The Guide to Attraction Closures

Attraction closures happen. When these attractions have been around for a while, people can form emotional attachments stemming from all the good times they have provided. Just last year three (or four depending how you count) major rides have closed between Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando alone. The Great Movie Ride, Universe of Energy and Dragon Challenge (formerly known as Dueling Dragons) all closed in the last six months alone. While I will miss these attractions, I can understand these closures at least from a business sense. There are three major criteria for closing an attraction.

Lack of Popularity

The first criterion for closing an attraction is a lack of popularity. This may seem obvious though it is true. Attractions do not stay open long if they are not popular. The Universe of Energy is an excellent example. The attraction, while having an excellent capacity, was a veritable ghost town in the years preceding its closure.

Even on the most crowded days like the 4^th of July or Christmas, the Universe of Energy would be sporting a five-minute wait. Regardless of what I think of the replacement, (I have strong opinions!) just like the dinosaurs inside, it was time for this attraction to go extinct.

Lack of Cultural Relevance

The 2^nd criterion is a lack of cultural relevance. In today’s marketplace, theme parks love to leverage whatever intellectual properties (IPs) they have to try and draw in guests. While I believe this makes attractions go out of style much faster, it is an industry trend that is here to stay. When we look at an attraction like the Great Movie Ride, an argument could be easily made that many of the films present on the ride were unrecognizable by today’s guests. While I am personally a fan of classic films, many of today’s guests would be hard pressed to identify John Wayne in a lineup. Let alone the strange inclusion (The ride opened 10 years before Disney’s Tarzan was released) of a non-Disney Tarzan.

For a ride called the Great Movie Ride many of the guests would not recognize most of the films depicted. Therefore, the ride has lost its cultural relevance. Being the most substantial attraction in the middle of a ride-starved park it still had an above average level of popularity at its closure.

Another example of this phenomenon was the closure of Jaws at Universal and its replacement of Diagon Alley. While the Jaws ride was still pulling numbers, Harry Potter is indisputably more popular and helped justify the closing of Amity Beach.

Too Costly

The 3^rd criterion for closing an attraction is the cost of operation. Some attractions become too costly to maintain or run as they age regarding their value added to the park. Twister: Ride it Out at Universal Orlando fits this description. The Twister attraction was a major showcase for practical special effects that helped develop the original working studio theme of Universal Studios.

However, the film Twister, which the attraction was based upon, left no cultural impact (despite being a huge box-office success) and soon became one of the parks least popular attractions. Twister was also an expensive attraction to operate due to the sophisticated special effects needed in every show. This large expense paired with a lack of popularity and cultural relevance created the perfect storm (pun intended) to close Twister.

An Exception

While nearly any attraction at a theme park can be classified into one or more of these criteria. I would say that Twister and the Universe of Energy fit all three. There are as with most things rare exceptions. The only one that comes to mind is the very recent ending of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure. This was a show that ran at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights for 26 straight years.

Likewise, the show was especially unique because it was written new for each year of Halloween Horror Nights and had chances for improvisation within each show among many other favorable features. Universal announced before the event that 2017 would be the Farewell Tour for Bill and Ted.

This closure was surprising, as the show did not fit any of the following three criteria. Bill and Ted was still popular in terms of attendance and guest feedback when it closed. Therefore, ruling out the first criteria. Similarly, the show was completely new each year and remained relevant. Which fails against my second criteria. Lastly, the show’s cost can be managed based on the writing, so cost isn’t a factor, undermining the third criteria.

So, I guess there is a first time for everything.  

 

Written by: Jacob G.