Universal Studios Hollywood (USH) Discussion Thread

[Wes]

The foreign (Read: ASIAN) traffic there is much higher- and Potter did not cause the same levels of hysteria that he did in Europe or the USA.

 

What exactly are you basing this claim off of?

[Aaronupsidasium]

It's not a turn-on attraction to me, and although Universal has made a mint off of it in Florida, it's not going to have that same powerin Hollywood: The foreign (Read: ASIAN) traffic there is much higher- and Potter did not cause the same levels of hysteria that he did in Europe or the USA

 

According to Box Office Mojo, Harry Potter is consistently the highest grossing movie each year in Japan, probably Asia's most affluent and travel friendly market. And I have seen lots of pictures of bootleg Potter merch from several years ago in China and India.

[Rastuso]

^^^ You are right, it won't be a big deal. The Hollywood Potter will not draw anyone that went to Orlando. So, the increase will be very modest, nowhere near what Orlando saw.

 

I recall Indy giving Disneyland a huge shot in the arm. But, beyond that, not many single attractions do much more than 5% increase, and Potter is damn near an order of magnitude larger.

 

I think Uni and Disney are smoking somthing. This clone will not do much more than any new attraction. And Disney comparing Carsland to Potterland is simply mindblowing. A short Pixarfied Test Track and an insanely slow loading flying saucers remake in a half park won't come close to what Potter did. Nothing will, except for another ORIGINAL Potter land, which needs to be designed quick, before the actors get too old for new footage (Or a Middle Earth land, of course).

 

Hopefully, that is what Orlando is doing. But, that adds another wrinkle. In three years, who will visit Hollywood Potter, if Gringots bank opens for business in Orlando at the same time? Locals, and that's it.

 

-RO

[mcjaco]

Harry Potter is a lifestyle for some people! I LIVE for Harry Potter. I'm a guy and I was crying when the last movie ended! The same goes for the book! I will take down everyone except J.K. Rowling in Harry Potter scene it. It only seems fair to give people that attraction so people don't have to fly across the country to experience something they love!

 

And for every person it's a lifestyle for, there's three of us that don't give a flying poo poo.

 

It certainly isn't making me rethink about going to LA to visit USH.

[Jew]

^^^ You are right, it won't be a big deal. The Hollywood Potter will not draw anyone that went to Orlando. So, the increase will be very modest, nowhere near what Orlando saw.

 

That's a VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY small pool of the market for USH. And even then, lets say there are people who visited Orlando and enjoyed WWoHP: USH can now be a cheaper/closer vacation for some of those guests.

 

I recall Indy giving Disneyland a huge shot in the arm. But, beyond that, not many single attractions do much more than 5% increase, and Potter is damn near an order of magnitude larger.

 

King Kong did 20% for USH...

[netdvn]

I think Uni and Disney are smoking somthing. This clone will not do much more than any new attraction. And Disney comparing Carsland to Potterland is simply mindblowing. A short Pixarfied Test Track and an insanely slow loading flying saucers remake in a half park won't come close to what Potter did. Nothing will, except for another ORIGINAL Potter land, which needs to be designed quick, before the actors get too old for new footage (Or a Middle Earth land, of course).

 

I don't know about you, but to me Carsland looks kickass and was definitely something DCA needed to finally put the park on the map. Would Carsland give DCA the boost in attendance it desperately needs? Yes! Will it be on the size and scale of Potter in Orlando? Probably not.

 

Hopefully, that is what Orlando is doing. But, that adds another wrinkle. In three years, who will visit Hollywood Potter, if Gringots bank opens for business in Orlando at the same time? Locals, and that's it.

 

Wasn't it already stated before that a good chunk of people who visit USH are there for the studio tour? Mix that in with a few Potter fanatics (I'm sure SoCal and the surrounding areas have plenty of them lying around), plus the vacationers from the surrounding states, and the locals and you have a nice boost in attendance (at least for the next few years). Transformers should help keep attendance up as well.

[jedimaster1227]

Are we allowed to throw in Sea World's new ride too?

 

Penguin Mountain puts Antarctica: Empire of the Penguins in another league when it comes to announcements.

 

Plus that press conference had production values, lots of food, hot chocolate, animals, and FREE scarves!

 

[fudgey]

So many unanswered questions about this and Orlando... grrr

 

Personally, I think it is a good idea - I'm sure this brand has longevity.

 

So, as to where Hogwart's and Forbidden Journey will go - anyone thinking bye-bye Waterworld?? and even Shrek??

[chrisdanger]

To say I was shocked at the announcement would be a lie, I had a feeling this was eventually going to be marketed to the west coast park. Im more excited about the Transformers attraction/ride for USH myself.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

So many unanswered questions about this and Orlando... grrr

 

Personally, I think it is a good idea - I'm sure this brand has longevity.

 

So, as to where Hogwart's and Forbidden Journey will go - anyone thinking bye-bye Waterworld?? and even Shrek??

 

I think it will take up Water World, and The Gibson. And eventually expand south behind Citywalk, there's a lot of room there.

[window]

Call it jealousy, or what you want - but I get continually disappointed that no theme park HP attraction is in Europe.

 

We'll give you Jersey Shore and call it even?

 

We've already got it and have created our own UK version, Geordie Shore

[TPDave]

^ Waterworld has a huge plot of land that would be easy to develop while keeping the park open, so that's where my vote goes.

 

I assume they'll only want to build this land once (rather than do a USF and extend it later) so I assume this will be pretty huge!

[Guy T. Koepp]

So many unanswered questions about this and Orlando... grrr

 

Personally, I think it is a good idea - I'm sure this brand has longevity.

 

So, as to where Hogwart's and Forbidden Journey will go - anyone thinking bye-bye Waterworld?? and even Shrek??

 

I think it will take up Water World, and The Gibson. And eventually expand south behind Citywalk, there's a lot of room there.

 

If they move the Studio tour back down to the lower lot, they could also use all the tram loading area. That way they could keep Shrek and have it wrap around that whole back area. Not that I want them to keep Shrek for any particular reason. But It will allow them to only have to close one attraction (Waterworld) while they do construction. It will also leave them room for expantion into the Shrek area when they do decide to grow the area.

 

Guy "But what do I know?" Koepp

[Mrlittle]

I wonder how hard it will be in like say 15 years to upgrade the Forbidden Journey Ride System to a new movie or theme.

 

Anyways I guess if you build it, and the customers (mainly families) will come. I personally have only been to Universal Hollywood once in my life and thought it was terrible to be honest. I only liked the Tram and Mummy. Ive been to Universal Orlando like 6 times in my life. My point is like many others are stating, there is probably still a large population who probably heads to Cali instead of Florida or vice versa. Still I just don't see Harry Potter lasting more then 15 years. I could be wrong.

[Rastuso]

Huh? The tram upgrade? The attendance went up that much, but I doubt people were clammoring for that 2 minute addition to an otherwise boring ride. It was clear that Potter was the sole reason for the increase at Orlando. Hell, they sold out of Butterbeer mugs in a few weeks.

 

If a 2 minute change to an attraction that takes you 2 hours total to experience, and feature spinning cars and empty street facades, increases attendance by 20%, Potter will quadruple their attendance.

 

-RO

[Magic Alumni]

This is from Deadline Hollywood, looks like Gibson is getting the ax.

 

http://www.deadline.com/2011/12/its-official-the-wizarding-world-of-harry-potter-coming-to-universal-hollywood/

 

It’s been rumored for some time and even today Time Warner boss Jeff Bewkes said the news was coming soon. Now Comcast’s Universal Parks & Resorts has confirmed that it will build a Harry Potter attraction inside its Universal Studios Hollywood theme park, as well as expand its uber-profitable The Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction at its Orlando resort. It’s there that the year-plus-old Potter-themed attraction has helped boost revenue by 33% through the first nine months of 2011, and attendance is up 50% since Wizarding’s June 2010 launch, making the move to other parks a no-brainer. (Yesterday, Comcast CFO Mike Angelakis called the attraction at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure “a reset mechanism” for the park.) “It was a game changer for us and frankly for Orlando,” Universal Studios president Ron Meyer told the Associated Press after today’s announcement. “The expansion in Orlando will make it that much more of a must-see, and we’ll have the same experience here.” The new installation is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs. Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky told the AP that he was told Universal’s concert venue Gibson Amphitheatre would be axed to make way for the Potter attraction. No plan details or time frames were discussed. Harry Potter is a Warner Bros property.

[Jew]

Huh? The tram upgrade? The attendance went up that much, but I doubt people were clammoring for that 2 minute addition to an otherwise boring ride.

 

Considering the tram consistently has 1 hour+ long lines during peak seasons (and that's with the tram getting 2500+pph), was so popular that they had to create the "kong express" for HHN the first year, and is still the featured attraction on maps/advertising...I'd say people want to see Kong.

 

Potter is going to be insane when it opens.

[DBJ]

Thanks for the link! Interesting choice of location! I also kind of hope they take out Waterworld as well. So they are dropping out of the concert business as well?

[gforce532]

Thinking about this more. I wonder if they would just make a chopped down version to the Florida counterpart. Similar to how they did the Jurassic Parks, where IoA gets a whole land while USH gets a version of the feature ride with a restaurant, and a shop. If that is the case I think they could fit it just in the Gibson area and leave Waterworld for something else. Then they can use the Gibson's current entry path which has this kinda hidden in the trees and secret away from the park type of entrance. Or this guess could be completely wrong and the entire upper lot becomes Harry Potter.

 

Also last year they reopened the New York area in the backlot. But I still think Kong was the major reason for their attendance increase last year.

Edited December 6, 2011 by gforce532

[Jew]

^^LiveNation operates it and leases it from Universal. Universal just collects a check from the place at this point.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

So many unanswered questions about this and Orlando... grrr

 

Personally, I think it is a good idea - I'm sure this brand has longevity.

 

So, as to where Hogwart's and Forbidden Journey will go - anyone thinking bye-bye Waterworld?? and even Shrek??

 

I think it will take up Water World, and The Gibson. And eventually expand south behind Citywalk, there's a lot of room there.

 

If they move the Studio tour back down to the lower lot, they could also use all the tram loading area. That way they could keep Shrek and have it wrap around that whole back area. Not that I want them to keep Shrek for any particular reason. But It will allow them to only have to close one attraction (Waterworld) while they do construction. It will also leave them room for expantion into the Shrek area when they do decide to grow the area.

 

Guy "But what do I know?" Koepp

 

This was my idea I posted a back on page 16

 

 

The only real layout I think is extremely realistic (as far as placement goes) is Hoagsmead and Forbidden Journey. The rest I just plopped stuff down that sounded cool. But the white area it the whole area they could potently expand into if they really wanted to. (The blue is the new theater that would replace the Gibson.) And that leaves the tram loading area where it is, they could just build on top of the current tram route like Simpsons is on top of other stuff.

[gforce532]

^But I think if they were going to do something that big of a scale it would be much easier to throw away their Universal Village plan and build a second gate over in the Falls lake and War of the Worlds area. Not to mention you would have to find a new area to put their studio tour tram storage and maintenance area. But hey 2015 is a long way away so you never know.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

No you wouldn't, there would be a basement level (ground level now) and you'd basically build everything on stilts and have all the existing infrastructure still below (this is how Simpsons is, its on slits). And if they want to expand Citywalk, the just go the other direction with that, and build more on the parking structure side of Citywalk.

 

Additionally, the area I marked out is the total expandable area, not that they'd build it all out at once.

 

And I dont they would ever get rid of falls lake, its used way too much!

[Rastuso]

I think Kong, and anything new to LA has two possible sources of crowd increases. Vacationers, like myself, who pay full prices, and buy lots of merch. And, locals who go with a discount ticket and buy zero merch.

 

Universal Hollywood hadn't opened anything new at all for over 3 years. I would say locals traffic had dried up pretty much to it's minimum. Hell, even the Simpsons simulator probably didn't attract a lot of locals, who had already sworn off BttF after one ride. So you have to go back almost 8 years to Mummy's opening for the last thrill ride attraction with real drawing power.

 

I'd say they could have added damn near anything to get the locals interested again. Kong didn't attract by name or quality, it attracted by simply being in existence. It sounds like it's quite good, and can be enjoyed by all guests. Something Forbidden Journey absolutley can not be. I see the same for Potter, although it will be only 2-3 years after Transformers, which should be huge in it's own right, finally bringing a Spidey-level ride to LA. So even then, locals won't be starving for a reason to return.

 

And the tram attracts older folks, who won't like being tossed around by a robot for 5 minutes, or wait an hour for a wand.

 

I think this will help, hell yeah. But it won't do anything even remotely like the 30-50% increase Orlando has seen at IOA. Maybe for the first Summer, but it won't be sustained. I foresee IOA having bigger numbers for quite a few years. And the Uni addition keeping it going for qiute sometime. LA's Potter will be the lesser Potter the day it opens, most likely.

 

If it was totally new adventure, and different shops, it very well could be a 50% increase from vacationers. As it stands, a vacationer like myself, will make their Orlando vs LA decision based on everything EXCEPT the new Potter land in LA.

 

-R

[Chroniq]

My money would be on the ride itself being a clone with some new stores/shops/experiences instead of direct clone of Hogsmeade.

 

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. If all those stories about JK rowling being incredibly controlling are true then it's much easier/quicker/cheaper to copy what she has already approved. I think the the addition of stores is a no brainer as well, considering how crowded harry potter village is. I'm sure USO feels like they are leaving a lot of money on the table by not building out additional stores and restaurants. The only thing I'd guess is that they may add an additional attraction with a small foot print (probably off the shelf and themed) just to eat people.

 

 

Which vague announcement was better, this or Avatar?

 

 

I'm going with Avatar, because it was the first announcement from Disney in years that didn't leak before hand.

 

 

 

For everyone that thinks they shouldn't do a carbon copy of the two harry potter lands. I suspect they'll make just enough changes, at the least cost possible, to compel the true HP fanboys to visit both parks. They'll bitch about how they are so similiar, but still go to see the new things.