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Wednesday, September 10, 2025
'The Wizard of Oz' Is Going to Make $1 Billion at The Sphere
No Film School: When you drive into Las Vegas from Los Angeles and crest over the desert, the Sphere is one of the first things you can see at night. Its neon lights light up the night with whatever it's advertising that night.
8 comments:
Jordan G
said...
I wanted to comment on this article due to the fact that I commented on an earlier article that was talking about the Wizard of Oz being shown in 4D at the Las Vegas Sphere. Which like I said in my earlier post is a really cool artistic development that I hope starts a trend for doing this for other classic movies. One issue I have with Sphere in general is the price for the tickets that I have seen for past shows, but $200 dollars a ticket for this show seems reasonable enough. Though at first I was a little taken aback by the fact that this ticket price was for a 1939 film, but this worry was removed when the article said that it is striving to give people an experience that they can not see anywhere else. I hope that this show does well enough to create a situation that will lead to the Sphere doing the same thing it is doing for the Wizard of Oz for other classic or even newer movies.
I love love loveee the Las Vegas sphere. As someone who freaked out after seeing the stage design in ‘Sing 2,’ the sphere amazed me and filled me with so much joy and excitement. The fact that it was possible for there to be a venue that is quite literally spherical and yet allows all 20,000 audience members to be able to view a show arguably better than a traditional arena. Simply playing a movie two or three times a day and making 2 million dollars is insane and truly changed how I viewed the cinematic industry. 3D versions of movies have existed for a long time, but this is a completely different take on it, especially since it is showing such an old movie. In addition, I do think it was really smart to show ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ considering how much buzz the Wicked movies are getting right now.
Full circle from last week's article! Before we talked about how using AI = bad in that production, now we are learning how much they are making! You’d think for a show that is bringing in 1 billion dollars wouldn’t use AI to make art, but to each their own. In an overall view, its very impressive they made 1 billion dollars, however I’d be very interested in seeing their net profits vs gross, considering their high operating costs. They have to maintain both the inside and outside panels, a massive LED screen, and basic theatre expenses such as utilities, cleaning crews, ticketing software, etc. While yes, they took the short cut to make this production, it’s clearly doing well, and I wonder if they will keep doing it exactly the same from now on. I am excited to see if the sphere does more movie “adaptations” in the future, and I am excited to see what's next.
This story is super cool! I commented on a previous article about the sphere, but this article provides so much more insight on how they essentially revived the Wizard Of Oz for the venue. I find it so cool how they didn't change the score, but they essentially remastered it! They kept the original charm of Harold Arlen’s score, while bringing out so much more information that audiences have never heard before solely due to the technology available when the movie was created. I am very intrigued by the fact that audio is coming from everywhere, including the seats. I would really like to know how many channels they are running and the power draw of the entire audio system. I would also love to see the drawings for the venue, which must be beautiful! Lastly, the article included a super cool youtube video, which showcased the difference in audio fidelity. The difference was outstanding, and I hope that I will be able to make it over to the Sphere one day to experience it myself!
This seems like such an immoral thing to do. Especially since there was so much modification of the original work to be able to make the movie work in the Sphere. Using Artificial Intelligence to not just make negligible improvements, but to add so much content and still manage to cut out pieces of the movie feels like it violates so many current industry standards. I understand that when the original actors signed contracts they may not have had as many protections written into their contracts as artists do nowadays, but it’s guaranteed that the artists from 1940 would never have imagined that it was possible to modify the work this much after it was released let alone, remaster, modify, and use artificial intelligence to fill an actual a building that would have seemed like something from a sci-fi novel. They wouldn’t try it on something done in the last 15 years but seem to have no qualms about dong it to a film where almost the entire original production members are dead or unable to speak for themselves. The fact that they did it with a film that is closer t o the origination of “talkies” than it is to the current time says a lot about the moral implications of doing this to films.
I've never been to Los Angeles, but I hope to visit sometime and it seems like from this article, the sphere is the place to visit! After reading the previous article about the Wizard of Oz sphere show using AI it's super interesting to me how much this show has been making especially with how expensive putting on this show the other article made the production seem. I was shocked to read that the ticket price is on average 200 dollars. Being just a movie being played in 4d, paying up to 200 dollars is just insane to me cause thats the same price as a broadway show, some shows being even cheaper. However, I haven’t been to the sphere so I don’t know, maybe it's super worth the money. I really love the very last section of this article saying that Hollywood could bring back to the theatrical experience, because I feel like that's what California does worse compared to New York
This was a fascinating article. At first, the head line drew me in because I was like, of course, the Wizard of Oz is going to gross and stupid amount of money, but the article itself was also really interesting. I would not have considered the possibility that the sphere would have 2 completely different business strategies when it comes to concerts and movies. I also learned more about what makes the sphere special. I knew that the screen was out of this world and the sound was incredible, but I had no idea about the other immersive elements that are a part of the space. That is really interesting to learn. Also, I don’t know how they cut that movie down to 70 minutes, but I would be interested to see what they cut. I still think 200 dollars for a movie ticket is ridiculous and crazy. I also don’t like that the movie was AI-assisted in its transition to the sphere.
I commented on a previous article about this and most of the comment consisted of me being like this sounds so boring and I cannot imagine this will make a lot of money and I do not understand. Which is now embarrassing seeing how successful it has been. It is baffling to me that people paid $200 to see the Wizard of Oz. I think this article is right by saying that the sphere is built on tourism. I think there is also something to be said about the specific show and again wild to me but I guess there is a good chance that there were a lot of children there. The Wizard of Oz is not really a turn off to any specific groups which I am sure helped. I am glad this went so well but I would be curious to also learn more about how people felt after seeing the show.
8 comments:
I wanted to comment on this article due to the fact that I commented on an earlier article that was talking about the Wizard of Oz being shown in 4D at the Las Vegas Sphere. Which like I said in my earlier post is a really cool artistic development that I hope starts a trend for doing this for other classic movies. One issue I have with Sphere in general is the price for the tickets that I have seen for past shows, but $200 dollars a ticket for this show seems reasonable enough. Though at first I was a little taken aback by the fact that this ticket price was for a 1939 film, but this worry was removed when the article said that it is striving to give people an experience that they can not see anywhere else. I hope that this show does well enough to create a situation that will lead to the Sphere doing the same thing it is doing for the Wizard of Oz for other classic or even newer movies.
I love love loveee the Las Vegas sphere. As someone who freaked out after seeing the stage design in ‘Sing 2,’ the sphere amazed me and filled me with so much joy and excitement. The fact that it was possible for there to be a venue that is quite literally spherical and yet allows all 20,000 audience members to be able to view a show arguably better than a traditional arena. Simply playing a movie two or three times a day and making 2 million dollars is insane and truly changed how I viewed the cinematic industry. 3D versions of movies have existed for a long time, but this is a completely different take on it, especially since it is showing such an old movie. In addition, I do think it was really smart to show ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ considering how much buzz the Wicked movies are getting right now.
Full circle from last week's article! Before we talked about how using AI = bad in that production, now we are learning how much they are making! You’d think for a show that is bringing in 1 billion dollars wouldn’t use AI to make art, but to each their own. In an overall view, its very impressive they made 1 billion dollars, however I’d be very interested in seeing their net profits vs gross, considering their high operating costs. They have to maintain both the inside and outside panels, a massive LED screen, and basic theatre expenses such as utilities, cleaning crews, ticketing software, etc. While yes, they took the short cut to make this production, it’s clearly doing well, and I wonder if they will keep doing it exactly the same from now on. I am excited to see if the sphere does more movie “adaptations” in the future, and I am excited to see what's next.
This story is super cool! I commented on a previous article about the sphere, but this article provides so much more insight on how they essentially revived the Wizard Of Oz for the venue. I find it so cool how they didn't change the score, but they essentially remastered it! They kept the original charm of Harold Arlen’s score, while bringing out so much more information that audiences have never heard before solely due to the technology available when the movie was created. I am very intrigued by the fact that audio is coming from everywhere, including the seats. I would really like to know how many channels they are running and the power draw of the entire audio system. I would also love to see the drawings for the venue, which must be beautiful! Lastly, the article included a super cool youtube video, which showcased the difference in audio fidelity. The difference was outstanding, and I hope that I will be able to make it over to the Sphere one day to experience it myself!
This seems like such an immoral thing to do. Especially since there was so much modification of the original work to be able to make the movie work in the Sphere. Using Artificial Intelligence to not just make negligible improvements, but to add so much content and still manage to cut out pieces of the movie feels like it violates so many current industry standards. I understand that when the original actors signed contracts they may not have had as many protections written into their contracts as artists do nowadays, but it’s guaranteed that the artists from 1940 would never have imagined that it was possible to modify the work this much after it was released let alone, remaster, modify, and use artificial intelligence to fill an actual a building that would have seemed like something from a sci-fi novel. They wouldn’t try it on something done in the last 15 years but seem to have no qualms about dong it to a film where almost the entire original production members are dead or unable to speak for themselves. The fact that they did it with a film that is closer t o the origination of “talkies” than it is to the current time says a lot about the moral implications of doing this to films.
I've never been to Los Angeles, but I hope to visit sometime and it seems like from this article, the sphere is the place to visit! After reading the previous article about the Wizard of Oz sphere show using AI it's super interesting to me how much this show has been making especially with how expensive putting on this show the other article made the production seem. I was shocked to read that the ticket price is on average 200 dollars. Being just a movie being played in 4d, paying up to 200 dollars is just insane to me cause thats the same price as a broadway show, some shows being even cheaper. However, I haven’t been to the sphere so I don’t know, maybe it's super worth the money. I really love the very last section of this article saying that Hollywood could bring back to the theatrical experience, because I feel like that's what California does worse compared to New York
This was a fascinating article. At first, the head line drew me in because I was like, of course, the Wizard of Oz is going to gross and stupid amount of money, but the article itself was also really interesting. I would not have considered the possibility that the sphere would have 2 completely different business strategies when it comes to concerts and movies. I also learned more about what makes the sphere special. I knew that the screen was out of this world and the sound was incredible, but I had no idea about the other immersive elements that are a part of the space. That is really interesting to learn. Also, I don’t know how they cut that movie down to 70 minutes, but I would be interested to see what they cut. I still think 200 dollars for a movie ticket is ridiculous and crazy. I also don’t like that the movie was AI-assisted in its transition to the sphere.
I commented on a previous article about this and most of the comment consisted of me being like this sounds so boring and I cannot imagine this will make a lot of money and I do not understand. Which is now embarrassing seeing how successful it has been. It is baffling to me that people paid $200 to see the Wizard of Oz. I think this article is right by saying that the sphere is built on tourism. I think there is also something to be said about the specific show and again wild to me but I guess there is a good chance that there were a lot of children there. The Wizard of Oz is not really a turn off to any specific groups which I am sure helped. I am glad this went so well but I would be curious to also learn more about how people felt after seeing the show.
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