One of Warner Bros.’ top horror franchises soon will have a new home in Las Vegas.
Warner Bros. Themed Entertainment is partnering with Egan Escape Productions to create a new escape room experience based on the “IT” franchise, Escape IT.
“‘IT’ is one of our most iconic horror film franchises and we cannot wait for fans to be able to come face-to-face with the infamous Pennywise and the town of Derry in a way they’ve never experienced before,” Warner Bros. Themed Entertainment Senior Vice President Peter van Roden said. “We’re thrilled to work with Egan Escape Productions as they are experts in the space bringing complexity and attention to every detail to help bring our immersive horror experiences to the next level.”
Escape IT will offer two multi-room experiences, themed to IT and its sequel, IT Chapter Two. Visitors will try to evade Pennywise the Clown as they navigate locations from the films such as Neibolt House, the Losers’ Clubhouse, the Derry Canal Days Festival, and sewers below Derry.
The experience will feature “more than 20 interactive rooms, state-of-the-art special FX, lighting, animatronics, and live actors,” according to Warner Bros.’ press release.
To be located five minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, Escape IT also will offer an IT retail location with exclusive merchandise, photo ops, and midway games. Ticket information, including prices and on-sale dates, will be released later.
Warner Bros. just changed hands, as former owner AT&T has spun off the company to Discovery, creating this week the new Warner Bros. Discovery. Warner Bros. has been growing its presence in themed entertainment recently, with expanding studio tours and experiences in Hollywood, the United Kingdom, and Japan, as well as theme parks in Abu Dhabi and Australia.
* * *
We wanted you to read this article before we make our newsletter pitch, unlike so many other websites. If you appreciate that - and our approach to covering theme park, travel, and entertainment news - please sign up for our free, three-times-a-week email newsletter. Thank you.
I find it very entertaining, everything is fine
I also wonder how much "escape room" this attraction will be versus traditional haunted house-walk-through. My biggest concern though is this...
"To be located five minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, Escape IT also will offer an IT retail location with exclusive merchandise, photo ops, and midway games."
First, whenever an attraction touts itself as "x minutes from the...Strip", it means that it's off the beaten path. Attractions that are not on the strip are going to struggle in the Vegas market unless they can appeal to locals.
Second, it sounds like the developer is attempting to create an entire entertainment complex out of the IT IP, which I think is pretty ambitious. The franchise was dead and buried until the recent revival that's partly due to the interest in Stranger Things that debuted a year prior to the It remake in 2017. Perhaps you could create an entire complex with an overarching horror theme, but to do so with a single franchise (with just 2 moderately successful recent films) is going to be tough.
I wish these guys luck, but I think they need to recognize the hill they're about to climb. Focusing on locals is going to be key here, because I just don't think there will be a lot of tourists venturing far off the Strip to hang out at an entertainment complex themed around a pair of slightly successful movies.
As a Las Vegas local who’s spent a good amount of time experiencing the City’s nightlife…I can honestly say IT is easily the least scary thing you’ll encounter…
Is that IT ?!
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
Curious to see/hear how much of this will lean interactive/escape room (not really my jam) and how much will lean permanent haunted house (more my jam). I'm not a huge fan of the films, but if this ends up being a decent version of what Universal was able to do with its Walking Dead attraction ... I'll talk myself out of blowing $50 on it.