You know, for all icon houses are touted as a staple of the event, Universal's been moving away from center-of-the-event type icon houses for a while now. Look --
In 2005, you have the storyteller, who only appears in the marketing aside from a brief cameo appearance in a mediocre house (or, if you prefer, the Terra Queen, who does not appear in advertising or a house).
In 2007, Jack's Funhouse is subjugated to the haunts of his carnival sideshow freaks, Freddy, Jason, and Leatherface (not to mention The Thing).
In 2008, Bloody Mary's haunt was incredibly poor in comparison to the rest of the house list. Again, the icon house was subjugated to what would traditionally be considered supporting houses. What's more surprising is that this happened even though Universal put an incredible amount of time and energy into developing a wonderfully elaborate backstory with an equally elaborate marketing campaign.
In 2009, we see probably the closest the icon house ever gets to returning to glory with Silver Screams. It's in a good location, and there's an incredible amount of detail within. But can you really say it was the lead house that year? The most talked about house that year was Dracula. The Usher wasn't used in any of the commercials or on any of the billboards. He didn't turn out to be the headliner. Saw, Chucky and the Wolfman did.
2010. Fear. THIS is the year everyone talks about when this topic is brought up. Fear wasn't in the houses. He was a photo op in the park. Not a very strong presence at all.
This trend has been going on for a while. It's really been a while since the days of Screamhouse and Die-In. If we did a "Sweet 16" like reunion, would you really expect the house list to include Jack's Funhouse, Reflections of Fear, and Where Evil Hides? It's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just the direction HHN in moving in. Icons take us into the world of the event, but don't expect them to be a lock for their own haunt in the years to come.
~Blizz