Super heroes in your amusement parks

Super hero films are huge right now and it was only a matter of time before those who own the rights to said famously named properties decided to capitalize on them and put them into amusement parks.  Some names have been around for decades, such as Batman and his place at MagicMountain in Southern California.  But this is just a ride or two, not the proper super hero treatment that one wants to see, like the grandeur that is the Harry Potter World in Orlando, Florida.  Luckily for us, they’re working on it!  Check out some of the projects that are on the way in the coming years, along with one that is already complete.

If you happen to get to the Gold Coast in Australia, there’s a place called Warner Bros. Movie World.  This park has a variety of attractions, from fast roller coasters to nice, slow, relaxing rides, all in the tradition of Warner Bros. properties.  This includes non-super hero themes, such as Looney Tunes and Ice Age, and the super hero rides, featuring names like Batman, the Green Lantern and Superman.  The mix of attractions makes it great for kids and adults alike.

One of the bigger upcoming projects in the Marvel Adventure addition to Dubailand.  This massive, $5 billion undertaking will be a 350,000 indoor park and feature all the popular names that we’re seeing in the theaters right now, as long as they’re owned by Marvel Studies and Disney.  The plan is to have it all open and ready to go come late this year, but we’ll see how that goes.  They’ve been talking about it since 2007, so delays are nothing new.  Plus, the park has been having some issues with attendance, so this one may never end up getting off the ground.

Luckily, there’s a potential back-up Marvel theme park.  It’s actually a proposal to buy up more land around the classic Anaheim Disneyland and put in a Marvel-themed section.  Of course, it’s still just a rumor and, let’s face it, property in Southern California isn’t the cheapest.  So they might end up electing to put up their Marvel rides at another of their parks, like…

…Disneyland in Hong Kong.  This one is confirmed, Disney will be putting together their first Marvel project at their park on this island nation.  This could be an effort to balance out the fact that the Hong Kong Disney is the smallest of all of them.  A bunch of Marvel rides could really bring in the dough over there.  Of course, those of us on this side of the world will be left out unless we want to take a trip across the ocean.  Well, either way, we have until 2017 to figure it out, because it’s going to take them that long to finish it.

So if you’re a super hero fan, keep your eyes open. No doubt these aren't the only ones coming into development in the future.  Plus, we've still got the X-Men and the Fantastic Four to think about, assuming Fox Studios gets on the theme-park bandwagon.

Gotham City Cafe (WB Movie World) photo courtesy of Phalinn Ooi