Universal's New Park/Site B Blue Sky Thread

[Frank Drackman]

Just catching up on things.

I personally think UNI would try to develop Dream Works properties before going to WB. I'm sure if AT&T gets WB, they will leave it mostly alone (sort of like Disney and Marvel, but I think Disney still pushes Marvel more than ATT will with WB), but I think Comcast prefers the synergies route as opposed to helping a company that competes on other fronts.

As for needing a few big draws to the other park, I do not know, when I look at Disney, I think their gates are a draw as a group, as a destination vacation...and heck, with the Boy Wizard, UNI seems to have captured an illusive younger crowd of vacationers who want 'experiences'.

So, in some ways, I feel UOR has enough deals to make do...and sometimes newer movies seemed somewhat influenced by 'scenes that would work well in a theme park'.

So keeping HP, but maybe nothing new (unless something comes up) unless they figure out how to restructure Speilberg's deal, I just think they would rather try in house stuff...but I have no clue if that all is really enough...the GP is so fickle and all.

 

[Andysol]

I want to know what they'll do about the sewage treatment plant. That is right on the edge of the property and stinks to high heaven...

Google Maps

Hey- that’s my line of work.

So- it won’t be the same treatment plant once it gets built. It’ll either (very unlikely) move or (very likely) expand.

Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) all have flow ratings.
For easy math, let’s say this plant is rated at 10 million gallons a day (MGD) flow. On average, let’s say it flows 5MGD. During a crazy rain event like a hurricane it might flow 13. During a rain storm it might flow 8-11, etc.
As the area around the WWTP expands- assuming they contribute to that particular plant- the average flow of the WWTP increases. Once a plant hits 60% of their rating- they are required to develop plans for expansion. Once they hit 80%- they are required to start construction to expand. So as hotels and infrastructure are added, the flow will increase.

That all said- there is a potential that
A) they are currently under expansion and over capacity which contributes to the odor
B) they aren’t even related to this project and are just some small plant that handles a particular industry or (very rare) even a small neighborhood.

Regardless of the case, I’ve been to dozens of Wastewater Treatment Plants (lucky me), and some stink to high heaven and some have no smell at all- even standing in the Plants. The usual contributor? How close are they to residential areas.

If you’re in an undeveloped area- why not stink- no one to complain. If you’re in a developed area- prepare to hear the complaints. And those complaints will be answered with better equipment, as well as shorter retention times of “sludge”, as well as deodorizers added to Lift Stations (usually each plant has 2-20 lift stations around the city or area that pump the untreated wastewater to the plant for treatment).



Too much information, but there ya go.

 

[captainmoch]

I still really want my idea of Park 3 being IOA on steroids. I'm not sure if I shared it here, but I'll post it again just in case. Sorry about the incoming ridiculous blue sky tangent.

Think of it this way: IOA has eight immersive themed lands. However, most are fairly small, and even the big ones feel a bit cramped and are literally just a straight path through the area (i.e. MSHI and JP). In this theoretical Park 3, every land would be in the 15-25 acre range, or maybe even bigger. It would have a much smaller TOTAL of lands than IOA/USF (with four instead of eight), but the lands would be even more huge and more immersive than everything we've ever seen before, a complete one-up to WWoHP and SW:GE alike. Each area would have a lot of variety, multiple paths and nooks and crannies, and several attractions including both big E-tickets and supplementary smaller attractions. Universal themselves could re-brand them as not "Lands," but "Worlds," and the working title I have for this idea: "Universal's Fantastic Worlds." And these "worlds" could include:

- Super Nintendo World - The single most famous family of video game characters comes to life in Super Nintendo World, a large land themed to a variety of Nintendo properties. This includes Princess Peach's castle as the park icon, which brings guests into the Mushroom Kingdom (the largest section of the land, featuring the interactive Mario Kart attraction, a Donkey Kong coaster, and a Yoshi omnimover), Hyrule (featuring an epic interactive trackless dark ride through a perilous dungeon), and Kanto (featuring a Pokemon Snap safari dark ride).
- Middle-Earth: The World of Lord of the Rings - One of the most iconic literature and film properties of all time finally gets adapted into the largest theme park land of all time. In the 25-30 acre range, this land recreates the sprawling fantasy land of Middle-Earth, featuring locations such as the Shire, Rivendell, and Mordor, without them being forced close together. Every area is completely immersive in the shopping, dining, entertainment, architecture, and attractions. Several attractions could include a next-gen Tower of Terror-type drop ride within the Dark Tower of Mordor, a mixture of Forbidden Journey and FoP that takes guests on a ride on top of the eagles through Middle-Earth, an indoor coaster through the Mines of Moria, a family dark ride through a festival at the Shire, and so on.
- Worlds of DreamWorks - One of the biggest studios when it comes to family-friendly entertainment, the worlds of DreamWorks can be discovered in this Fantasyland-esque mashup area. Guests can discover Shrek's Swamp and a silly family boat ride through Shrek's world, Berk and a massive dark ride that takes guests on a dragon flight, and the Valley of Peace featuring a KFP family coaster. Each of these three sections aren't huge, but are very immersive and well-themed in their own right, and have a nice blend together.
- Jurassic World - Jurassic Park is one of the most memorable and praised movies of all time, yet all it has ever gotten is a fairly average/standard area at IOA with no room for expansion. This would be remedied by completely starting from scratch in this new park; with a huge, realistic version of Jurassic World. Featuring a gyrosphere e-ticket, several safaris through land and sea, a brand new state of the art discovery center, and dozens of interactive dinosaur animatronics littered throughout the land. Jurassic World would give the Jurassic series the huge amazing theme park representation it deserves.

Building lands of that size and scope could be the next step in completely reinventing the idea of theme park lands IMO, and those four properties are some of the best candidates for it. Not only are these four fairly timeless properties, but there's Nintendo and DreamWorks which in of themselves feature several properties that appeal to families, and more thrilling, adventurous things to appeal to teens and adults such as Middle-Earth and Jurassic World. I know limiting a new park to a narrow selection of IP is risky, especially when leaving out new things such as Fantastic Beasts, but I think there's sooo much potential.

...that tangent aside, I know this will absolutely never happen since SNW is basically locked into replacing KidZone. And I get why, if they use both SNW and DreamWorks in Park 3 that doesn't leave much to replace KidZone in general. The only other thing I think that could work is SpongeBob, which Uni does still own the rights to and it's still a very popular show, but... I have my doubts that that would draw a huge amount of interest. So yeah, this idea is definitely never going to happen but a gal can dream, right?

 

[Disneyhead]

Fill in the blank.

WWOHP:_________?

Oh, and Princess Fiona may be getting a serious upgrade in living quarters. (This rumor had me lol.)

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Fill in the blank.

WWOHP:_________?

J.Ks Wizarding World - Paris

 

[Imperius]

Fill in the blank.

WWOHP:_________?

Oh, and Princess Fiona may be getting a serious upgrade in living quarters. (This rumor had me lol.)

America(Fantastic Beasts)

 

[quinnmac000]

America(Fantastic Beasts)

Only first film will be in America which featured New York. Next film is France with the following one rumoured to take place in either China or Africa.
---------------------------------------------------------------

I'm wondering now if Universal will bring over the scrapped plans they had for Okinawa for this upcoming park which was going to be all original.

 

[Nick]

Only first film will be in America which featured New York. Next film is France with the following one rumoured to take place in either China or Africa.
---------------------------------------------------------------

I'm wondering now if Universal will bring over the scrapped plans they had for Okinawa for this upcoming park which was going to be all original.

Universal is not going to do an all-Original park. Nobody in their right mind would open an all-original park in this day and age.

Think about it, when was the last original, non-water park attraction even opened between WDW/UOR? I think Disaster! beats Everest by a year or two and that was about a decade ago. And remember, Disaster! predates the Comcast era and Everest predates Iger.

 

[Imperius]

Only first film will be in America which featured New York. Next film is France with the following one rumoured to take place in either China.

Which I understand but America and Ilvermony is a bigger draw.

 

[Nick]

Which I understand but America and Ilvermony is a bigger draw.

I think for Fantastic Beasts to work in the parks, it will have to be some sort of combination of things. Everyone knows what Hogwarts is - I saw FB twice and I forgot that the school was called Ilvermorny. It is in no way a big draw on it's own.

 

[quinnmac000]

Universal is not going to do an all-Original park. Nobody in their right mind would open an all-original park in this day and age.

Think about it, when was the last original, non-water park attraction even opened between WDW/UOR? I think Disaster! beats Everest by a year or two and that was about a decade ago. And remember, Disaster! predates the Comcast era and Everest predates Iger.

Never said all original. Just like plans for Universal Studios Beijing are coming here. I would expect plans for a park that wasn't created still could come regardless of them being IP less.

If you haven't noticed, the Hollywood model has shown that IPs are dying with less franchise films outside of animation meeting their expected numbers.

 

[Nick]

Never said all original. Just like plans for Universal Studios Beijing are coming here. I would expect plans for a park that wasn't created still could come regardless of them being IP less.

If you haven't noticed, the Hollywood model has shown that IPs are dying with less franchise films outside of animation meeting their expected numbers.

The Hollywood model and the Theme Park model are two entirely different beasts.

I love original rides, but Universal has yet to make one that's not an unthemed coaster (Key word: RIDE). I don't have much hope.

 

[quinnmac000]

The Hollywood model and the Theme Park model are two entirely different beasts.

I love original rides, but Universal has yet to make one. Key word: RIDE.

Universal Creative has created an non IP based ride just not for Florida. Its actually one of their most popular rides as well.

Also Hollywood and theme park are synonymous now with the push for Synergy by both Disney and Universal.

 

[Nick]

Universal Creative has created an non IP based ride just not for Florida. Its actually one of their most popular rides as well.

Point being, based on the direction they've gone since Comcast took over, there's absolutely no evidence to support them even thinking about creating an original ride for UOR.

 

[zg44]

If you haven't noticed, the Hollywood model has shown that IPs are dying with less franchise films outside of animation meeting their expected numbers.

There's definitely been franchise fatigue among moviegoers (especially in the US/Canada), but that shows the need for newer/fresher franchises.

Hollywood's trajectory is shifting even more to franchises even when they struggle. Other than Christopher Nolan various works, there aren't many projects in Hollywood with over $150m budgets that have not been parts of franchises in some fashion for a while. And anything that's even remotely successful nowadays becomes the first edition of a franchise...

 

[zg44]

DHX Media Puts Itself Up for Sale | Animation Magazine

DHX Media put itself up for sale after a disappointing quarter.

Worth noting that they're perhaps the last large independent owner of children's content: 80% of Peanuts, Teletubbies, Inspector Gadget, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, etc. They own one of the largest troves of children's content out there, so it'll be interesting to see whether someone bites.

Comcast or Disney are the two most obvious buyers if they want to add all of that to their animation businesses (and there might be some theme park implications). Dreamworks (now Comcast owned) has a major output deal with DHX that started 2 years ago, so Comcast may want to take DHX Media to prevent others from getting their content, and Universal did just rebrand a kids cable channel. Disney used to own/partner with DIC (one of the precursors to DHX) on Inspector Gadget among other things, but now they'd have a reason to possibly consider going back for DHX for their eventual streaming service.

Maybe Netflix or another streaming service may want it. Either way, will be worth following; the price should be somewhere around $750-900 million for the stock ($1.5 billion including debt).

 

[fryoj]

If you haven't noticed, the Hollywood model has shown that IPs are dying with less franchise films outside of animation meeting their expected numbers.

9 0f the top 10 movies this year are IP based. Most are sequels or remakes. IP's aren't going anywhere in Hollywood. The ones that bomb are typically the ones that go a sequel or two too far into a series.

 

[Nick]

DHX Media Puts Itself Up for Sale | Animation Magazine

DHX Media put itself up for sale after a disappointing quarter.

Worth noting that they're perhaps the last large independent owner of children's content: 80% of Peanuts, Teletubbies, Inspector Gadget, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, etc. They own one of the largest troves of children's content out there, so it'll be interesting to see whether someone bites.

Comcast or Disney are the two most obvious buyers if they want to add all of that to their animation businesses (and there might be some theme park implications). Dreamworks (now Comcast owned) has a major output deal with DHX that started 2 years ago, so Comcast may want to take DHX Media to prevent others from getting their content, and Universal did just rebrand a kids cable channel. Disney used to own/partner with DIC (one of the precursors to DHX) on Inspector Gadget among other things, but now they'd have a reason to possibly consider going back for DHX for their eventual streaming service.

Maybe Netflix or another streaming service may want it. Either way, will be worth following; the price should be somewhere around $750-900 million for the stock ($1.5 billion including debt).

This seems like something Netflix may want.

 

[Mad Dog]

With the way UC changes their minds on stuff, I would guess their Fourth Park plan is filled with a lot of whiteout and X outs. I'd bet they're not close to a final version. There's probably Final Version A, Final Version B, Final Version C, and Final Version XXX.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

DHX Media Puts Itself Up for Sale | Animation Magazine

DHX Media put itself up for sale after a disappointing quarter.

Worth noting that they're perhaps the last large independent owner of children's content: 80% of Peanuts, Teletubbies, Inspector Gadget, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, etc. They own one of the largest troves of children's content out there, so it'll be interesting to see whether someone bites.

Comcast or Disney are the two most obvious buyers if they want to add all of that to their animation businesses (and there might be some theme park implications). Dreamworks (now Comcast owned) has a major output deal with DHX that started 2 years ago, so Comcast may want to take DHX Media to prevent others from getting their content, and Universal did just rebrand a kids cable channel. Disney used to own/partner with DIC (one of the precursors to DHX) on Inspector Gadget among other things, but now they'd have a reason to possibly consider going back for DHX for their eventual streaming service.

Maybe Netflix or another streaming service may want it. Either way, will be worth following; the price should be somewhere around $750-900 million for the stock ($1.5 billion including debt).

For what you said, I think it would be NBCUniversal that would at least pursue the opportunity. As you pointed out, Dreamworks still has that large output deal; and that it would allow them to build even more onto their current libary of content for Universal Animation.