IP in Immersive Entertainment
Are You Experienced? Part 2: Beyond the theme park
In the last newsletter, we examined the theme park boom and its implications for IP owners.
That is big ticket stuff: mega-brands like Potter and Star Wars; multi-year development cycles; huge capital investment.
But there is a broader world of immersive entertainment beyond the theme park, driven by rapidly developing technologies and the public’s seemingly insatiable appetite for interacting IRL with their favourite brands.
The proliferation of immersive experiences, in all shapes and sizes, is one of the key trends in IP franchise management. From touring exhibitions to permanent installations, and from screenings with an orchestra to immersive gameplay, the breadth, range, and number of experiences are exploding. And the vast majority are based on known and loved IP.
The overall Location-Based Entertainment Market (including theme parks) is forecast by Polaris to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 28% over the next decade, reaching nearly $70 billion by 2034. That seems wild to me, and I’m not sure if this is a credible source, but at the very least, it illustrates the level of hype and inflated growth expectations surrounding this space.
The best IP for these experiences comes with:
Strong Recognition and Familiarity: The IP should be well-known and familiar to a significant audience. This includes film franchises, TV shows, preschool characters and gaming titles. Brands that are generational or evergreen can enhance marketability, capture attention, and drive ticket sales.
Existing Fanbase and Emotional Connection: Successful IP comes with a built-in audience. Leveraging this fanbase allows operators to tap into existing emotional connections and deepen guest engagement. The IP should captivate audiences and foster emotional connections with beloved characters and storylines. Understanding what the fans want is crucial.
Rich Storytelling and World-Building Potential: The IP needs a strong story and lore that can be translated into a compelling physical or digital world. This allows the experience to place fans inside existing, iconic moments or add something new to the property's narrative. The ability to ‘step into the world they love’ is a core desire for fans - authenticity to the brand's identity is critical.
Suitability for Immersive Formats: Not every successful IP translates well into a location-based immersive experience. The property needs to be adaptable to interactive and multi-sensory engagement. This can involve physical movement, interactive elements, or technologically-enabled environments.
Potential for Commercial Extension: Successful IP offers commercial opportunities beyond the core experience itself, such as retail, food and beverage, photography, and sponsorship. These extensions should feel authentic to the IP.
What happens in Vegas
Las Vegas is becoming an epicentre for the newest developments in this space.
In addition to the flagship Sphere, an entire area, recently crowned as The Vegas Immersive District, has emerged. Located in this district is the experiential retail and entertainment complex Area15, which offers a variety of experiences. Meow Wolf is an anchor tenant. The recently opened John Wick Experience (covered in my John Wick franchise deep-dive) is also based here.
Paramount recently announced Vegas as the launch location for its first Top Gun experience, in partnership with Advent Allen Entertainment. The experience will be built on an undeveloped site at The Strat Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
“This destination will be packed with incredible food and drinks, flight simulators, surprises, and perhaps the most innovative thrill ride ever created … Our vision is to connect the excitement of these films with the reality of elite aviation, creating a unique, non-theme park attraction in a standalone, non-gated setting … Striking the right balance involves honoring the film's core themes of excellence and heroism - without losing sight of the real men and women who dedicated themselves to being the best of the best to protect our nation." - Mark Advent, Advent Allen Entertainment (The Blast)
Universal is building on its seasonal Halloween Horror Nights by launching a permanent experience in Vegas called Horror Unleashed, later this year.
“Get ready to experience the nightmare in a year-round, fully immersive, high-quality horror spectacle that brings your greatest fears to life.
Enter the evils of four haunted houses, each with their own terrifying stories: Universal Monsters, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scarecrow: The Reaping, and Blumhouse's The Exorcist: Believer. Surrounding the haunted houses are four fully themed immersive entertainment areas, each with its own unique live horror experiences, plus decadent food and drink offerings. Your deepest fears are closer than you think.” - Universal Horror Unleashed
Vegas will also be the location in 2027 of a next-generation avatar show from the rock band KISS, whose IP is now owned by Pophouse (the company behind the Abba Voyage avatar show in London).
“I would say it's Cirque Du Soleil meets 'Star Wars' and a KISS concert. So it's gonna be amazing." - Paul Stanley, KISS (who, as a side note, is soon to be played by Nick Jonas in a KISS biopic directed by … McG 🤨)
Tech-driven innovation
Tech innovations in animatronics, VR & AR are all enabling new opportunities for fans to engage with their favourite brands. I’m particularly interested to see how, by the time the Kiss show launches in 2027, the tech for these avatar shows will have evolved - in particular, how AI might enable new levels of interactivity, and the flexibility to make no two shows alike.
In success, replicable experiences can be scaled globally
Unlike full-scale theme parks, some of these experiences are easier to replicate or tour in other markets.
"We aim to bring Top Gun to the Gulf region, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and other markets … We see tremendous growth potential in sharing this iconic experience with a global audience." - Mark Advent, Advent Allen Entertainment (The Blast)
On a smaller scale, touring exhibitions and shows enable brands to connect with fans who might not be able to travel to their fixed-location experiences. For many years, the Harry Potter franchise successfully toured an exhibition of costumes and props from the movies, allowing fans who couldn’t make it to a Universal park or the Leavesden studio tour to experience the magic.
Always-on access
From an IP point of view, these experiences enable IP owners to give fans a way to stay engaged with their brands between content releases. It might be many years until the next Paddington movie or episode of Bluey, but in the meantime, fans can come and see them in person.
Netflix enters the fray
Netflix already operate several Netflix Bites pop-up restaurants, built around an ‘elevated dining experience’ featuring chefs featured in various Netflix shows.
“We’re serving up iconic eats and drinks inspired by the series you love. Exclusive flavours, unforgettable vibes - come for the food, stay for the fandom.” - Netflix Bites
Now, two new ‘experiential entertainment venues’, called Netflix House, are launching this year in Pennsylvania and Galleria Dallas. These will build on earlier live experiences for Bridgerton, Money Heist, Stranger Things and Squid Game.
“At Netflix House, you can enjoy regularly updated immersive experiences, indulge in retail therapy, and get a taste — literally — of your favorite Netflix series and films through unique food and drink offerings … We’ve launched more than 50 experiences in 25 cities, and Netflix House represents the next generation of our distinctive offerings.” - Marian Lee, Netflix CMO
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the experience will allow fans to, for example, dance to an orchestral cover of a Taylor Swift song on a replica of the Bridgerton set, or compete in the Glass Bridge challenge from Squid Game.
In a similar approach, Sony has launched a venue in Chicago called Wonderverse, which offers a range of experiences based on Sony IP, including a Ghostbusters VR experience, a Jumanji VR game, Zombieland-themed bumper cars, Bad Boys racing simulators, Uncharted escape rooms, and a 21 Jump Street pop-up bar.
Existing attractions must continue to innovate and develop
With new initiatives announced seemingly every week, existing attractions must continue to evolve to stay current, both to attract new guests and to provide previous visitors with a reason to return.
The Harry Potter tour in London (or, to give it its official name, which I know the team are a stickler for: Warner Bros Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter), just launched a new Triwizard Tournament feature, including a Durmstrang and Beauxbaton demonstration, dragon chase broomstick video, a celebratory projection sequence in the model room and a fiery encounter with a Hungarian Horntail in WB’s new Backlot Stage, showcasing the secrets of special effects.
To keep up with increasingly sophisticated consumers, constant innovation is key.
“Audiences are savvy. It used to be that the novelty of an immersive experience would carry you a little way, but the audience is becoming more sophisticated. So we’ve got to keep upping the game, which is exciting and great, but it takes a lot.” - Kirsten Taylor-Hall, VP Live and Location-Based Entertainment, Lionsgate (Blooloop)
The world’s top immersive experiences
I’m going to close with a list of the world’s top immersive experiences, as compiled by Blooloop and published this week. You can find all the details here, but for those just interested in the list, here it is:
ABBA Voyage (London, UK)
Airbnb experiences (various locations)
Aquascope (Vienna, France)
Bluey’s World (Brisbane, Australia)
Camp (various locations US)
The Crystal Maze Live Experience (London and Manchester, UK)
Dopeameme (Area15, Las Vegas, US)
Electric Playhouse (Las Vegas and New Mexico, US)
Fork ‘n Film (various locations US and London)
Immersive Fort Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
John Wick Experience (Area15, Las Vegas, US)
Monopoly Lifesized (London, UK)
Phantom Peak (London, UK)
Sphere (Las Vegas, US)
Therme resorts (Germany and Romania)
Wonderverse (Chicago, US)
Franchise news roundup
Each week, we round up franchise management news, focusing on items that tie back to previous newsletters.
Theme Parks
(Read my theme park deep dive here.)
Walt Disney World shared a first look at its new Cars-themed area in Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland - the largest expansion in the history of Magic Kingdom. Read More
Preschool, Kids & Family
(Read my post Whole Lotta Bluey here.)
BBC Studios has brought in Australia’s Cosmic Dino Studio to provide end-to-end animation services for its upcoming Bluey feature film. Read More
Action franchises
(Read my action smackdown post Into The Neesonverse here and my John Wick deep dive here.)
Ballerina is out tomorrow and just held its LA Premiere. A fascinating test case for franchise expansion. Read More
And Wick director Chad Stahelski gave a brilliant interview on his process. “My process is fucked. It’s so not linear. I still get told how to write scripts. “You can’t do it that way.” Says who? The guys who suck? I had an argument today with somebody saying “That’s not how you put a set-piece together.” He also has some thoughts on Peacock spinoff The Continental, where it seems he and Reeves were somewhat sidelined: “Keanu and I were — I wouldn’t say sidelined, but our opinion was heard and not really noted. [The studio] tried to convince me they knew what they were doing. A group of individuals thought they had the magic sauce. But if you take out Basil Iwanyk’s producing intuitiveness, if you take out Keanu’s way of delivering quirky dialogue and if you take out all the visuals I have in my head from Wong Kar-wai, anime, Leone, Bernardo Bertucci or Andrei Tchaikovsky … then it’s not the same thing. They thought this was as easy as using anamorphic lenses, do a kooky hotel, put in weird dialogue, and insert crime drama.” The whole interview is a great read, I highly recommend clicking through: Read More
Faith-based franchises
(Read my post How faith-based content is driving innovation in funding, distribution and fan engagement here.)
Faith-based streamer Pure Flix has launched a kids hub, called The Ark Club. Read More
Angel Studios just screened the first two episodes of its new show Testament in London. It is a contemporary adaptation of the Acts of the Apostles. Read More
Stage 🔄 Screen
(Read my post Why all the world's a stage (as long as it's based on a movie) here.)
After its record breaking run and CNN simulcast, Good Night and Good Luck might tour next and could transfer to London. Read More
‘Beetlejuice The Musical’ is returning to Broadway for a limited 13-week “Resurrection”. Read More
Will Ferrell is developing a ‘Eurovision’ stage musical based on his 2020 Netflix movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Read More
Tom Felton is going to reprise his role as Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. Read More
Blockbuster Movie Economics
(Read my 101 post here)
The Hollywood Reporter ran a piece on Blockbuster budgets ‘Would You Pay $400 Million for This Movie?’, looking at this Summer’s Blockbusters. It makes the worthwhile point that “the value of a franchise library can increase exponentially with each installment and can drive tens of millions of dollars in TV licensing rights, merchandising, special-edition DVD sales and streaming licensing revenue. Both Mission: Impossible and Jurassic World are the kind of coveted properties that can play a major role when suitors are interested in buying an entire studio.” The lead-up to MI: Final Reckoning apparently saw digital sales of a bundle of the first six movies increase 160 percent year-over-year, and sales of the individual movies were up 97 percent. Read More
Creators
(Read my post How the Creator Economy is adapting and supercharging the traditional franchise flywheel here.)
MrBeast became the first individual creator to surpass 400 million subscribers on YouTube. Read More
Superfan apps
Goldman’s latest Music In The Air report estimated a potential annual revenue uplift to the music industry from superfan monetization of $4.3 billion based on 2026 projections. Interestingly, this is a slightly lower number than estimated in last year’s report ($4.5 billion). Goldman maintain a positive long term outlook for the industry, but have downgraded some of their forecasts following a slower-than-expected 2024. Goldman cite Tencent Music’s Super VIP tier as an example of a successful superfan tier, which ‘costs c.2.5x as much as the premium subscription’ and has seen strong adoption, with penetration reaching 12% of TME’s subscriber base in Q1 2025. Read More
Live-action remakes
(Read my post Why live-action remakes are not going anywhere here.)
Lilo & Stich just became the second-highest grossing movie of the year so far (and is pacing ahead of Minecraft at the same point after release).
I love that Phantom Peak made the list, that’s only just around the corner for me & right by the Minecraft experience - still need to try out both!