We have the back lot and the soundstages just down the hill-where directors shoot their movies. “The Universal heritage is storytelling,” Pa explains, “and having a narrative thread is one way to make an experience more entertaining, more enjoyable-and more successful. “We asked: What if we extended the immersive environment we created in our park into the cinema?” They were looking to blur the boundaries between the studio tour and the theatre, to create an experience that would seem to uniquely belong there. “From our work on The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we learned that a fully immersive environment creates an overall feeling beyond what is actually there,” he says. He was a member of the re-imagination team. In 2007, the cinema became an AMC theatre and stadium seating was added, but as the years moved on, the theatre began to look dated, needing a major renovation.īut what happened to the Universal CityWalk’s AMC Theatre in Hollywood was more fundamental and far-reaching than a simple renovation the whole exhibition experience was re-imagined from a very different point of view.įernando Pa is senior director of design and planning for Universal Creative, the team that develops new attractions for the studio tour and refreshes CityWalk. Six years later, CityWalk Hollywood, a three-block promenade for dining, shopping and entertainment, was built around it. It had 18 screens and one IMAX auditorium total seating capacity was 5,485. Thirty years ago, on July 1, 1987, Cineplex Odeon opened a theatre just up the hill from Universal Studios Hollywood.

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