Who Benefits – The Movie Or The Theme Park?
A fairly new trend among amusement parks (theme parks, whatever) is tying in a new film with a new ride in order to better advertise the film and ride, such as we are seeing with Six Flags Magic Mountain’s new roller coaster Terminator: Salvation: The Ride. Stupid double colon titles…
Now to me, this seems like a VERY risky move for the park. You’re betting the marketability of a ride on a movie that may or not be a success (speaking of word of mouth only, you’re kidding yourself if you don’t think a Terminator film will make a lot of money). And while I can’t say with any backing that Magic Mountain building a Terminator roller coaster will at all benefit ticket sales, it certainly can’t hurt, right?
I think a smarter move would be to do what Universal Studios has always done. Build rides based on movies that are already a success! Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Backdraft, Back to the Future ( :[[ ), Revenge of the Mummy (Okay, the first one was great, the sequel.. not so much) etc.
Does anyone know if Six Flags is only obligated to keep the Terminator name for a certain amount of time? Or at least the “Salvation” add-on, as the Terminator franchise will always (I hope) be a household name in America.
So what are your thoughts on this cross branding, marketing scheme? Good for the park? The movie? Both? Neither?
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When I heard Magic Mountain was naming their new wooden coaster ‘Terminator: Salvation’, the first thing that came out of my head was “What? Are they kidding? They are really going to name this coaster after a Terminator movie?!”. First of all I think it’s kind of a silly name for a wooden coaster (maybe better for a steel) and honestly the name would just have been better off naming it ‘Terminator’ instead of adding the silly sounding ‘Salvation’ to it. Now I understand that this a Warner Bros. film and Six Flags are Warner Bros. parks and all this really is is a push for the new film and hopefully a push of interest for the new coaster at Magic Mountain, but honestly I don’t think naming a new coaster after the film is going to want to make people run out and see the movie and run out and ride the new ride just because of name. In the end I think it’s a silly move. One, it’s just a name for a coaster, nothing else. Now, if this coaster was somehow “themed” after the movie rather than just a name then it would make some sense. But it’s not or at least it doesn’t look that way, just looks like another new wooden coaster. Personal note to Six Flags: wouldn’t the money be better spent on the park itself? Magic Mountain is in dyer need of a makeover. When I was there last fall All kept thinking was this place needs “theming”. It’s in a beautiful area surrounded by mountains and hills, there is so much they could do with this park, so why are they spending money on another new ride? Is Shapiro no longer head of the company now? Because they are back at square one again it seems with that park. “Keep building the rides and they will come” – yeah “teens” will come, but unless you do a dyer makeover for this park no one else, but teens will come.
Thanks for your comment!
I think you need to realize a couple things.
A) Terminator IS a household name, and while I don’t think the name itself will be the deciding factor for a family to go to the park, I do think it’s good to have some kind of recognition.
B) There is (at the least) going to be onboard audio, and a few preshows, both in line and potentially on ride.
C) It’s a family coaster, so I don’t think this falls into the “teens only” category.
While Magic Mountain could use some theming, you can’t keep passing off refurbished rides as “All-New” every year, people will start to get irritated.
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