Love it or hate it, the version of The Wizard of Oz that has played at the Sphere in Las Vegas has been an unqualified financial success. In less than a year since it opened, it has generated over $400 million in ticket sales. So, it was only a matter of time before they took on another classic Hollywood film, and essentially turned it into an overpriced theme park experience. Well, according to a report in Variety, the next film to get the Sphere treatment is 1975’s cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yes, Tim Curry’s Dr. Frank N. Furter will arrive in his Transylvanian glory at the Sphere in 2027. So get ready to do that Time Warp again.
Here’s what Sphere Entertainment’s CEO Jim Dolan had to say about Rocky’s upcoming “enhancement.”
Through Sphere Studios, we are building a slate of original experiences that push the boundaries of technology and storytelling for this new medium, while always keeping the audience at the center of the experience. Since The Rocky Horror Picture Show premiered in 1975, it redefined audience participation and became a cultural phenomenon. With Sphere, we have the opportunity to take that spirit of immersion to an entirely new level.
So why is this controversial? For starters, some people hated that they edited The Wizard of Oz to pieces for this. But that is not that bothersome to us, because this is more like translating a movie into a theme park ride. We’ve seen that many times before. No one thinks of it as the actual film itself. No, what many rightly frown upon is the huge amount of AI used to make it happen. And we imagine it will be the same with Rocky. That alone is enough to not get us to put down money to go and see this. Otherwise, it might be kind of fun?
Still, the choice of Rocky Horror for the next Sphere movie is odd, to say the least. Is it an iconic movie? Certainly. But it’s also a movie celebrating transgressive ideas and sexual liberation. Even though it was made over fifty years ago, many elements of that movie are more controversial now with a segment of the American population than they were in 1975. Given how so many Vegas tourists are conservative middle Americans, how do organizers expect them to react? Besides, the biggest draw for Rocky is the audience participation portion. Doubtful the Sphere will encourage throwing toast and yelling curse words at the screen. We’ll just have to see how long this one lasts.