MCA Plans Big Expansion of Its Universal Tour; Seen as Countermove to Disney
MCA Inc. said Tuesday that it will greatly expand its Universal Studios Tour this year, at a cost that may exceed $75 million.
Sidney J. Sheinberg, MCA’s president and chief operating officer, said that the company hopes to boost attendance at the Universal City site by 50%, to as many as 6 million visitors annually, and to increase visitors’ spending by lengthening their average stay.
The expansion appears to be a countermove to Walt Disney Co.’s threat to enter the studio tour business in Southern California.
Three weeks ago, Disney’s chairman told shareholders that Disney is “pretty well committed” to building a new attraction in Los Angeles or Orange County, and that a studio tour is one possibility.
“We’re building a very large mousetrap,” one MCA executive said, alluding to the rivalry. He asked not to be identified.
MCA said the first of four new studio tour attractions will open this summer. Two will be based upon film maker Steven Spielberg’s hit movies “E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “Back to the Future,” while a third will be pegged to a popular MCA television series, “Miami Vice.”
The fourth attraction, “Earthquake-San Francisco,” alludes to a Universal movie currently in development that may become a sequel to Universal’s 1974 box-office hit, “Earthquake,” set in Los Angeles. The tour now offers two dozen attractions spread over 75 to 80 acres. The new attractions and a 2,000-space parking lot will take up another six acres at MCA’s 420-acre complex.
At present, Universal’s 23-year-old tour offers tourists their only glimpse of a major Hollywood studio at work.
But MCA dragged its heels on a 1981 plan to build a similar tour in Orlando, Fla., and in 1986, Disney’s new management team said it would build a $300-million studio tour at Disney World, just west of Orlando. The Disney tour--which has negotiated rights to base some attractions on MGM’s classic films--is scheduled to open late next year.
Goaded by Disney’s move in Florida, MCA announced three months ago that it has formed a 50-50 venture with Cineplex Odeon Corp. to build its oft-delayed studio tour in Orlando. Some television or movie production may begin at the new facilities next year, MCA said.
