{"id":22529,"date":"2026-07-31T00:23:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22529"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:23:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:23:33","slug":"retooled-version-of-the-wizard-of-oz-could-run-for-10-more-years-at-sphere-james-dolan-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22529","title":{"rendered":"Retooled Version Of &#8216;The Wizard Of Oz&#8217; Could Run For 10 More Years At Sphere, James Dolan Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<em><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/the-wizard-of-oz\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-wizard-of-oz\" data-tag=\"the-wizard-of-oz\">The Wizard of Oz<\/a><\/em>, approaching the first anniversary of its new lease on life at Sphere, could run for a decade at the Las Vegas site, company founder <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/james-dolan\/\" id=\"auto-tag_james-dolan\" data-tag=\"james-dolan\">James Dolan<\/a> believes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe 1939 film was tightened and retooled by a team from Google DeepMind and other tech, film and live event specialists. After making its debut last August 28 amid growing audience demand for premium experiences, the film has gone on to gross more than $400 million and sell more than 3 million tickets as of June, according to company figures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tSphere CEO James Dolan, speaking Thursday on the company\u2019s second-quarter <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/earnings\/\" id=\"auto-tag_earnings\" data-tag=\"earnings\">earnings<\/a> call, said the film  will gain upside as additional Sphere locations open in the coming years. Two sites, one full-sized one in Abu Dhabi and one smaller-scale one near Washington, DC, are projected to open in the next four years, and a number of other locations are being evaluated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s always going to be an audience for that product,\u201d Dolan said of <em>Oz<\/em>. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the reasons we picked it, because it\u2019s so universally loved and it has tremendous legs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tSphere shares were up 6% toward the end of the trading day following the earnings call and a better-than-expected quarterly report.\u00a0The company posted a loss of $1.07 a share on revenue of $313.6 million in the April-to-June period, with both metrics beating Wall Street analysts\u2019 forecasts. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tOn the question of durability, Dolan pointed to <em>O<\/em>, the Cirque du Soleil show that has played for 30-plus years just down the Las Vegas Strip from Sphere at Bellagio. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like the appetite for that show has diminished at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tA new \u201c2.0\u201d version of <em>Wizard of Oz<\/em>, as the chief exec called it, will bring \u201csome fun modifications and additions\u201d when it premieres in September. Dolan said audience members are \u201cgoing to go for a ride with a witch\u201d and encounter \u201cnew kinds of flying monkeys\u201d inside the massive venue, which has a state-of-the-art screen and sound system to go with its cavernous interior space. \u201cI think you\u2019re going to see that the product remains robust in its demand. If I could make more <em>Wizards of Oz<\/em>, I definitely would.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tSome film critics and cinephiles have blanched at the fact that 25 minutes of running time and some musical numbers were cut for the Las Vegas booking. But the shorter duration enables more showtimes, and more opportunity to sell onsite merchandise, a key element in Sphere\u2019s business model. While it has added film to its programming mix, Sphere has focused mostly on live music since its launch in 2023, with acts like U2, Phish and the Eagles playing short residencies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAs the company ramps up its original content offering, it has <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/06\/the-rocky-horror-picture-show-2027-sphere-las-vegas-1236957696\/\">announced plans for a new version of <em>The Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/em><\/a>, which is slated to bow next March. \u201cThat will give us the ability to service families in the daytime and then a more adult audience in the evening,\u201d Dolan noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAsked how many shows will be playing at Sphere by the end of 2027, Dolan said he could \u201cguess\u201d it would be three to four. <em>The Wizard of Oz<\/em> was a fairly complicated undertaking, beyond the delicate task of reconceiving an 87-year-old classic shot in a nearly square aspect ratio for a spherical space wrapped by the world\u2019s highest-resolution screen. It also involved Warner Bros, producers including Jane Rosenthal, the estate of Judy Garland, and other stakeholders. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tEnd to end, Dolan estimated, the project took about two years. <em>Rocky Horror<\/em>, he estimated, will require about a year as the management team finds ways to systematize the process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cAs we continue to build out Spheres, our ability to create and monetize content increases,\u201d Dolan said. \u201cI just want us to stay ahead of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Wizard of Oz, approaching the first anniversary of its new lease on life at Sphere, could run for a decade at the Las Vegas site, company founder James Dolan believes. The 1939 film was tightened and retooled by a team from Google DeepMind and other tech, film and live event specialists. After making its&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Wizard-of-Oz-Sphere-exterior.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}