
After a successful run of a cut-down version of 1939’s The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere in Las Vegas, James Dolan, executive chairman and chief executive officer of Sphere Entertainment Co., has spoken to Disney about featuring Star Wars at the venue.
The first blockbuster movie of the fall is an 86-year-old musical that was a failure when first released in 1939.
The Wizard of Oz is drawing 4,000 to 5,000 fans to the Sphere in Las Vegas two or three times a day. Fans are paying an average of almost $200 apiece, according to Wolfe Research.
That means the movie is generating ticket sales of as much as $2 million a day from just the one location. Executives at the Sphere estimate the film will gross hundreds of millions of dollars over the next year and could top $1 billion before concluding its run, according to a person familiar with the matter.
New York billionaire James Dolan, the executive chairman and chief executive officer of Sphere Entertainment Co., licensed the rights to the movie from his old friend David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. Dolan then sank almost $100 million adapting the visually sumputous classic for the highest resolution LED screen in the world. (Sphere didn’t respond to a couple requests for comment.)
The film exhibited at the Sphere isn’t your regular Wizard of Oz. Dolan cut about half an hour so that his version runs 70 minutes. The film is as much a theme park ride as a movie, according to critic Amy Nicholson.
“When the tornado happens, the tech changes hit us like a cyclone,” Nicholson wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “A great, giddy blast of air from the 750-horsepower fans blew my bangs straight off my forehead.”
Dolan told analysts in August that the Sphere had already sold more than 120,000 tickets to the movie and was going to sell 200,000 tickets before it opened. He is showing The Wizard of Oz every day, even when there is a concert at the Sphere. Over the next week, the Sphere has scheduled two showings Monday through Saturday and three on Sunday.
Dolan spent $2.3 billion building the Sphere, worrying investors and analysts. Some dismissed it as a vanity project for a billionaire who is also the front man of a rock band JD & the Straight Shot.
Dolan is in the market for more film titles, many of them more contemporary. From the Edge, a documentary featuring five athletes doing extreme stunts, will debut next year. Dolan has also spoken to Warner Bros. about additional titles, including Harry Potter, and he’s spoken to Walt Disney Co. about a few titles, including Star Wars.
Warner Bros. was more than willing to let Dolan assume the cost of adapting The Wizard of Oz. The studio gets a licensing fee and a small share of sales — all pure profit. Dolan keeps the rest.
The Sphere can show The Wizard again and again to tourists coming through Las Vegas and program it at new Spheres all over the world for as long as management wants.
The Sphere has been unable to reach a deal with Disney, which wanted to be more involved in making the movies.
As we get closer to the 50th anniversary of Star Wars, I cannot think of a better time to be showing A New Hope at a venue such as The Sphere. Time will tell if a deal can be reached.
Image: The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Wednesday, July 31st, 2024, taken by Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg
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