Put Your 500 Foot Ears On, The Sphere In Talks to Bring Disney Titles to Screenings Inside Immersive Venue
The conversations take place after the massive success of The Wizard of Oz at the venue.
The Sphere in Las Vegas is doing gangbusters with their immersive viewings of The Wizard of Oz, prompting them to have talks with Disney about bringing some titles to the venue.
What’s Happening:
- After the success of films at The Sphere in Las Vegas, like the recent experiences based on The Wizard of Oz, The Sphere is looking for more movies to feature at the venue.
- While some fans may think of the venue more for concerts like U2 or the recent Backstreet Boys performances, movies generate more revenue for the location itself, as concerts see the artists take home the cash instead of the venue.
- According to Peter Supino, an analyst with Wolfe Research, The Sphere will generate about $200 million in sales from concerts this year while movies will gross closer to $400 million. He estimates films at the Sphere have a gross margin of 70%.
- As part of the effort to get more movies into The Sphere, James Dolan, the executive chairman and chief executive officer of Sphere Entertainment Co. has been in talks with Warner Bros. about additional titles, including the Harry Potter series.
- For our readers however, the big news is that Dolan has also reportedly been talking to The Walt Disney Company about a number of titles, including Star Wars.
- While no official deals have been made, a report from Bloomberg cites that the company wanted to be more involved in making the movies for viewing on The Sphere.
- This could be because of the edits made on The Wizard of Oz for viewing on the screen, including the cutting of the runtime down to 70 minutes, losing about 30 minutes from the original film. Dolan, who got the rights to the film thanks in large part to his friendship with WB/Discovery CEO David Zaslav, also put an additional almost $100 million to adapt the film for the highest resolution LED Screen in the world.
- Currently, The Wizard of Oz is pulling in 4,000 to 5,000 fans two or three times a day, with fans paying almost $200 each. While the venue can play the movie for as long as it wants, with prices likely dropping in the future as enthusiasm wanes, it’s easy to see what kind of revenue can be pulled in with Disney titles, especially the Star Wars franchise.
Environmental Effects:
- One reason so many people are being drawn to The Wizard of Oz is what happens inside The Sphere while the movie is playing.
- Flying Monkeys hover over the audience, and the plot-driving Tornado activates 750-horsepower fans that blast air into the crowd.
- These turn movie screenings into more of a theme park experience than just a simple screening at your local multiplex.
- Now, imagine taking Star Wars into this space, which already has lasers for concerts and the other in-theater effects we’ve seen. Not to mention the different environments of each planet and how those can be utilized destination to destination. The Star Wars films are practically a given.
- Personally, this author would like to see some of the Pixar Animation Studios titles or latter-day Walt Disney Animation Studios titles tapped for this kind of screen. While I would love to see some larger-than-life hand-drawn animation in the venue, the conversion is already difficult even to 4K, so I think this would be more unlikely than a CG hit being revisited.
- Personally, I’d say tap what The Sphere is doing best with concerts and movie screenings and take a look toward Pixar’s Turning Red, which itself sees larger than life Red Pandas, including a giant stadium-sized one take over a popular concert tour. Just don’t cut 30 minutes from the runtime.
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