Universal Monsters Rumor

Those rumors have been kicking around for years. They were far more credible when Universal was actively trying to kick-start a revival of their Classic Monsters movie franchise, but the box office failure of Tom Cruise's The Mummy brought a halt to all future development.

I think this is one of those rumors that fanboys love to perpetuate, but among the GP, the Classic Monsters IP just doesn't move the needle enough to warrant creating an entire theme park land outside of a Halloween/HHN-style overlay. The possibilities are endless beyond a haunted house or dark ride attraction, but I just don't think the franchise has the widespread appeal of other IPs strongly considered locks to be part of Epic Universe like How to Tame your Dragon (and other Dreamworks IP), Fantastic Beasts, and Nintendo (possibly 2 different lands). I actually think the rumors of Universal secretly and quietly working on a deal to purchase the theme park rights to LOTR, which is still very remote, is a safer bet than Universal leveraging their in-house Classic Monsters IP in Epic Universe. Aside from the recent failures of the Dark Universe revival, Universal has been trying to resurrect Monsters for the past 2+ decades with little success, and with the amount of resources that would need to be dedicated to create a theme park land, I don't think Universal is willing to go down that road again with such a risky IP.

I agree with Mr. Meyer. Especially since it would continue the trend where Universal concedes the "families with small children" demographic to Disney. It strikes me that some families would hesitate spending $200 to visit a park that contains a land that would frighten their kids.

Video review of the plans so far: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bKA_uuaKhL4&t=4s
Plans have been drawn up. This WILL happen. To all the doubters, BOOM!

That being said, these reports are based on recent planning applications. As it relates to the ‘fear factor’ how do you account for the popularity of the Walking Dead attraction or the Mummy Coaster? Further, the House of Horrors always had a very long line and was extremely terrifying. It only closed due to ability to man it, and the Horror Movie Makeup Show still packs them in, and it is maybe R rated. I can buy the monsters area as a fill-in if something else doesn’t pan out in negotiations, but the ‘it’s too scary’ just does not cut it.

I really hope it is true, as it would be a nice counter program to Nintendo. Plus, what other franchises do they have? To me, I would think it would have more legs theme park wise than Avatar and several others.

Finally, I think that video is still based in speculation. Again, I hope it is true, and I did not want to link anything here until this site confirmed it. I have my doubts.

I think and have thought for a long time that a Universal Monsters Land would be a fantastic idea! That being said, it could easily be done in ways that could be total failures so there would have to be delicate measures taken to successfully implement. The good news would be that Universal would have ultimate flexibility since it’s an in-house property.

They would be foolish to focus on any specific movie/series and just use the general characters. They can take influences from some of the successful movies but not tie it down to one specific film.

It would also be foolish to have the area be all HHN level of scares. They would obviously need to bring down the fear factor (pun intended) to accommodate the greatest number of people. But as with any ride/land, not everything will be for everyone. A three year old isn’t going to ride Rock n Rollercoaster or the Hulk, but there are other things for them to do in the park.

The idea that this is too scary for children is both a true and false statement. It totally depends on the child. At 8 years old I needed to be psyched up to go into The Haunted Mansion and it turned out to be my favorite ride and still might be or Top 3 at worst! As a child I loved scary things when it came to monsters and ghosts... and that still is true today. I also knew and still know plenty of kids whom love scary and macabre forms of entertainment.

Could it be possible to have different zones in the land. Some could be less scary and focus more on children like a Hotel Transylvania type area and there could be one area that is more HHN like that is recommended for 13 and up. And then have one area that splits the difference. Clearly Hotel Transylvania was a success and so is HHN. Could they be separate but still under the same general umbrella/land as a Monster land?

Again the land would have to be done right. As I’ve stated and others on this website have said, if the ride/attraction or land in this instance is good, it doesn’t matter what the theme is. But the Universal Monsters offer such deep and expansive possibilities, I think it would be worth trying and exploring as a theme park land.

Tron is a good example of a franchise that’s deader than dead while Lightcycle is the most popular ride at Shanghai Disneyland and going into the most popular park in the world.

One thing is certain: With a helicopter tour operator less than a mile away from the construction site, it's gonna be impossible to keep the project's attractions a secret.

@TH, have you been to HHN in recent years? For reasons unfathomable to me, you'll find nearly as many strollers there as you will during the day.

Now I don't think a Monsters-land will reach HHN levels of scary, at least not throughout the whole area. But between the other areas (especially the bright and colorful Nintendo), I don't see a problem with families visiting the park.

Universal, in general, is catered towards teenagers, and young adults. Disney is catered more towards younger kids, and families. Most of that rides are Universal can be considered scary for kids, such as the Mummy, The Hulk, King Kong, Jurassic Park, and even Transformers. Many of the rides at Universal require a higher height requirement. There’s only a few kid friendly rides that come to mind - Despicable Me, The Cat in the Hat, and E.T., to name a few.

A Monsters - land would be great. They can make it so it’s not too scary for families to visit, with little kids. For instance, they could make characters like Dracula, and Frankenstein, similar to Hotel Transylvania’s.

I think we see rumors about Universal Monsters every year or so because it's likely used in most creative experiments and design explorations. Designing a layout or concept can sometimes be communicated better with a theme. It's also common that someone tries to use the various Monsters IPs to showcase an idea. It's one thing when us theme park geeks do it around our hangouts and haunts, but it takes on a more serious tone when the ideas are kicked around by people in the industry who could make it happen.

I honestly would love a Classic Monsters land, especially if it could utilize that new Kuka Arm technology. Like Aaron said, Tron is extremely dead. The Shanghai ride proves that a failed rebooted franchise can still have a popular attraction. Of course a well known and popular franchise will help an attraction, but FOP and Tron have almost dead franchises and are bringing in extremely long wait times. If they can make a similar dark ride like Forbidden Journey and improve on the ride system more, I believe it will be a huge success. Now as for the overall land, Universal Creative doesn't have to make it scary. They can make it creepy and give it a chilling atmosphere but they don't have to make it frightening to keep it consistent with the tone of the movies. Heck, the classic movies aren't all that scary. I just really hope they can pull something like this off. Seems the Universal Orlando Resort will be a great vacation destination in the next couple years with velocicoaster and Epic Universe.