Universal Parks And Resorts is already in the middle of a massive expansion with its third theme park at Universal Orlando Resort, Epic Universe. However, not content to simply build new attractions at existing locations, today the theme park resort company has announced two brand new builds set to bring Universal Studios themed entertainment to new places, and with very different concepts. A family themed resort is on the way to Frisco, Texas, while a permanent horror themed attraction is coming to Las Vegas.
While Universal Parks and Resorts are stopping short of calling the Texas location a "new gate" or new theme park, it's being called a new park concept, and according to Bloomberg, will be built on 97 acres and will include rides, shows, and a hotel, that is specifically geared toward families with young children.
On quite the other side of the coin, we have what will be a much smaller, and very different new Universal Parks concept coming to Las Vegas, Nevada. A 110,000 square foot location with a focus on horror is coming as part of an expansion to the Area15 district that opened in 2020. Without being called this, it sounds very much like this could be a sort of permanent installation of Halloween Horror Nights, the horror focused event that comes to Universal Studios Hollywood and Florida every fall and is one of the most popular events at both resorts.
While neither of these are full theme parks in the vein of Epic Universe, these are potentially huge expansion plans precisely because that are slightly different takes on the themed entertainment concept. Both are looking to cater to specific audiences and they're doing it in a way that also widens the footprint of Universal nationwide.
Las Vegas is already basically a massive theme park for grown-ups, and there are so many things for people to do there already, that building something huge probably doesn't make sense. But something smaller that people can choose to do with part of a day probably does make sense, and Universal's Halloween Horror Nights has already proven what the genre and Universal can be a big win. We could see versions of the HHN houses find a permanent home here, and because they will be permanent, the possibility for even more immersion is there.
On the other side you have the family resort in Texas which sounds equally incredible. While theme parks used to be the domain of children, in recent decades there has been an effort to attract an older audience, and one of the down sides of that is that not all theme parks actually have a lot that young kids can do. A place like this, that will be entirely open to younger children is the sort of thing that can get them excited about theme parks for life.
This is clearly just the beginning of this story. Keep reading CinemaBlend and we'll continue to update you on all things themed entertainment.
