By Ryan Scott
Copyright slashfilm
“We’ll run ‘The Wizard of Oz’ forever,” Dolan recently said on a call with analysts before adding, “It’s hard for me to imagine a better product than ‘Wizard of Oz.'”
We’ve seen many, many times that re-releases of classics can do very well, even in average movie theaters. Just earlier this year, in fact, “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” became a sizable hit upon returning to the big screen for its 20th anniversary. But what the Sphere offers is something truly unique, even for a movie someone might have seen a dozen times. Dolan is right to believe that the venue can show “The Wizard of Oz” indefinitely. But the bigger picture is only just now coming into focus. This is about much more than a single, classic film.
The report notes that Dolan has been in talks with studios about doing something similar for other movies, including WB regarding the “Harry Potter” films and even Disney with respect to the “Star Wars” movies. The latter wants a little more control over the process, so those discussions haven’t gone anywhere, at least not yet. But it seems inevitable that other studios will happily cash in at a time when the global box office is more unpredictable than it’s ever been. If Dolan and the Sphere folks are the ones investing the resources into the production, what does Hollywood have to lose? It could be looked at as free money — and a lot of it, too.
Dolan and his team are also planning on opening several more Sphere locations around the world, some of them smaller, which would mean even more money. Indeed, this entire operation could be a big moneymaker for the right movies in the future. There is, however, both good and bad in that. On the one hand, studios could use reliable revenue streams, and anything that gets people excited about going to see a movie is probably a net positive. But it gets muddy if Dolan and Co. want to start using a bunch of sloppy AI to make, say, the “Star Wars” films work at the Sphere. If studios can avoid letting that happen, then there’s reason to be optimistic. Though, at the moment, that is a big “if.”
