It's a big summer for theme park fans who love movies. (And vice versa!) Four of the biggest movies of the summer have existing theme park tie-ins, so fans can experience big screen thrills in real life, too.
The "live action" remake of the animated classic hit theaters June 13, but the Isle of Berk came to life at Universal Orlando's new Epic Universe the month before that. Featuring what many fans have said is their surprise favorite ride in the park - Hiccup's Wing Gliders - Isle of Berk allows fans to meet plenty of dragons, including Toothless, throughout the land.
There's no better theme park in which to celebrate Formula 1 than Yas Island's Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, located next door to the Yas Marina Circuit where the F1 champion is crowned each year at season's end. For F1 fans in the United States, the new COTAland theme park at Austin's Circuit of Americas remains "coming soon." But when it opens, the theme park next to the U.S. Grand Prix track will offer some nice thrills of its own, including a Vekoma Tilt Coaster and a Gerstlauer Infinity.
James Gunn's reboot of the DC Comics hero opens this week. Superman has been a staple theme for roller coasters at the Six Flags parks, but Southern California's Six Flags Magic Mountain has closed its Superman ride, the 100 mph Superman: Escape from Krypton. Nevertheless, LA-area Superman fans still can get a real-life Superman experience at Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood, which is celebrating the Man of Steel with a Superman Pop-Up inside the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Welcome Center. (That's open to the public with no admission ticket required.) The pop-up includes cast-worn costumes from the new film, including Nathan Fillion's Green Lantern, as well as exclusive Superman merchandise. Inside the tour itself, fans can see an all-new Superman exhibit featuring costumes worn by stars David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult.
The hottest movie of the week is the latest Jurassic World film, which fans can celebrate on Universal Studios Hollywood's Jurassic World - The Ride. That one is extra wet and intense right now for Universal's Mega Movie Summer celebration, too. Near the ride, fans also can meet the film's Dolores the Aquilops as well as Blue the Velociraptor. There's a new Spinosaurus photo op celebrating the new film, too. As for refreshments, Isla Nu-bar and Jurassic Cafe next door are offering new specials for the summer.
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What's so interesting is how many of the best films this summer are coming from non-Disney studios. Studio execs won't say it out loud, but this might be one of the worst years for Disney at the summer box office in decades (before the full Pixar acquisition). Disney's top grosser so far has been the live action Lilo and Stitch, which is currently ranked as the #2 movie of the year (behind Minecraft), but while Disney also holds the #5 (Captain America Brave New World), #7 (Thunderbolts), and #10 (Mufasa, which released in late December) spots, the 2 Marvel releases have seriously underperformed when compared to their budgets and expectations. Marvel has another release this summer, the reboot of Fantastic 4 - the first movie featuring Marvel's "First Family" under Kevin Feige's guidance, but it will go head to head with turncoat James Gunn's Superman relaunch, which is garnering some extremely strong reviews. Marvel is going all-in on the nostalgia with Fantastic 4, but that franchise has never been able to connect with audiences in 2 previous iterations. Even if F4 were able to match the Man of Steel, it wouldn't significantly impact Disney's fortunes for the year with the flops of the troubled-from-the-start live-action Snow White and Pixar's Elio dragging down the ledger.
I thought F1 was a GREAT summer blockbuster movie, and is probably the best of the mainstream movies I've seen so far this year (neck and neck with Mission Impossible), but despite getting decent reviews, Jurassic World rebirth was a complete dud for me, but I could definitely see the potential of a couple of the movie's scenes being adapted to a theme park attraction, especially the raft/T-Rex scene that would lend itself perfectly to Mack's new water ride system. Lilo and Stitch was cute, but added absolutely nothing to the original animated film.
FWIW, you don't have to go to COTA or Vegas to experience F1 anymore in the US as there have been a number of F1-branded arcades popping up around the country that offer high-end simulator experiences combined with a bar-type atmosphere.