Inside Universal Forums

Welcome to the Inside Universal Forums! Register a free account today to become a member. Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members and unlock our forums features!

  • Signing up for a Premium Membership is a donation to help Inside Universal maintain costs and offers an ad-free experience on the forum. Learn more about it here.

Halloween Horror Nights 2020 Old Speculation Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
I'd prefer Blumhouse 3 over strictly Invisible Man.

Talking about best years, while 2016 is the clear recent winner, lest not forget 2009 which brought us Saw and Halloween for their first times, and picking the better one between those mazes is like choosing your favorite child (Halloween was better, but only because I'm more attached to that franchise, but Saw objectively was just as good in every way). Shout out to 2008 which gave us the very solid F13, NOES remixed, and of course the GOAT maze TCM: BIB (which I still can't find a decent recording of to this day).

And since nobody has mentioned 2014 yet -- AVP is up there with TCM:BIB, La Llorona, and Exorcist. Plus there were surprise hits like From Dusk Till Dawn and Dracula -- two vampire mazes in the same year that were unnaturally strong. Plus AWIL and probably the best House of Horrors (damn I miss that) overlay with Face Off. The only huge stain on this year was Clowns 3D and it being the first year with no Bill and Ted. BUT SPEAKING OF LA LLORONA AND BILL AND TED --

2012 was the last time we got a full run of B&T and it was one if its best years. La Llorona repeated with a much better version and a new show stopping finale. Silent Hill and Texas Chainsaw (based on the original this time) were both very strong. Plus it was the first year of The Walking Dead and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't one of the best mazes I had been through at the time with how action packed it was, plus what was an exciting Terror Tram that we'd unfortunately have to endure for another 2 years after that.

Okay, I'll stop before I start going into the worst years, because I can talk HHNH all day.
 
Was I the only one that thought 2019 was amazing?
2019’s event was rough for me and my family so I will always have negative remarks lol
I don't think 2017 was all that bad, but I'm legitimately curious what about that year makes you say it was among the peak of the 2010s.
I loved every maze from 2017. I went twice and had no complaints. Once again, I understand a lot of people hate that year but I’m being honest lol
Insidious, SAW, TOT featuring Leatherface are my top 3 mazes in order. I have a ranked lineup that I can post if interested. The TOT Terror Tram was hilarious! I remember a girl saying “aww hell no” when we stopped and saw a million Chuckys with chainsaws.
Also, I’m a big fan of the AvED TV show so the maze lived up to expectations for me. The “worst” maze was The Shining but I think the lineup was great overall.
 
2017 is underrated, IMO. I get the criticisms, I think they're valid, but I had a lot of fun that year. Especially with AHS: Roanoke and Insidious -- which, speaking of, I wish they'd bring back the JP queue now that the area has been refreshed. My biggest complaint that year was the Titans of Terror redundancies -- I have a soft spot for all those characters and even I found it exasperating. Other than that, The Exorcist and The Shining are on about equal footing for me (controversial, I know) and I even thought AvED had some moments. My "biggest scare" that year came during that maze.

EDIT: I should say "second," actually, because number one was the Chucky chainsaw gag.
 
I believe Spyglass bought all the rights. Or somebody did, I can't remember who, but it allowed Season 3 to come out and Scream 5 to be made.
Anyway, if it wasn't obvious, I have long awaited Scream to come to HHNH for so long............................ nobody mention 2011 please :'(
 
I believe Spyglass bought all the rights. Or somebody did, I can't remember who, but it allowed Season 3 to come out and Scream 5 to be made.
Anyway, if it wasn't obvious, I have long awaited Scream to come to HHNH for so long............................ nobody mention 2011 please :'(
Hard to say, but I feel like if the rights were available, they would go for them asap, though I guess they could also just be waiting for cross promotion opportunites.
 
I believe Spyglass bought all the rights. Or somebody did, I can't remember who

Just to clear it up for everyone since the history of this franchise's rights are a mess simply because of how much they've hopped around: Back when the franchise started, Dimension (a label under Miramax, founded by the Weinsteins) produced the series. At the time, Disney owned Miramax. The first three films were released as such under the Dimension label, but in 2005, the Weinsteins broke from Disney to create the Weinstein Company. They bought Dimension outright from Disney, retaining the Scream rights in the process, while Miramax lived on for a few Weinstein-less years under Disney before they sold it off in 2010.

Under the Weinsteins, Scream 4 got made in 2011, and then skip ahead a few years to the Scream TV series. Dimension teamed up with Viacom (hence MTV) to produce the first two seasons of the series that released in 2015 and 2016, but Viacom doesn't have the "rights" to Scream as a franchise, they were just producing partners, while Netflix initially had a streaming deal with TWC that included the series after its MTV debut.

By 2017, that's when things start falling apart related to Harvey Weinstein, but for our purposes, let's not get too into it. The point is that in 2018, Lantern bought out The Weinstein Company's assets, which included, of course, the Scream rights, as well as the Dimension label.

Enter Spyglass. Spyglass was formed in 1998, and has a long, equally complicated history, but in 2019 it was revived and rebranded as Spyglass Media Group. Lantern bought a majority stake in the company, making it a division like Dimension, and now Spyglass is producing Scream 5. All this is to say that Lantern Entertainment owns the Scream rights in full now, so when you hear names like Dimension or Spyglass thrown around now, just know they're a part of Lantern.

When it comes to the TV rights, it's still Lantern that owns Scream. As I mentioned, Viacom was a producing partner in developing the show, and when The Weinstein Company started having its problems, Viacom fronted emergency funds to produce the show's third season (released in 2019). With Lantern acquiring TWC, the question was raised about whether Lantern then owed Viacom a single dollar, as the production deal was between the Weinsteins and Viacom, not Lantern and Viacom. It's another complicated mess, something Viacom objected to in 2018 (you can read more on it here) and was settled in early 2019 (read about that here). Either way, Lantern was season three's distributor, just as TWC had been for the first two seasons, and the show moved to VH1.

In Scream 5's case, as we all know now, Spyglass is producing it, while Paramount is distributing the film. (And fun fact just to show how some things come full circle... Miramax became a full subsidiary of Paramount, which is owned by ViacomCBS, this past April.) There are more details I glossed over, and I tried my best to sum it up otherwise it'd go on forever, but that's pretty much the gist of it.

Now, when it comes to HHN, I don't think it's controversial to say that Scream's inclusion back in 2011 was problematic for the fact it caused Universal a major headache in dealing with Dimension/the Weinsteins. That's why we haven't really seen the property ever since. But - and I think this is a big one - now that Lantern owns the rights and the Weinsteins are out of the picture, it wouldn't surprise me if Universal is willing to test these new waters if Lantern is amenable to working with them for a future HHN (like to promote Scream 5). Compared to just a few years ago, the Scream rights are in a much better place than they were under the Weinsteins, so really it's just a matter - in my opinion - of Universal or Lantern making the first move to see if the other party would be interested.
 
Just to clear it up for everyone since the history of this franchise's rights are a mess simply because of how much they've hopped around: Back when the franchise started, Dimension (a label under Miramax, founded by the Weinsteins) produced the series. At the time, Disney owned Miramax. The first three films were released as such under the Dimension label, but in 2005, the Weinsteins broke from Disney to create the Weinstein Company. They bought Dimension outright from Disney, retaining the Scream rights in the process, while Miramax lived on for a few Weinstein-less years under Disney before they sold it off in 2010.

Under the Weinsteins, Scream 4 got made in 2011, and then skip ahead a few years to the Scream TV series. Dimension teamed up with Viacom (hence MTV) to produce the first two seasons of the series that released in 2015 and 2016, but Viacom doesn't have the "rights" to Scream as a franchise, they were just producing partners, while Netflix initially had a streaming deal with TWC that included the series after its MTV debut.

By 2017, that's when things start falling apart related to Harvey Weinstein, but for our purposes, let's not get too into it. The point is that in 2018, Lantern bought out The Weinstein Company's assets, which included, of course, the Scream rights, as well as the Dimension label.

Enter Spyglass. Spyglass was formed in 1998, and has a long, equally complicated history, but in 2019 it was revived and rebranded as Spyglass Media Group. Lantern bought a majority stake in the company, making it a division like Dimension, and now Spyglass is producing Scream 5. All this is to say that Lantern Entertainment owns the Scream rights in full now, so when you hear names like Dimension or Spyglass thrown around now, just know they're a part of Lantern.

When it comes to the TV rights, it's still Lantern that owns Scream. As I mentioned, Viacom was a producing partner in developing the show, and when The Weinstein Company started having its problems, Viacom fronted emergency funds to produce the show's third season (released in 2019). With Lantern acquiring TWC, the question was raised about whether Lantern then owed Viacom a single dollar, as the production deal was between the Weinsteins and Viacom, not Lantern and Viacom. It's another complicated mess, something Viacom objected to in 2018 (you can read more on it here) and was settled in early 2019 (read about that here). Either way, Lantern was season three's distributor, just as TWC had been for the first two seasons, and the show moved to VH1.

In Scream 5's case, as we all know now, Spyglass is producing it, while Paramount is distributing the film. (And fun fact just to show how some things come full circle... Miramax became a full subsidiary of Paramount, which is owned by ViacomCBS, this past April.) There are more details I glossed over, and I tried my best to sum it up otherwise it'd go on forever, but that's pretty much the gist of it.

Now, when it comes to HHN, I don't think it's controversial to say that Scream's inclusion back in 2011 was problematic for the fact it caused Universal a major headache in dealing with Dimension/the Weinsteins. That's why we haven't really seen the property ever since. But - and I think this is a big one - now that Lantern owns the rights and the Weinsteins are out of the picture, it wouldn't surprise me if Universal is willing to test these new waters if Lantern is amenable to working with them for a future HHN (like to promote Scream 5). Compared to just a few years ago, the Scream rights are in a much better place than they were under the Weinsteins, so really it's just a matter - in my opinion - of Universal or Lantern making the first move to see if the other party would be interested.
What a great, detailed, and informative post. I could not remember all the hanging threads of the rights issues over the years, but that pretty much sums it up. Also, I did not know about the Viacom/Lantern situation with Season 3 -- I remember feeling like the show popped up out of nowhere, so I must've not been paying attention to industry news that month (might've been working on a set myself, and without hyperbole, that takes up ALL your time).

With that said, I genuinely HOPE Scream makes its way to HHNH in 2021 in all its glory. With Candyman being another possibility, that's already two things that I love immensely.

Speaking of Candyman, how come the first film was never under consideration for this year as promotion for the new film, then the new film being done next year? The first film has MORE than enough content for a maze and would be a classic on its own. I'm already peeved they skipped it this year all together.

That is if this year happens. Disneyland just announced they're postponing opening. I assume Universal will follow suit. And with rumors of layoffs within the theme park division, things are not looking good. At this rate of infection and seeing how well we did back in March, I don't think this will be cleared up until September at the absolute earliest -- and that is ONLY IF our state can get their crap together and truly stay inside (narrator: they won't) Otherwise, I think we're looking at December for going back to Phase One/Two-ish of reopening, which will be INEVITABLE because people go absolutely bonkers if they can't buy their Christmas presents -- that is if they won't already throw a historical fit over Thanksgiving (narrator: they will). Things will skyrocket once more and it'll be March 2021 before we can truly start putting dates on theme parks opening again (the ones that are left still standing, that is).

My early eulogy for HHNH 2020... it was exciting to speculate while it lasted. Maybe we'll see some of you properties next year...
 
So...needless of me to ask, but I will anyway:

With SNW seemingly stalled for Hollywood; and the layoffs effecting virtually everything in UPR..how do we feel about the likelihood of HHN2020 just going in the scrap pile?
 
As noted in my last post, if you were to ask me prior to Memorial Day weekend, I'd say it was 80% likely it was going forward.
As of now, I am thinking 20%.
What they will do with what they've built already, I don't know, but there is virtually no way to have HHNH this year in any way shape or form like they've done in the past. With social distancing and advance measures, they could've pulled it off this year and it would've been different, but fine.
At this point, you'd have to be rich to get in and/or some type of lottery system, because there isn't going to be much of a way to pack people in to make money. With enough segregation between groups of people, I could see 10 people walking into the park every 60-90 seconds and capacity being... 5% in order to go with state laws. If things are more or less fixed, or the hopeful vaccine, I could see us POSSIBLY going back to the likelihood things could be somewhat normal.
But as of this current track in spikes, I can only assume this year is done for.
 
So...needless of me to ask, but I will anyway:

With SNW seemingly stalled for Hollywood; and the layoffs effecting virtually everything in UPR..how do we feel about the likelihood of HHN2020 just going in the scrap pile?

Statistically, Im leaning towards 30%.
 
Welp, if this year gets canned, now is your chance to save up as much as you can and go to Florida this year.

Couldn't they just bump back the event?
in theory, but having HHN in March throws off any plans they would have had for 2021, since it severely cuts the amount of time for planning down. If we dont see it this year, we wont see it till September 2021.
 
I would have more optimism if California could get on the same page on simply just the mask issue for one, or just staying inside in general, but that's not happening. I hate to break anyone's dreams, but this issue isn't going away and it'll spiral out of control as long as we keep acting a fool (which we always will, because Murica). There is zero chance of this event happening this year (for everyone en masse, at least). I will gladly eat crow if we somehow magically go back into our holes or a vaccine is widely produced instantaneously. Everything that's open right now? Is about to shut back down. Those movies you thought were coming out in July? Getting pushed back again. The only way for a proper response to ELIMINATE the virus is to effectively stop it from spreading. Stop giving people hope, stop having new dates for random things, just keep everything SHUT down and for longer this time. Let them complain about their shabby hair. It's over, y'all. And Horror Nights is unfortunately going with it. You can blame Memorial Day weekend partiers.

To keep this on speculation, I am also very annoyed this is censoring our event even if it is gonna happen. If Murdy wants to make a "COUGHERZ" scare zone, then freakin' let him (that'd be TERRIFYING, tbh). I'm tired of the Karens complaining about barkers and reviews of shows by organizations that are simply take down pieces WHEN THEY HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN THE SHOW. I'm sick of things being toned down for the kids who want to see Stranger Things but can't handle a humanoid turkey on a table. Yes, Big Daddy shooting you at the end of a maze is in poor taste with every mass shooting happening nearly every day, but the entire event is in poor taste if you really want to twist it on its head. The event is bending to the far left and the far right at every whim, when people just need to chill out.

I am terrified that this could be the end of HHNH all together. I want this year to happen desperately because I don't know what will happen if the layoffs continue or if revenue isn't procured, but I'm also worried if the event does happen then someone will blame HHNH on catching COVID even if they actually caught it before -- then it'll really get shut down anyway. We've had hiatuses before and this is the type of thing that'll definitely ruin it for another half decade. I really hope this next round of things closing again wisens people up... it won't, but I'll just try to manifest my hope anyway.
 
The reason they tried HHN two weeks into November a few years back was to see if it could handle standing on its own in a year round environment (TWDA is also a test of this). Both are failures, and HHN outside the halloween market doesnt have a leg to stand on once winter rolls around.
 
What’s the rumors for the scare zones for this year
None, at least that’s what’s been most heavily rumored
Edit: there was also the idea of multiple gauntlet zones, but I’m not sure the validity or realism of that. I also wouldn’t think they’d do Toxic Tunnel in corona virus climate, and perhaps for social distancing in the tunnel.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top