Movie properties are being transplanted into other venues, for fun and profit.
Beloved 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz” is being staged in an immersive experience at the mammoth Las Vegas Sphere arena (screen grab pictured above of a promotional image). Also, Netflix is soon launching Netflix House, which is envisioned as a retail chain of permanent physical entertainment complexes. Both can be considered experiential adaptations of filmdom where the audience has the feeling it’s actually in the show.
In Las Vegas, the “Wizard of Oz at the Sphere” immersive recorded video show began Aug 28. An article on the Media Post website by Laurie Sullivan says that Google “developed an AI-based ‘super resolution’ tool to turn tiny 1939 celluloid frames into ultra-high-definition imagery. … Performance generation was used to show a character in a frame that was not there in the original movie.”
The imagery is 16K, which is far more suitable for enlargement than 2K and 4K for today’s hi-def TV set screens. (8K resolution is the peak for high-end TV sets.) The presentation “reimagines a work of art like ‘The Wizard of Oz’ for the 160,000 sq. ft. screen that wraps up, over and around the audience,” Media Post says of the Sphere projection.
So, if there is a scene with a closeup of some characters, the sprawling Sphere presentation will extend the overall visual to a vast landscape that is true to the movie, which makes for a you-are-really-in-the-picture experience for the audience. In other cases, characters and objects are moved on the landscape to improve storytelling in the Sphere. Besides technology, the creation required searching archives to determine how to populate the broader video canvass.
Warner Bros. Pictures owns the 1939 “Wizard of Oz,whose underlying fantasy novel book is now in the public domain; landing in the public domain prompts royalty-free adaptations such as the “Wicked” stage play and movie.
The Las Vegas Sphere opened in 2023 behind the Venetian casino, has a 20,000-seating capacity and is controlled by media executives connected to Madison Square Garden. “Oz” tickets start at $104 and can be considered licensed merchandise in the “service” category, just like a video game, theme-park ride or video storybook adaptation of films. Netflix House can also be classified as a venue for transmedia adaptations; transmedia creates new stories from traditional movies.
Meanwhile, the world’s top video streamer is scheduled to open its Netflix House in Philadelphia at King of Prussia Mall on Nov. 12 and in Dallas at Galleria Dallas on Dec. 11. The 100,000-square feet Netflix House venues will provide virtual reality experiences and re-creations.
Though this initiative appears to tilt heavily to TV series, Netflix original movies share the spotlight, including “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and “Army of the Dead.” By promoting its content, Netflix is promoting subscriptions to its video streaming.
Netflix House will be free to enter but have ticketed attractions, which again make it a licensed merchandise in the “service” category. And there will be a restaurant and physical licensed merchandise for sale, a la “please exit through the gift shop.”
Hollywood’s merchandise landscape is expanding; immersive arena experiences and physical entertainment centers are services that are experiential. Gambling slot machines, roller-coaster rides at theme parks and digital tchotchkes (meaning NFTs as the acronym for non-fungible tokens) are also in the new wave of licensed merchandise and services.
LATE ADDITION SEPT 9, 2025-Says a Hollywood Reporter article, Wolfe Research analyst Peter Supino forecasts that the stunning success of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ with hundreds of thousands of tickets have already been sold “will likely kickstart a years-long process to adapt far more titles to the venue’s 160,000 square foot screen” at the Sphere.
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