Retooled Version Of ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ Could Run For Another 10 Years At Sphere, James Dolan Says

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 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.

Sphere CEO James Dolan, speaking Thursday on the company’s second-quarter earnings 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.

“There’s always going to be an audience for that product,” Dolan said of Oz. “That’s one of the reasons we picked it, because it’s so universally loved and it has tremendous legs.”

Sphere shares were up 6% toward the end of the trading day following the earnings call and a better-than-expected quarterly report. The 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’ forecasts.

On the question of durability, Dolan pointed to O, the Cirque du Soleil show that has played for 30-plus years just down the Las Vegas Strip from Sphere at Bellagio. “It doesn’t seem like the appetite for that show has diminished at all,” he said.

A new “2.0” version of Wizard of Oz, as the chief exec called it, will bring “some fun modifications and additions” when it premieres in September. Dolan said audience members are “going to go for a ride with a witch” and encounter “new kinds of flying monkeys” inside the massive venue, which has a state-of-the-art screen and sound system to go with its cavernous interior space. “I think you’re going to see that the product remains robust in its demand. If I could make more Wizards of Oz, I definitely would.”

Some 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’s 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.

As the company ramps up its original content offering, it has announced plans for a new version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is slated to bow next March. “That will give us the ability to service families in the daytime and then a more adult audience in the evening,” Dolan noted.

Asked how many shows will be playing at Sphere by the end of 2027, Dolan said he could “guess” it would be three to four. The Wizard of Oz 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’s highest-resolution screen. It also involved Warner Bros, producers including Jane Rosenthal, the estate of Judy Garland, and other stakeholders.

End to end, Dolan estimated, the project took about two years. Rocky Horror, he estimated, will require about a year as the management team finds ways to systematize the process.

“As we continue to build out Spheres, our ability to create and monetize content increases,” Dolan said. “I just want us to stay ahead of that.”