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[🌎 Universal GB] General Discussion

Bowser said:
I was thinking about this last night. By the time the park opens, the first film will be 46 years old. Many people who fondly remember it will be too old to even ride such an intense coaster. And that's just the opening date, how relevant is the trilogy going to be 5, 10, 15 years after that? Are the park really going to make what would be the signature attraction based on such an old series?
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I raised this exact same point in April.
GooseOnTheLoose said:
By the time this park is scheduled to open it'll have been 41 years.

The equivalent would be Tussauds opening a new land themed around a film released in 1949, when they took over Alton Towers in 1990.
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There isn't a shortage of evergreen and relevant franchises for Universal to pick from.
 
On the other hand, Waterworld is still one of the most popular attractions at Universal Studios Hollywood. That underperformed even when it was released in the mid-nineties, and I’d hazard a guess that less than a quarter of guests in the stadium for any showing now have ever seen it, and even fewer in the last decade. But the film’s setting is perfect theme park fodder, and the show is just that good. I think the same criteria will apply to the BTTF mega coaster.
 
Its a timeless IP for me. A true classic which will never go away.

Also given its a coaster and not a dark ride......I dont think the theme will make much difference to the popularity. If its tall, fast and thrilling.....people will want to ride it regardless.
 
There is growing talk online from those with connections to the park that a new Back to the future ride is coming to Orlando (studios park). The new coaster being built is expected to be a version of hollywoods fast and furious coaster (rather than a ghost buster themed as has been talked about). The current poorly received fast and furious ride will close and be replaced with a back to the future ride, weather that’s a complete retheme and overhall of the current ride system or hopefully they scrape that and it’s a completely different ride system.

There is definitely appetite for these retro IPs, they feature heavily in the nighttime show and parade, tons of back to the future, ghost busters, jaws and original Jurassic park merchandise in the parks. Plus themed food and drinks from these IPs as well.
 
A clone of California's FnF drift coaster would be pretty lame really. Takes away the unique pull of it being there if they immediately build another in Orlando.

Maybe it will be same franchise but a different coaster entirely? Unlikely I know but with Universal its possible I guess.

The FnF dark ride was truly embarrassing. We had a ride just to see how bad it really was and I couldn't believe that thing got signed off. It was honestly maybe the worst ride of the the whole trip. Somebody surely had to lose their job for sanctioning that monstrosity. It takes up such a big space too for such little pay off.
 
It won’t be a clone, it will be a unique layout completely different to the Hollywood version, just same intaminride system with the trains that spin and similar theme.

i would prefer a ghost busters theme personally. With the current fast and furious ride they knew what they where getting as the main part of the attraction already existed in Hollywood as part of their tour.
 
It looks like BTTF was one of the rides that was a lot further along in development compared to a lot of stuff on the concept art, sure things might change from the original artwork but the level of detail it had suggests they’re quite confident with it.

What I’m more interested is the second coaster that goes over the lake, we really don’t know a lot about it because the concept art for it is pretty indecisive. People have suggested something like a B&M Hyper, but I genuinely wonder whether it could be something similar to Hagrids, a family-thrill ride that has been one of Universal’s biggest successes of recent years. Because otherwise the park would lack any in-between coaster to bridge the gap of BTTF and Loop Dee Doop Dee. The UK is also pretty familiar with family-thrill coasters and has pioneered a few notable models over the years, Universal could come in and have the definitive best family-thrill coaster in the country, and possible even the continent.
 
The public consultation finished yesterday, so now we wait for the government response...

A little round up of things so far from the BBC website. I don't recall reading fireworks shows limited to 10 per year, which seems a bit of a shame. All of these things are starting points though, I'm sure as the place beds in they'll go after variations that work commercially.

Five things we learnt about the Universal Studios UK plans - BBC News https://share.google/3lXPVozF6VOudKwNM
 
That new Coaster at USF has been rumoured to be FnF, Ghostbusters and BTTF. Feels like people are just throwing out IP's, there's been no concrete hints towards the actual IP yet. Of the IP's BTTF is less rumoured, so I don't know if it's realistic, I think FnF/GB are far more likely.

I also think that Universal are more likely to have the first BTTF Coaster be for UGB, so that's something to pull Americans over here.
 
Not a chance of me not visiting. It's further for me than AT distancewise but a straight shot down the M1 rather than the torturous country roads.

I fully forsee an annual pass needing to be added to my future budgeting and by then my kids will be teens so I imagine all over the HHN stuff as well.
 
Bowser said:
I was thinking about this last night. By the time the park opens, the first film will be 46 years old. Many people who fondly remember it will be too old to even ride such an intense coaster. And that's just the opening date, how relevant is the trilogy going to be 5, 10, 15 years after that? Are the park really going to make what would be the signature attraction based on such an old series?

The likes of Jurassic Park and Star Wars are also old franchises but have remained relevant with ongoing releases since their debut. It would be the equivalent of making a signature attraction based on say Gremlins or The Goonies. I suppose you can argue BTTF has remained more relevant than those two with the theatre production albeit on a much smaller scale to JP and SW's respective universes.

I think BTTF has a special place in history and is somewhat cemented in culture.... and i really really want it to happen but i struggle to make sense of it. Hopefully i'm misjudging its enduring popularity.
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I mean to give you some sense of it of current BTTF appetite, IGN uploaded a Back To The Future 40th anniversary trailer 2 days ago and it has 2 million views already and that is literally just clips from the first movie. I endlessly see it shown on various ITV channels and pop up on streaming platforms and I think it helps that it's a family movie that's accessible to most people young and old.

To be honest I think it's a much safer bet to go for a franchise that has remained popular for 40 years and hope it will stay so for another 5ish years that go for say Dune which still has films releasing and could flop. People know what Back to the Future is, it's a solid foundation to build on because there isn't much new coming out related to it and it's still popular despite that.

There is very little risk compared to more recent or ongoing franchises that could mess up in some ways. You mention Star Wars but that doesn't seem to be the success Disney wanted in their parks because the sequel trilogy received a mixed reaction at best. I'm sure that didn't help with projects such as their now closed interactive Star Wars experience hotel or even Galaxy's Edge. Chasing trends is only really good for short term projects, for something like a theme park you want to go with something with lasting appeal unless it's a temporary pop up attraction.
 
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