Following the crowd takes on a whole new meaning.
New theme park: Universal Studios… Bedford!
- Thread starter Nitefly
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Following the crowd takes on a whole new meaning.
Soldato
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sad. what a cash cow that area is. and to be in the uk too the home of HP
Isn't there a Harry Potter World operated by Warner?
Could be there's an agreement not
Soldato
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it's a backlot studio style thing. nothing special at all. i can't see the downsides other than merch sales. i would have thought a harry potter fan would like to visit both the backlot studios, and the theme rides at universal for hte same holiday, given they are pretty close.
given the amount of money universal must make from harry potter merch, i can't see them not finding a deal with Warner.
Soldato
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i disagree. Having a heavily harry potter area, with 2 clearly different areas, offering very different experience, would only benefit both. the only thing simliar to both would be the robes and wands and mugs to be bought.It would suck up all the visitors from the existing one in London. They won't want to be competing with themselves
it's like saying disney in florida is an issue for universal in florida. it's not. people go to this place on holiday because both places are there.
But people fly to Florida and stay for a week or two, to go to both parks. It’s a destination in its own right. Bedford… is not. The majority will be day trippers I’d imagine. Even overseas tourists would balk at staying more than a night or two I think. They barely get out of London right.
In other good news for the industry, the expansion of Sky Studios Elstree has been approved finally. https://www.screendaily.com/news/uk...-approval-for-major-expansion/5209196.article
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Soldato
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I think it would just form another stop on the usual bus trip tours people do. Oxford and Cambridge are both on those types of tour and Bedford is between the two.
They will need to focus on making it a self contained resort more than the others probably. The area itself is nice (the countryside areas which haven't had nasty new build estates put on it yet) but there isn't a week's worth of stuff to see within an hour's drive. The only thing south is the anus of Bedfordshire (aka Luton) and no one wants to go there.
It's not far from Woburn which is another day out.
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Soldato
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Disney and Universal offer* different franchises from one and another which is why punters will visit both resorts, ie - you want Star Wars, then it's a Disney park, Jurassic Park, then it's a Universal park.
* There's a few Marvel rides at Universal but iirc, they all pre-date Disney's acquisition like 'The Incredible Hulk Coaster'.
The Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure parks are essentially a replicate of Warner's Harry Potter studios with a few rides sprinkled around, so it's unlikely Warner would allow Universal to do the same at Bedford as they would be shooting themselves in the foot with the studios being less than an hour away.
The exception could be the Fantastic Beasts franchise/spinoff, ie - the 'Ministry of Magic' world at Universal Epic. But they supposedly spent $1bn alone to licence and build the 'Battle at the Ministry' ride (entire park has a build figure of $7-8bn) and i'd be surprised if Universal would offer up something similar for Bedford given the parks lower projected footfall (8m vs 10m yearly for Epic) and it being a standalone park rather than a complete resort.
I imagine most of the franchises at Bedford will be Universal's own.
With rail it'll be under an hour to central London.
Soldato
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If you say so.
I appreciate the issue with Harry Potter studios nearby, but it definitely is a different experience to a land within a park. One is about the making of the movies, with props etc, one is rides, which are connected by the streets/shops of hogsmeade etc.
The fact that in every single universal park (in florida, or perhaps even them all?) there is a Harry Potter land shows how important it is to them.
No other park by Disney or universal does this. Lands are typically unique to the park they are in, or at least only replicated in the exact same park in another country/state.
If universal were to make a 4th park in florida, they would have a 4th Harry Potter land in it. And all the other lands would be something unique.
Maybe universal just needs to be Warner so that they can get around this issue