Universal's New Park/Site B Blue Sky Thread

[JungleSkip]

The fact of the matter is original lands are harder to turn a profit on. IP Lands have built-in profit centers. That's why outside of the "Main Street" and *maybe* another land ala Lost Continent in the new park. Theme Park design, at least when it comes to the big boys, has changed drastically since IoA was built. Even TDS is replacing original attractions with IP attractions because that's what the customer base wants.

 

[Alicia]

Has anyone heard about this? From Screamscape.com

Jurassic Park Update - Rumor - (8/24/18) While we know the Jurassic Park ride at Universal's Hollywood park is already announced to become a Jurassic World themed ride in 2019, Universal and Amblin filed new trademark paperwork on Aug. 13th for the "Jurassic World" name to be used not just as an amusement park ride but also to use the name as the title of a whole park or as the name of a themed area within a park.
Since we know this later part wouldn't really apply to the Hollywood theme park where the Jurassic ride is one of many rides in the Lower Lot section of the park, next to the Transformers and Mummy rides, it does make me wonder if there could be plans to transform the Jurassic Park land in Orlando, or possibly build an entirely new Jurassic World themed area inside the next new park.

Thanks for posting this. I thought the same thing...

Of course, I try to keep in mind that Universal files marks all the time, and they try to remain as broad as possible when doing so, just in case. In any case, I'm pretty sure there will either be:

A: A new Jurassic World themed area in the new park

or

B: Jurassic Park in Islands of Adventure gets re-themed to "World" within the next 4 years.

So, either way, this mark will come in handy.

 

[JungleSkip]

Thanks for posting this. I thought the same thing...

Of course, I try to keep in mind that Universal files marks all the time, and they try to remain as broad as possible when doing so, just in case. In any case, I'm pretty sure there will either be:

A: A new Jurassic World themed area in the new park

or

B: Jurassic Park in Islands of Adventure gets re-themed to "World" within the next 4 years.

So, either way, this mark will come in handy.

I hate both of these plans, but I think having 2 Jurassic Lands is the bigger mistake

 

[quinnmac000]

The fact of the matter is original lands are harder to turn a profit on. IP Lands have built-in profit centers. That's why outside of the "Main Street" and *maybe* another land ala Lost Continent in the new park. Theme Park design, at least when it comes to the big boys, has changed drastically since IoA was built. Even TDS is replacing original attractions with IP attractions because that's what the customer base wants.

Original land is much easier to turn a profit on...there is no other owner of the land/attraction but the owner who owns the park. Yea, IPs bring people in but a popular evergreen ip in this day and age goes sour much faster (any celeb scandal essentially makes it so parks have to shut things down to stay in the clear from protests). Everything made is strictly yours and you don't need to give anything to anyone else. Secondly, the main costs of original lands is marketing. Disney decided to use films, television, and books which made their original attractions so big. Nothing is stating Universal can't do the same.

 

[Magic-Man]

Praying for a second Jurassic World area, hoping that the JP expansion gets canceled.

 

[JungleSkip]

Original land is much easier to turn a profit on...there is no other owner of the land/attraction but the owner who owns the park. Yea, IPs bring people in but a popular evergreen ip in this day and age goes sour much faster (any celeb scandal essentially makes it so parks have to shut things down to stay in the clear from protests). Everything made is strictly yours and you don't need to give anything to anyone else. Secondly, the main costs of original lands is marketing. Disney decided to use films, television, and books which made their original attractions so big. Nothing is stating Universal can't do the same.

Disney's original lands are "IPs" now because they've been around for 60 years. Opening an original land now is not in the same stratosphere

 

[Magic-Man]

Original land is much easier to turn a profit on...there is no other owner of the land/attraction but the owner who owns the park. Yea, IPs bring people in but a popular evergreen ip in this day and age goes sour much faster (any celeb scandal essentially makes it so parks have to shut things down to stay in the clear from protests). Everything made is strictly yours and you don't need to give anything to anyone else. Secondly, the main costs of original lands is marketing. Disney decided to use films, television, and books which made their original attractions so big. Nothing is stating Universal can't do the same.

Here’s the thing: Original lands don’t make much profits as a whole. There’s nothing to sell.

 

[JungleSkip]

Here’s the thing: Original lands don’t make much profits as a whole. There’s nothing to sell.

I mean that's not necessarily true. Everest did respectable merch-wise. But saying "Well look at how much merch the Haunted Mansion sells!" is ignoring the fact that it took generations for the ride to become the merch mover it is today.

 

[Legacy]

Pirates sold merch before Jack Sparrow was a thing. Jack Sparrow just took it to a different level.

 

[Magic-Man]

Pirates sold merch before Jack Sparrow was a thing. Jack Sparrow just took it to a different level.

That was back when there wasn’t any big, blockbuster merch sellers other than Mickey. IP’s are the only things that matter now.

 

[quinnmac000]

Disney's original lands are "IPs" now because they've been around for 60 years. Opening an original land now is not in the same stratosphere

I'm not saying they didn't. Disneyland blew up because Walt and later Disney Management knew the power of media and utilized television shows to make Disney a go to attraction. Thus taking original land/content and making it a IP that pushes merch. That's effective synergy. That's what smart creative team would do to help world build.

There is nothing stopping Comcast from doing the same which in the long run saves money overall so they can actually spend money on good attractions that are worth of the IPs they are using (no more fast and furious) instead of spending upfront cost licensing an IP then only using resources for outside IPs and cost saving a lot on those they actually own.

 

[JungleSkip]

...but it took decades for Disney's original lands to push merch? Like, "Adventureland" merch was not a thing until recently.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Yes, PotC became popular (merch-wise) before the movies... but that's because its pirate gear. Pirate stuff sells no matter the IP. If Universal goes original, I hope they create generic lands like Tomorrowland and Adventureland or simple stories that guests can understand. No need for extravagant stories like the Waturi people.

 

[JungleSkip]

Yes, PotC became popular (merch-wise) before the movies... but that's because its pirate gear. Pirate stuff sells no matter the IP. If Universal goes original, I hope they create generic lands like Tomorrowland and Adventureland or simple stories that guests can understand. No need for extravagant stories like the Waturi people.

99% of the people going to VB don't know what the story behind it is. They just know "tropical water park". It is a "simple story" for them

 

[Teebin]

99% of the people going to VB know what the story behind it is.

Know or don’t know?

 

[JungleSkip]

Know or don’t know?

Whoops. Forgot a word in there.

 

[Mr Horse]

I think we forget too, that when Disneyland opened the media landscape was so different. TV was the only video medium and there were what 5-6 channels? When they put a special on one channel they were saturating as much as 20% of the entire TV spectrum. Assuming their programming was popular, it's probably not a huge stretch to imagine them reaching 30-40% of the prime-time audience with a single airing. That kind of exposure is amazingly expensive these days, even for a company like Comcast. Consider too, that they were the first modern theme park. Something previously unseen, being released into an almost virgin market that was largely unsaturated by IP.

The odds of a theme park becoming such an indelible part of the culture again are slim.

 

[Yabbadabba Doh]

The odds of a theme park becoming such an indelible part of the culture again are slim.

I would argue that given the popularity of the current immersive environments being created (Potter, Pandora, soon SWL), that a park which is based entirely on immersive lands would be a game changer IMHO making it a part of the current culture.

 

[devinp267]

I would argue that given the popularity of the current immersive environments being created (Potter, Pandora, soon SWL), that a park which is based entirely on immersive lands would be a game changer IMHO making it a part of the current culture.

and I will concede that point. This park is really the one advantage that universal has over disney, a brand new fully fleshed out park in this era is going to be on a much more different level than any park thus far that's a given. Not just speaking on lands and attractions, but the architecture of a brand new park in 2022 versus the 90's will be above all, we know what creative is capable of creating in cramped spaces, this is like a field day!

Edit: and I dont think disney is building a new park.

 

[Yabbadabba Doh]

Edit: and I dont think disney is building a new park.

Agreed, hopefully they have come to the realization that any new parks, especially in WDW will only cannibalize the visitor pool from the current parks. It will be interesting to see how SWL moves the needle at DHS and what effect that may or may not have for attendance at the other parks (mainly Epcot & AK)