Theme Park Nut News Update - 5th January 2016

Happy new year! Welcome to another exciting year of Theme Park News coverage on Theme Park Nut. I've been a bit slack, and I haven't yet posted up my 2015 Yearly Round up. But hopefully I'll get time to finish that over the next few days. In the meantime, here is a news update for the last week of 2015 and the first week of 2016!

Before I get onto the few titbits of Theme Park news, I got to say something about the mammoth opening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Disney's Christmas Blockbuster is shattering box office records, which is set to be the highest grossing film in the U.S. (ahead of Avatar) within 3 weeks of being released. It is likely to become the 3rd highest grossing film world wide in roughly the same timeframe, with only Titanic and Avatar ahead of it. It is not certain that it will over come Avatar in world wide gross, but it will certain come close.

There are cash registers ringing in every part of the Disney organisation, and our appetite has now been wet for Star Wars Land which has been announced for Disneyland in Anahiem and Disney's Hollywood Studio in Florida. As such Theme Park Insider has given us a 4-part series on the upcoming land, and what Disney has to live up with constructing the Star Wars Land (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4). It's a good read, particularly if you are a Star Wars nerd like I am!

At Universal Hollywood, the park has quiet rolled out dynamic pricing for their single day tickets. The change has been entertained and tested by both Disney and Universal in the past couple of years. The idea is that the park will be able to make the quieter days cheaper for individual ticket holders, with the hope that the tourists will gravitate to the cheaper days, and even out the crowds. The change comes ahead of the park opening of WWoHP this year, which will likely draw massive crowds to the park.

Over at Disney World, there was a stampede with reportedly 15 people injured at Disney Springs, as panic set in when a rumour started that their had been gunshots in one of the restaurants. The irony is the panic that their were no gunshots, and the original disturbance was a 70 year old man taking a swing at a restaurant manager after he had waited a long time for his food.

At Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, Boxing Day marked the opening of the Hot Wheels SideWinder, a re-theme of the Cyclone roller coaster. Parkz.com.au took the re-opening as a chance to give a bit of a history lesson of the roller coaster, which is an interesting read for those that don't know the back story. You can see some images of the make over in the Parkz Forums. Overall, the feedback seems to be that the ride is a lot smoother with the new trains, which is a great thing!

Since we are starting off 2016 this week, it's appropriate to have a look at Theme Park Insider's Top 10 Most Anticipated Openings for 2016.  There are a couple of big hitters on the list, particular the WWoHP in Universal Hollywood. There is never a quiet year in Theme Parks!!


For more Theme Park coverage, follow me on Twitter @themeparknut. Until next time, Cheers!