Universal Great Britain - Speculation & Rumors

[pumpkinbot343]

Ockham’s Razor tells me they will likely just clone Hogsmede. I understand Woodbury said “no clones”, but being that the Potter get was so late in the development, what’s stopping them from just straight-up cloning FJ? It would feel like a crime to have A UK Universal park and not have Hogsmede featured in the home country.

i know nothing of this Britain park, but what if they cut out Hogsmeade entirely and have Diagon Alley with Hogwarts?

 

[rob@rar]

i know nothing of this Britain park, but what if they cut out Hogsmeade entirely and have Diagon Alley with Hogwarts?

That would be a bit odd as those two locations are hundreds of miles apart in terms of actual geography.

 

[Jake S]

That would be a bit odd as those two locations are hundreds of miles apart in terms of actual geography.

Looks intently at Wizarding World Paris

 

[rob@rar]

Looks intently at Wizarding World Paris

Sure, and it's a bit odd there as well. Universal's response to their mishmash of London and Paris seems to be along the lines of "best not think too deeply about this, muggle"

 

[nikem3]

If the intent is not to cannibalize the international audience going to Orlando, I imagine Harry potter does not come to this park. That seems to be the one IP that would cause people to still travel to Orlando and experience. MAYBE Jurassic Park as well, but I feel like everything else is probably fair game. Not to mention Jurassic World seems to be a rumored land.

 

[xtpower]

I'm doing a thread reread and how many times have we ended up talking about Potter? I think that says how impactful it is as an IP that no matter what, we kept coming back to it in discussions.

As it is, I do not believe Universal will clone any of the major Orlando rides, for any of the IP's. Mark Woodbury talked about attractions when he cited 'cannibalisation', not specific IP's. Which makes sense, why would you deliberately handicap your new Park's appeal if you have the freedom to use an IP that would do gangbusters? Especially when people will travel just to ride the latest and greatest rides, so by not cloning attractions but using the same IP you still have appeal but you reduce the cannibalisation aspect.

 

[nikem3]

I get what you are saying, but I feel like that speaks to my overall point that the IP is so popular people will continue to travel for it even if their park is incredible. If you build another Hogsmeade with a great ride that isn't Forbidden Journey or Hagrid's, are you really going to spend thousands of dollars to come see Hogsmeade again in Orlando? Will it be different enough to warrant spending a week in Orlando and multiple visits to the Universal parks?

I don't think you will handicap your new park at all because the competition of true theme parks with large, well known IPs is very slim in the UK and surrounding areas. The rumored IPs of Lord of the Rings, 007, Paddington, Back to the Future, Jurassic World, are all large enough for people not to be overly upset that Harry Potter isn't there to the point they don't show up.

 

[xtpower]

I get what you are saying, but I feel like that speaks to my overall point that the IP is so popular people will continue to travel for it even if their park is incredible. If you build another Hogsmeade with a great ride that isn't Forbidden Journey or Hagrid's, are you really going to spend thousands of dollars to come see Hogsmeade again in Orlando? Will it be different enough to warrant spending a week in Orlando and multiple visits to the Universal parks?

I don't think you will handicap your new park at all because the competition of true theme parks with large, well known IPs is very slim in the UK and surrounding areas. The rumored IPs of Lord of the Rings, 007, Paddington, Back to the Future, Jurassic World, are all large enough for people not to be overly upset that Harry Potter isn't there to the point they don't show up.

UGB won't be competing with the UK Parks, it's competition would be DLP and they are projecting 8.5m visitors right from the off. They will want to make sure the park appeals enough to do so. It seems that internally Universal feel that Potter is required and they are rumoured to be willing to pay the exorbitant amount having Potter requires.

Personally I feel that LOTR is more than enough to be the marquee IP to anchor the Park. But according to rumour Universal feels Potter is required and as such we've been discussing it as such.

Now, if Universal introduce Potter and LOTR, I think that 12.5m future year projection wouldn't seem out of reach.

 

[pumpkinbot343]

I get what you are saying, but I feel like that speaks to my overall point that the IP is so popular people will continue to travel for it even if their park is incredible. If you build another Hogsmeade with a great ride that isn't Forbidden Journey or Hagrid's, are you really going to spend thousands of dollars to come see Hogsmeade again in Orlando? Will it be different enough to warrant spending a week in Orlando and multiple visits to the Universal parks?

I don't think you will handicap your new park at all because the competition of true theme parks with large, well known IPs is very slim in the UK and surrounding areas. The rumored IPs of Lord of the Rings, 007, Paddington, Back to the Future, Jurassic World, are all large enough for people not to be overly upset that Harry Potter isn't there to the point they don't show up.

Some (not myself) would disagree about the bolded IP being “big enough”.