Ride to fit themeing, or themeing to fit ride?

I wonder, more often than not, to parks come up with a concept for themeing, then build a ride to suit their ideas, or do they come up with a ride, then think of a good theme to market it with. I thought about Top Thrill Dragster, and wondered if they had the ride concept, then the think tank came up with a theme, or were they toying around with the drag racing theme and picked a good ride to make the themeing come to life? What about rides like TRTR? I'm sure they must have said, "A Tomb Raider ride could be very profitable....Yes, but what KIND of ride...?"

I know beary-tales.com (part of westcoaster) has an Interview with Jack Falas, Knotts' GM, about the planning process. I think it goes theme first, then ride.

Sort of like Ghostrider....and the hat dance, and Xcellerator,
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http://www.MoreFunOnline.tv

Off topic, but its rumored that originally Ghostrider was going to have steel coaster look, but be a wooden coaster with the wooden rails. Things changed (fortunately), and it just ended up being a highly supported woodie who's additional supports (for Earthquakes) would make the ride alone (not the total end price-24 million) cost 12 million, almost 3 times more than Shivering Timbers cost of 4.5 million.

Oh, the age old question: Which came first, the ride or the theme?

I'm willing to bet that it's a little of both, depending on the situation. Take Disney for instance. In many cases, I'm sure they start with a theme that will capitalize on their products, then figure out a ride to go along with it.

However, with Rock n Roller Coaster, I have the feeling that the Disney execs weren't sitting around thinking, "we need to do an Aerosmith ride." Rather, "we need a coaster to compete with IOA, how can we theme it?"

Well, I'd be willing to bet that the ride came before the themeing for the Demons at the Great Americas!

I don't know anything, but I'll bet the Batman themeing for the original Batman: The Ride came second. B&M are known for long-range planning and testing, so I would speculate that the inverted concept was being developed before Time Warner said: "Hmm... We've got a Batman movie coming out... Any chance we can get a Batman ride into one of our parks around that time?"

Given that TTD does not fit the theme of anything near it, I would say that first CP said, "lets build a 420ft tall 120mph ride," and then said, "It would feel like a drag race." However many of the rides at theme parks are probably designed the other way around. (Please note that I don't consider most modern SF parks to be true theme parks.)

*** This post was edited by rolacostaking on 1/11/2003. ***