Universal Studios Florida announces Fast and Furious ride for 2017

bigboy said:

the most recent sequel made something along the lines of $200 million domestically and $400 million internationally

You're a little over halfway there domestically and about 1/3 of the way there internationally.

This movie has made over 1.5 BILLION dollars.

The theme park would be stupid to not invest in this IP.

Definitely.

I think because we tend to not be a mindless action movie, cars and explosions crowd we generally underestimate this franchise.

The most recent movie is the 7th in the series and is the 5th highest grossing movie of all time behind only Avatar, Titanic, Jurassic World and The Avengers.

It literally has made more money worldwide than any of the Harry Potter movies did, the franchise debuted the same year as the Potter movies and when Furious 8 hits in 2018 will have as many movies in the series as Potter did.

Does it deserve an entire land or park area themed to it? Probably not. Hell, certainly not.

Should they invest in an attraction featuring the IP? I think it was said best in the post above this one - "The theme park would be stupid not to invest in the IP."

As a barely interesting aside, the one photo on coasterimage that still to this day gets directly linked to more than most photos on the website according to my logs is this old, not-so-great, outdated pic of the F&F car at Universal from 2002:

In fact, it's so old that it was taken with actual film. (ask your parents, kids)

Thanks, maXairMike, for clearing up a few of those details. I was hoping the Kong Florida version would have a little more to it than just a ride through the gates and park for the film portion. (although they could probably get away with that) I know from what I've seen the exterior portion looks awesome.
I wish the park would go ahead and release details all at once instead of in dribs and drabs. They seem to follow the same idea as movie trailers for blockbusters. First a teaser, then a short release, then more as opening approaches.

Keep us posted please?

I just think Vin Diesel is so ****ing awful that I can't stand to see him in another movie. That's just me.

Honestly I'm a little tired of all of the 3D glasses stuff. That's why I prefer Forbidden Journey over Gringott's... I like practical effects. Heck, it's the difference between the original Star Wars trilogy and the prequels. When it was just Spiderman, it was like, yeah, this is cool, right on! Now, meh, blow stuff up and have fireballs and stuff. Like Revenge of The Mummy.

Im just glad to see an actual Universal IP built at the park, ET I believe is the last Universal IP left at the park. As for the behind of the scenes aspect in the parks they might be going thru with the Behind the Scenes Tonight Show Hijinks attraction to replace Twister. AS for FF I really would like to see less screens, I hear the GP talk about how most now is just 3D movies.

Jeff said:

At least it was something that had to do with movie production, and wasn't just related to a movie. I think that's the sad thing about the studio parks in Orlando, that there was a time when, even if it was a little thin on reality, you got to see how movies were made. I suppose that doesn't align well with public tastes.

I haven't posted in years and years, but had to after this comment...

I fully agree. MGM Studios no longer has any magic to me, especially now that the Backlot Tour is missing. Universal losing this attraction is them losing the last major component of the rides that I found to be the absolute most fascinating ever.

To me, it used to be that the thing that set apart MGM, Universal and I'll toss EPCOT in here too was that they used to really be about doing something awesome and different, while also managing to teach you a little something. Nowadays, we no longer take time to set up the attraction for what it is - we are taking more and more already established properties and building new things out of them.

I get it - it's easier to sell someone on visiting a ride at Jurassic Park than it is to get them to find out how it is made, especially with so many behind the scenes features now being made, but to me, the real magic behind those things were being educated while I was being entertained. Universal Florida is less of an attraction to me without Disaster!, even in it's cheesy format.

Having said that, as a business, I also get that it will be a much bigger attraction to crowds of people who don't like exactly what I do. It's just sad that it seems no parks anywhere now have stuff like this any more... Well, still gotta get myself to Universal Hollywood, before that's changed too much more.