By Ben Fritz

LAS VEGAS -- At a development here called Area15, it looks like a Boeing 747 crashed into a warehouse above a maze full of monsters, right next to an extradimensional supermarket.

It might be the next generation of theme parks.

Entertainment companies and developers are rushing to create a high-end middle market for out-of-home entertainment -- something more exciting than minigolf, but less encompassing and daunting than Walt Disney World. They are designed for a family or group of friends to spend a few hundred dollars in an afternoon, rather than several thousand over a week in Orlando, Fla.

Like traditional theme parks, they feature immersive experiences, often tied to popular movies and TV shows, alongside restaurants, bars and shops. They cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to build in a matter of months, compared with full-scale theme parks that take billions of dollars and several years.

"The appetite from consumers is there 100%," said Rahul Gautam, who oversees media and entertainment in the Americas for the consulting firm EY. "And the middle of the market is the most underserved today."

Area15 opened in the early 2020s and is now building out its second zone, which includes Comcast-owned Universal Horror Unleashed, the John Wick Experience and, soon, a Museum of Ice Cream. A third zone with a sports theme is in planning stages.

Netflix opened its first permanent destinations, called Netflix House, over the past two months at shopping centers near Philadelphia and in Dallas.

Entertainment companies are counting on experiences to be their biggest growth engine for the next several years, as television keeps losing eyeballs to YouTube and box-office sales remain soft.

Designers said they are tapping into people's eagerness to get off their phones and create memorable in-person experiences, along with concern about the high cost of traditional theme-park vacations.

"Movies and shopping malls are getting less popular, so there's this opportunity for new things that aren't a full-day destination at the same moment there's a growing desire for experiences out in the world with other people," said Ann Morrow Johnson, global immersive and entertainment leader at the Gensler architecture firm, which worked on Area15 and Netflix House.

Theme-park attendance in the U.S. has been flat for the past couple of years, according to the Themed Entertainment Association trade group and public company filings. Disney and Universal are investing tens of billions of dollars to expand their parks and build new ones in hopes of attracting more people and getting them to spend more.

But their big resorts in Florida and California are no longer the only ways to have fully immersive entertainment experiences built around stories and characters.

The new emerging middle has in part grown out of alternative-reality games and escape rooms that became mainstream entertainment in the 2010s. The Santa Fe, N.M.-based art collective Meow Wolf is a leader in the space and designed the Omega Mart experience that was the anchor tenant for Area15 when it opened.

Located on the edge of an industrial park several minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, Area15 was built to house numerous immersive experiences. Rather than buying one costly ticket for a full day of attractions, visitors walk past artwork from the nearby Burning Man festival and select the experiences they want to pay for .

"We think of it as an open world of different brands and food-and-beverage experiences, and then we're the thread between them," said Area15 Chief Executive Winston Fisher.

Universal Horror Unleashed, which opened in August at Area15, is a permanent version of the Halloween Horror Nights experience that Universal Studios puts on at its theme parks every October, with mazes based on "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Exorcist." The John Wick Experience, based on the Lionsgate action franchise, lets visitors go on a mission through the movies' Continental Hotel. Area15 also has virtual and real-world games as well as immersive art, and is turning the 747-like shell into an event space.

Las Vegas, where the third Netflix House is scheduled to open in 2027, is a popular home for smaller-scale attractions because it has a large local population and draws millions of tourists.

The streaming company built hundreds of pop-up and touring experiences to promote its shows in the past, but is now delving deeper into the business with locations that feature immersive experiences based on popular Netflix series including "Wednesday" and "Squid Game." Unlike traditional theme parks that bet an attraction will be popular for decades, Netflix's are modular, meaning they can move between Netflix Houses and be replaced as demand wanes.

"Real estate is the biggest expense, so for us it's better to have a permanent space and then swap in attractions," said Netflix Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee.

Universal plans to swap out occasionally the mazes in Horror Unleashed, which will open a second location in Chicago in 2027.

North of Dallas, meanwhile, the company is opening a new type of theme park in the months ahead: one just for young children and small enough to experience in a single day, with rides based on "Shrek" and "Minions."

"We want younger children to build a love for our properties and then as they get older, go to our big resorts," said Page Thompson, Universal's president of new ventures.

Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 28, 2025 12:00 ET (17:00 GMT)

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