Greed is good. Gordon Gekko preached this philosophy in 1987’s Wall Street and again in its already forgotten 2010 sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. While the braggadocio largely died in the wake of the housing crisis, a lot of folks still obsess over big numbers. In the industry of theme park tourism, that means taking a look at which rides cost the most to build.
A lot of this information is shrouded in secrecy. It’s hard to keep the financing of a major theme park attraction hidden forever, though. It’s also a fascinating examination of how much capital major corporations must spend if they want to keep guests vacationing at their mind-bogglingly expensive properties.
The entry fee to earn a spot on the list of the most expensive theme park attractions is nine figures, yet companies have willingly paid that price for 20 years now. So, some inflation adjustment is also required to balance out the differences between a dollar then and a dollar today. Though this list is hardly exhaustive or all-inclusive, here’s a list of the six of most expensive theme park attractions ever built (in no particular order).
1. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey – $131 million
Image: Wikimedia Commons (license)
When Universal Studios acquired the rights to the Harry Potter license, even they couldn’t have known just how large a reversal of fortune their Orlando theme park was about to experience. In 2008, their two parks claimed total admissions of 11.5 million people. In 2014, that total was 16.3 million. And their totals keep on growing.
The reason Universal boosted its attendance almost 50 percent in six years is that they took Harry Potter seriously. Whereas Disney execs only intended to make it another intellectual property to throw on their (massive) pile, Universal showed the willingness to make it the life’s blood of their operation. Their first Harry Potter attraction had to be authentic enough to entice fence-sitters to give an otherwise mediocre theme park for the time a chance to win their loyalty.
How big did Universal bet on Harry Potter? $265 million in 2009 is the equivalent of $293 million today. This figure is even more impressive when you consider that Universal was flying blind with the franchise, simply hoping that this initial investment would produce a return. They had no idea that this new land would be as big as it eventually became. Though that $131 million investment may have seemed like a hard pill to swallow back in 2009, this attraction has undoubtedly paid for itself many, many times over.
2. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt – $186 million
Image: Disney
While reading this list, something that should jump off the page at you is how much deeper Disney’s pockets are than the competition. They are technically part of a theme park oligopoly, but it’s a functional monopoly. Disney’s attendance more than doubles that of the next closest competitor. The way that Disney protects their brand by investing enough money in new rides and technologies that they maintain the perception that they’re the only theme park that matters.
Pooh’s Hunny Hunt is a wonderful demonstration of this. Few theme park fans realize that Tokyo Disneyland can stake an argument as the most popular theme park in the world. In terms of 2014 attendance, two of the four most visited parks in the world were here, not Walt Disney World. To maintain their popularity, The Oriental Land Company and The Walt Disney Company agree to try daring new rides here. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt is a singularly unique bouncing trackless ride that cost $135 million to build in 2000. A lot of that cost was for the research and development required to build such a novel attraction. If you don’t plan to go to Japan but want to know how the ride works, you can watch this video.
3. Radiator Springs Racers – $206 million
Image: Disney
Radiator Springs Racers is the linchpin of the billion-dollar Cars Land expansion at Disney California Adventure. Since the entire mountain surrounding the ride is arguably part of the backdrop, an argument could be made to slot this one in first place. You can learn more about the distinction between the ride and the mountain here, but the gist is that Disney was going to build Cars Land with or without a Test Track clone. It’s cheating to list Radiator Springs Racers for anything (significantly) beyond $200 million in 2012. Even so, the attention to detail in recreating the world of Pixar’s Cars exemplifies why theme park tourists are so passionate about visiting Disney parks. They’re the gold standard in quality.
4. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – $216 million
Image: Disney
We could fill out a whole list with variations of this same attraction. Four versions exist, and the net cost of them is more than half a billion dollars. Determining which one cost the most to build comes down to which estimate you believe. The generally accepted price tag for the original version at Hollywood Studios is $150 million in 1994, which is almost exactly $240 million today. The Tower of Terror at Tokyo DisneySea cost more money in theory. The financial outlay on it was $191 million in 2006, but that’s “only” $225 million today. The cheapest Tower of Terror was built at Disney California Adventure. It came in right at $100 million in 2004, which is $125 million today.
While the numbers above are all huge, Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris surpasses them all. The $240 million investment in 2007 is the equivalent of $275 million today. That brings the overall price tag on Disney’s Towers of Terror to $865 million, or $216 million per tower. This is a good time to mention that an amusement park can build a decent drop tower for about $5 million today. Consider this $210 million difference in cost the high price of atmosphere. Disney would never build a generic drop tower when they craft an entire fake hotel instead.
5. Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy – $270 million
Image: Disney
Ratatouille is one of the most underrated Pixar films to date. It’s a masterpiece of storytelling that focuses on how eating unites people and creatures alike. The title reflects the celebration of peasant food, and Disney cleverly capitalized on the concept at Disneyland Paris. In 2014, they built another Hunny-type of attraction, a trackless ride through Gusteau’s restaurant. Guests shrink down to rat size for it, then they grow back in time to exit the attraction right by Bistrot Chez Rémy, which is perfect since they’ve thought about nothing but food during the entire ride.
Disney invested this much on Ratatouille for a couple of reasons. The first is that local position system-based trackless rides are expensive to build and operate. The second is that the place the world knows as Euro Disney needed a hit. Since their movie was set in Paris and celebrated French cuisine, it was a perfect fit. The ride’s popularity speaks to this fact. One of the recurring themes on this list is that when Disney wants to expand, they like to tie together a great ride technology with an iconic character.
6. Test Track – $290 million
Image: Disney
More than any other attraction listed here, Test Track requires some guesstimating. That’s because the initial reports of the construction cost indicated Disney authorized $300 million toward the project. Upon its release, a lot of reporters decided that $100 million of that went to the ride itself. Since the World of Motion building already existed, it’s difficult to explain the thought process there. Even splitting the difference with a $200 million outlay in 1998, that’s still the equivalent of $290 million today. Plus, Test Track received major renovations in 2012 that cost tens of millions more, so it’s unquestionably the only theme park attraction to date that cost more than $300 million in current dollars.
The expense of Test Track includes several factors. General Motors, the original sponsor for the ride, wanted World of Motion to highlight their brand and products. When Disney shuttered World of Motion, their idea for building the fastest roller coaster in Orlando sputtered a bit. The technology for Test Track proved too challenging at first, which forced them to miss their initial 1997 deadline. Since project delays inevitably spike the manufacturing cost of a product, the turn of events makes the later price-lowering of Test Track all the stranger. Whatever the explanation, Test Track is likely either your favorite or second favorite ride at Epcot. Even at its record-setting price tag, that’s money well spent by Disney.
The future champions
Image: Disney
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts didn’t quite make this list. The explanation is that it doesn’t benefit from inflation adjustment. There also isn’t a hard figure about its cost. All that’s certain is that Universal invested somewhere between $250 and $300 million on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter expansion. So, it’s neck and neck with Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey as far as anyone knows right now.
The next record-setter will come from Shanghai Disney. Disney’s spent $5.5 billion on their latest theme park, and they’re trumpeting three of their attractions as technologically innovative. Pirates of the Caribbean will enter the 21st century thanks to projection mapping technology and a story tied to the movie franchise, which does extremely well in China. The ride that might top them all in terms of cost is from a different franchise, though. TRON Lightcycle Power Run looks spectacular and EXTREMELY expensive. You can learn a lot more about Shanghai Disney in this video
