An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often featuring multiple areas with different themes. Unlike temporary and mobile funfairs and carnivals, amusement parks are stationary and built for long-lasting operation. They are more elaborate than city parks and playgrounds, usually providing attractions that cater to a variety of age groups. While amusement parks often contain themed areas, theme parks place a heavier focus with more intricately-designed themes that revolve around a particular subject or group of subjects.
Amblin Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions and Steven Spielberg Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1980. Its headquarters are located in Bungalow 477 of the Universal Studios backlot in Universal City, California. It distributes all of the films from Amblin Partners under the Amblin Entertainment banner.
Universal Orlando Resort, often shortened to Universal Orlando, is a 541-acre (219 ha) theme park and entertainment resort complex located in Orlando, Florida. Following the opening of Universal Studios Florida in 1990, NBCUniversal moved forward with plans to expand from a single park into a large resort hoping to compete with Walt Disney World. In 1999, a second theme park called Islands of Adventure opened in addition to CityWalk, a shopping promenade and nightlife district that incorporates a variety of themed hotels, restaurants, and retail outlets. A 30-acre (12 ha) themed water park, Volcano Bay, was added in 2017, and a fourth upcoming theme park, Epic Universe, is scheduled to open in Summer 2025.
The Great Movie Ride was a dark ride located at Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, United States. The attraction employed the use of Audio-Animatronic figures, practical sets, live actors, special effects, and projections to recreate iconic scenes from twelve classic films throughout motion picture history. The attraction—which debuted with the park on May 1, 1989—was located inside the park's replica of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, one of Hollywood's most famous movie palaces.
Walt Disney Studios Park is the second of two theme parks built at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France. which opened on 16 March 2002. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division. Upon opening, it was dedicated to show business, movie themes, production, and behind-the-scenes, but in the 2010s, in a similar manner to its sister park, Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida, it began to distance itself from the original studio backlot theming and entered a new direction of attraction development inspired by iconic Disney stories. In 2019, the park hosted approximately 5.2 million guests. The park is represented by the Earffel Tower, a water tower with Mickey Mouse ears similar to the one formerly located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, which in turn was inspired by the water tower at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California.
Universal Destinations & Experiences, is the theme park unit of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. They are also referred to as Universal Studios Theme Parks or solely Universal Theme Parks.
Universal Islands of Adventure, originally called Universal Studios Islands of Adventure and later Universal's Islands of Adventure, is a theme park located in Orlando, Florida. It opened on May 28, 1999, along with CityWalk, as part of an expansion that converted Universal Studios Florida into the Universal Orlando Resort. The resort's slogan Vacation Like You Mean It was introduced in 2013.
Universal Studios Hollywood is a film studio and theme park in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, California. About 70% of the studio lies within the unincorporated county island known as Universal City while the rest lies within the city limits of Los Angeles, California. It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood film studios still in use. Its official marketing headline is "The Entertainment Capital of LA". It was initially created to offer tours of the real Universal Studios sets and is the first of many full-fledged Universal Studios Theme Parks located across the world.
Universal Studios Florida is a theme park located in Orlando, Florida, that opened on June 7, 1990. Owned and operated by NBCUniversal, it features numerous rides, attractions, and live shows that are primarily themed to movies, television, and other aspects of the entertainment industry. Universal Studios Florida was the first of three theme parks to open at Universal Orlando Resort, joined later by Islands of Adventure in 1999 and Volcano Bay in 2017. In 2019, it ranked eleventh in the world – sixth in North America – for overall attendance among amusement parks with approximately 10.9 million visitors. A fourth park, Epic Universe, is expected in summer 2025. It is expected to be the largest Universal park in the United States.
Shrek 4-D is a computer-animated 4D film based on the Shrek franchise created by DreamWorks Animation, itself based on the book by William Steig. It also is a 4D simulator ride attraction with motion-based effects and water sprayers located at various theme parks around the world. It is currently shown at Universal Destinations & Experiences in Japan, Singapore, and previously in Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood, where it closed on August 14, 2017, in Hollywood to make way for the DreamWorks Theatre attraction while the one in Orlando closed on January 10, 2022 and was replaced by Illumination's Villain-Con Minion Blast. Outside the Universal parks, the movie was shown at Movie Park Germany in Germany from May 2008 until July 2011, and Warner Bros. Movie World in Australia from September 2005 until August 2010. A spin-off attraction titled Donkey's Photo Finish is located at the Florida venue while Meet Shrek and Donkey is located at the Hollywood venue. In Universal Studios Japan, the attraction is shown in the same theater as Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic, with the Shrek 4-D film shown for the first 12 hours of the day, and the Sesame Street film shown for the next 12 hours of the day.
A family entertainment center, often abbreviated FEC in the entertainment industry, also known as an indoor amusement park, family amusement center, family fun center, soft play, or simply fun center, is a small amusement park marketed towards families with small children to teenagers, often entirely indoors. They usually cater to "sub-regional markets of larger metropolitan areas." FECs are generally small compared to full-scale amusement parks, with fewer attractions, a lower per-person per-hour cost to consumers than a traditional amusement park, and not usually major tourist attractions, but sustained by an area customer base. Many are locally owned and operated, although there are a number of chains and franchises in the field. Some, operated by non-profit organizations as children's museums or science museums, tend to be geared toward edutainment experiences rather than simply amusement.
Back to the Future: The Ride was a simulator ride located at several Universal Destinations & Experiences locations. The first installation opened on May 2, 1991, at the World Expo area of Universal Studios Florida in Orlando, Florida. A second installation opened on June 12, 1993, in the Hollywood Lot area of Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California. A third installation opened on March 31, 2001, in the San Francisco area of Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, Japan. Based on the Back to the Future franchise, the ride is a first person adventure that takes place after the events depicted in Back to the Future Part III. Riders engage in a race through time in pursuit of Biff Tannen, who has stolen the DeLorean time machine.
The Studio Tour is a ride attraction at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in Universal City, California near Los Angeles. Studio Tour is the theme park's signature attraction. It travels through a working film studio, with various film sets on the Universal Studios Lot. Guests sit on multi-car trams for the duration of the ride and looking behind the scenes of Universal Pictures. The tour lasts about 45–60 minutes and is led by an in-person "tram guide", with the aid of pre-recorded videos of Jimmy Fallon. It travels through the Front Lot, Backlot, and various attractions, passing sets and properties from movies along the way. The tour inspired a smaller but similar version at Universal Studios Florida, which was removed in 1995.
Disaster!: A Major Motion Picture Ride...Starring You! was a dark ride attraction at Universal Studios Florida. Set on a soundstage of a fictitious movie company, Disaster! was based on the park's former Earthquake: The Big One ride, which comically illustrates how special effects are filmed for use in movies. The attraction's climax cast the riders as movie extras for a movie final scene involving an earthquake in a subway station. Using high-speed editing techniques, the riders got to see themselves in the form of a movie trailer that included film sequences shot throughout the attraction's pre-show and main ride.
Special Effects Stage was an attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. Originally located in the park's Lower Lot area, it was relocated to the Upper Lot’s Castle Theater to make way for Transformers: The Ride 3D. The attraction opened in this second and final location on June 26, 2010. The show permanently closed on January 8, 2023 alongside Universal's Animal Actors, and both will be replaced by a Fast & the Furious-themed rollercoaster.
This article details the appearance of Harry Potter theming in amusement parks. In the late 1990s, Universal Parks & Resorts began discussing the possibility of purchasing the license for Harry Potter to create and theme amusement park rides. As Time Warner owns the license, a small walkthrough attraction was constructed at Warner Bros. Movie World called the Harry Potter Movie Magic Experience in 2001. This attraction was removed two years later. In 2010, Universal Islands of Adventure park opened The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Similar attractions have also opened in Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan and are planned for Universal Studios Beijing.
Since the early 2000s, DreamWorks Animation, an American animation studio, owned by NBCUniversal, has had an involvement in the creation and theming of amusement park rides and attractions. This article details the ventures of DreamWorks Animation in amusement parks.
Thinkwell Group is an experience design and production agency that was founded in 2001 with headquarters in Los Angeles, California. In 2022, TAIT acquired Thinkwell Group.
