine it will be,” said Bob Rogers, founder and chief creative officer at BRC Imagination Arts, a themed entertainment design firm in Burbank. Universal finds itself in the company of other major studios in the Valley – Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. – which are creating theme park projects to bring characters and story lines off the big screen and into immersive experiences that extend the reach and popularity of film franchises. As Neil Macker, an analyst who follows Disney for Morningstar Inc. in Chicago, pointed out in a recent research note, the park attractions are ways for studios to make more money on content they already own. “A recent example is the successful animated film, ‘Frozen,’ from which the company has created movie-themed foods, firework shows and parades, and a themed ice-skating rink,” Macker put in the note. “Disney uses the parks and cruise ships to further monetize the franchises and to keep the characters alive in the minds of children.” Both Disney and Universal have separate theme park and resort divisions within their corporate structure. Warner Bros. and DreamWorks Animation, on the other hand, license out their characters for other companies to turn into attractions. Warner Bros., which has the rights to the Potter characters, is a partner with Universal in Wizarding World. Attempts to reach representatives of the four studios were not successful. As Universal introduces the Harry Potter attraction, Disney has big plans in the works with a planned June opening in Shanghai of its newest resort. Next year will see attractions based on the blockbuster 3-D film “Avatar” at Animal Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. In Southern California, the company will be repurposing parts of Disneyland for new attractions based on “Star Wars.” Disney, of course, has been in the theme park business the longest, starting with its flagship location in Anaheim, opened in 1955. The company’s Shanghai park will be joining other international outposts in France, Japan, Hong Kong. The company also pushes its brand with a themed cruise line. In the fiscal first quarter ended Jan. 2, the parks and resorts division of Disney brought in revenue of $4.3 billion, a 9 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. “Disney’s theme parks and resorts are almost impossible to replicate, especially considering the tie-ins with its other business lines,” Morningstar’s Macker wrote in his research note. In addition to the parks it owns and operates in Los Angeles and Orlando, Universal has controlling interest in Universal Studios Japan and a licensing deal with a park in Singapore. For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, the theme park division at Universal brought in $1 billion in revenue, an increase of 38.6 percent from the same period in the prior year. DreamWorks Animation licenses its popular characters such as green ogre Shrek, Po from “Kung Fu Panda” and the animals of “Madagascar” for attractions in London, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brazil and Australia. Warner Bros. has licensed characters for park attractions in Australia and Spain. A new park the studio has partnered on is under construction in Abu Dhabi. Shanghai ‘Pirates’ Shanghai Disney Resort represents a more than $5 billion investment by the Burbank company and its Chinese partner, Shanghai Shendi Group, a consortium of state-owned companies. About 330 million people live within three hours of the new Shanghai park, which explains why the company has decided to build and market on such a large scale. During a February conference call to discuss quarterly earnings, Disney Chief Operating Officer Tom Staggs said the new resort would be a source of pride for everyone involved. “It’s one of the most extraordinarily creative and innovative projects in the history of our company, which makes it the perfect way to firmly establish Disney in the hearts and minds of the people of China,” Staggs said. Started in 2011, the Shanghai project includes a Magic Kingdom-style park encompassing six themed lands on 225 acres that will incorporate cultural concepts tailored for Chinese visitors. Among those are a live Broadway-style production of “The Lion King” in Mandarin and the Gardens of Imagination, which comprise seven Chinese-themed gardens. Still, familiar Disney brands will be present – a new Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure attraction in Treasure Cove, the first pirate-themed land at a Disney park; Tron Lightcycle Power Run and Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue in Tomorrowland; and the iconic Enchanted Storybook Castle in Fantasyland. Live-action shows will include one based on “Tarzan” with Chinese acrobats and another based on the hit film “Frozen.” Theme park consultant John Gerner, managing director of Leisure Business Advisors in Richmond, Va., said that with the Shanghai project, Disney is drawing on lessons learned from the Hong Kong park it jointly owns with the Hong Kong government. Hong Kong Disneyland Resort had initially started out small and left out popular rides when it opened in 2005. The plan was that it would expand over time but in the early years the park underperformed, Gerner said. “From the start, Shanghai is the largest of all the Disney parks and from what I have seen they are not holding back on the popular attractions and shows you would expect to see,” he said. “Disney knows the Shanghai park needs to be its best.” When it comes to new parks, foreign destinations are more common than building in the United States. In that regard, Wizarding World and Disney’s “Star Wars” land are exceptions rather than the rule. Warner Bros. got out of the U.S. theme park business in 1998 when its parent company, Time Warner Inc., sold off the Six Flags chain to Premier Parks in a deal valued at $1.8 billion. A year later, Premier purchased parks in Germany and Spain from Warner Bros., although the Burbank studio still had a licensing deal. The use of Warner Bros. attractions at the German park has since expired. Time Warner sold off its stake in Warner Bros. Movie World in Queensland, Australia in 2006 to its partner Village Roadshow Ltd. but retains a licensing agreement for the use of properties such as Looney Tunes and DC comics characters at the park. DreamWorks Animation has placed none of its themed experiences in the United States, opting instead to license content in foreign locations – DreamPlay in the Philippines, DreamWorld in Australia, Beto Carrero in Brazil and Shrek’s Adventure! London. Opening this year are How to Train Your Dragon Island at Heider Park in Germany and Kung Fu Panda Academy at Italy’s Gardaland. Going the licensing route is not necessarily a bad move for a company such as DreamWorks Animation that is still getting its feet in the water when it comes to themed attractions, Gerner said. “There is nothing wrong with being more conservative and taking less risk,” he said. Movie immersion Modern theme park design is all about taking known properties and making immersive experiences out of them that evoke the same emotions an audience gets from the movie, according to industry professionals. “So many of the great attractions – Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disney or the Minions 3-D experience at Universal – are based on known presold (intellectual property) that we know the audience loves,” said BRC’s Rogers. Rogers is a former Imagineer who worked for the Glendale-based Disney division that designs the attractions at its theme parks. While much of his firm’s work is now based around brands, BRC has done its share of theme park work. One attraction it designed is the Mystery Lodge at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, a Native American-themed show still performed daily 22 years after its debut. Such longevity is not the rule at theme parks, which need refreshment every few years to give the local population a reason to visit, Rogers said. “Harry Potter coming to Universal Studios will do that,” he said. “That should really help drive attendance.” Ernest Wooden Jr., chief executive at the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board, agrees. While Wooden said that the board does not have estimates on the tourist dollars Wizarding World will bring in, it is sure to be significant and a game changer for the tourism economy. “Their ability to capture the magic of Hollywood moviemaking and place visitors from around the globe at the very heart of this exciting industry will be a core draw for the millions of domestic and international tourists expected to visit Los Angeles and stay in our area hotels in order to have this experience,” Wooden said in an email statement. Like Rogers, Gary Goddard is a former Imagineer who now operates his own themed attraction design firm, Goddard Group, in North Hollywood. His resume includes top rides and attractions at Universal theme parks, including Jurassic Park the Ride, Terminator 2: 3-D and Amazing Spiderman. He said working for Universal meant differentiating it from a Disney park. “We were the edgy park that put you seemingly in danger’s way and not just left you sitting there in a passive boat or passive theater watching a show,” Goddard said. The new Harry Potter attractions will work from the model established at Universal’s Orlando parks. The first version of Wizarding World has the village of Hogsmeade at the Islands of Adventure park. Diagon Alley, opened in 2014, is next door at Universal Studios Florida with additional rides, shops and attractions. Connecting the two is the Hogwarts Express train. The level of detail and the interactive elements, from children waving a wand and seeing the result of casting a spell to attendants who are dressed in costume to wizard-inspired menus at the restaurants, make for a spectacular achievement, Goddard said. “Everything is true to that experience,” he said. Rogers is impressed how Universal makes visitors get the higher-price Park-to-Park ticket in order to see the entire Harry Potter attraction. “Pure marketing genius,” he said. Gerner called Wizarding World a game changer in that it shows a known property can be the basis for an entire land at a theme park and not just a single ride. Disney had done something similar with Cars Land at California Adventure in Anaheim but it is not at the same scale as Wizarding World, he said, adding the plans at Disneyland for the “Star Wars”-themed land will confirm the approach taken by Universal is the future for parks. “Harry Potter showed it can be done,” Gerner said. “‘Star Wars’ will show that it can be duplicated.”

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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