NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke confirmed to Wall Street analysts last month the company had begun designing and committed to building rides based on The Secret Life of Pets, before the film debuted to audiences. It's a risky move — committing tens of millions of (and potentially more than a hundred million) dollars to a franchise that the public has not yet seen. But committing early allowed Universal to a head start in development, so that the company can open a Secret Life of Pets ride within a year or two of its release, instead of having to wait many more years before its debut — running the risk that the movie loses its buzz in the meantime.
A quick open also allows a theme park attraction to serve as a bridge between an initial film in a franchise and its sequel — keeping that buzz going. Universal did this for DreamWorks Animation's Shrek franchise with the Shrek 4D show many years ago. Now, Universal has the potential to do the same for a more closely-held property — Illumination Entertainment's Secret Life of Pets. (Universal now is buying DreamWorks Animation, but when it developed the Shrek show, Universal was doing so under license from DreamWorks Animation.)
Of course, the risk is that a company commits to spending big bucks on a new franchise, only to see it bomb with audiences. But Universal believed in The Secret Life of Pets, and its initial box office — coupled with good reviews and strong word-of-mouth — suggests that Universal made the right call.
We don't yet know when these new attractions will open, or even when Universal will announce them officially. Given Universal's recent history with attraction announcements, construction will be well underway and perhaps even close to completion before Universal will send out the press releases confirming what everyone watching the industry will by then know. Even so, we might not have to wait too long. Universal's shown that it can move swiftly to develop and build theme park attractions... especially when it begins with a head start.
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Lets not forget Splash Mountain, a ride based on a movie Disney would prefer you not to remember!
Disney should give on Dinosaurs. They failed to ignite interest from The Good Dinosaur and the original Dinosaur movie. Neither can garner the success of Jurassic franchise.
With regards to a Bug's Life, it should be worth noting that as a 4-D movie, It's Tough to be a Bug could have been easily swapped if the movie didn't work out. A dark ride would take more time to reconfigure.
That said, I do hope Secret Life of Pets is a big hit and Universal is able to make a successful attraction out of it. I really feel like they need this. One of the biggest reasons why I've always been more of a Disney fan than a Universal fan is because I feel like Disney pretty much appeals to almost every demographic, while Universal doesn't. Yes, most of Disney's stuff is geared towards kids, but they didn't leave out the adults. They've still got pretty extreme thrill rides like Mission Space Orange, RocknRollercoaster, and Dinosaur. Plus they've got other things that kids just can't appreciate, or at least not nearly as much as adults, like Impressions de France and the Food & Wine Festival. I feel that Universal only tries to appeal to my age group: 12-25 year olds. I guess it's awesome knowing that I'm in Universal's prime demographic (I'm 18), but what about everyone else? Universal seems to put all their creativity and effort into their big thrill rides: all their Hulks and their Dragons and their Mummies and their Spider-Men and their Transformers and their Forbidden Journies and their Escapes from Gringotts. Universal has very few attractions aimed towards kids, and only four of them (Shrek, Despicable Me, Popeye and Dudley Do-Right) could ever hope to match the aforementioned thrill rides in terms of quality. Other than that, your kids are left at the mercy of the amazing mediocrity that is Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone and Seuss Landing( Ok, it's not entirely maediocre. ET is pretty underrated and Seuss Landing has some pretty good theming overall). But what about adults? Well, sure, those who are under 60 could still enjoy Universal, but what about those who can't? "Hey, Grandpa, we're going to Universal! Sure you could only do like thirteen rides there, as opposed to Disney where you could probably do twenty-six, but hey at least you'll have fun sitting on a bench all day waiting for us!" So, yeah, Universal is definitely in dire need of more quality family-friendly rides. So hopefully Secret Life of Pets will be successful not only on the big screen but also in the theme parks; and hopefully this will mark the first of many great family-friendly Universal attractions.
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