While most of us are looking forward to Transformers 3: Dark Side of the Moon (the trailer looks awesome), people who regularly visit Universal Studios Hollywood or Universal Studios Singapore can look forward to an amusement park ride base on Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise.
This caused me, as a Floridian to ask, when will Universal Studios Orlando get a Transformers ride? After all, Disney now owns Marvel Comics so it has to be strange for Universal to have a large portion of Islands of Adventure dedicated to a competitor’s properties.
However, from sources I have at both Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando it seems that Universal has no intention of getting out of their contract with Marvel any sooner than they have to, while it is Disney that is pushing to buy Universal out of its Marvel contract.
The main reason for this is Harry Potter. Ever since Universal’s Islands of Adventure opened its Harry Potter section ticket sales have gone up while Disney World’s ticket sales have remained fairly stagnant. As a result, Disney would love to build some new Marvel-themed rides to attract more customers; but as mentioned, Universal has no need to do Disney this favor.
Further more, if Universal were to get out of its contract with Disney/Marvel, then it would have to commit to redesigning Islands of Adventure Marvel Island into an entire Transformers-theme Island, or, similar to Universal Studios Singapore, an entire Science Fiction orientated section; a decision which would force Universal to invest significant amounts of money and time.
And being that Universal is still benefiting from the popularity of its Harry Potter section, there is no financial need for it to let go of its Marvel properties and build new attractions. Based on all this information, I can’t imagine Universal Studios Orlando building a Transformers ride until they are contractual forced to give up their Marvel Island.
-Scifipulse
