Dinosaurs have returned to Texas, after a 65-million-year hiatus, in a larger-than-life production that is expected to bring thunderous receipts to the Houston area.
Jurassic World: The Exhibition opens a six-month run at Katy Mills Mall today. While it employs about 200 area residents, the exhibit is expected to sell more than half a million tickets, which start at $24 for visitors ages 3 to 15 and $31.99 for those 16 and older.
As the name suggests, the exhibition, which had its world premiere in 2016 in Australia, is inspired by the film franchise and designed to give visitors a taste of the fictional theme park experience, minus the disasters that have transpired in the movies as a result of those classic human weaknesses, greed and hubris. Dinosaurs on display include brachiosaurus, velociraptors and a Tyrannosaurus rex as well as Bumpy, a baby ankylosaurus who stars in a spinoff animated series, “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.”
“It truly is immersive,” said Kurt Baker, senior vice president of global marketing and PR for Neon, an events company that partnered with Universal Studios and NBC to create the exhibition. “You are entering Isla Nublar. You are up close with the dinosaurs to the point that you can touch some of them. It hits on all the emotions.”
The exhibition is family-friendly, he added, although children should keep their wits about them.
“The T. Rex is always lurking,” Baker said.
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Jurassic World: The Exhibition has, like the movie franchise, proved to have global appeal since it first launched in Australia in 2016 with one set, Baker said. Since then, Neon has built five complete sets, which are visited by several million people each year at locations around the world.
The set being used at Katy Mills debuted in Dallas in 2021, Baker said, and went to Denver, San Diego and Atlanta before coming to Houston. Transporting the set requires six containers, or 21 trucks, and building the robotic animatronic dinosaurs is a significant investment in the first place.
“We spend millions of dollars on each of the sets, so in order to recoup that, we need to have long-term staying power,” Baker said.
Shows are currently scheduled through October, and producers are expecting at least 500,000 visitors, although the show’s run could be extended if the demand persists.
“I would love it if it’s a million (visitors),” Baker said. “And we will come back with more exhibitions if it’s a million.”
The Jurassic World exhibition opens as “immersive experiences” have surged in popularity, to the point where some shows are not living up to the hype. A “Willy Wonka Experience” that recently opened in Glasgow, for example, drew the derision of the internet after pictures circulating on social media showed a ramshackle warehouse staffed by bleak-looking characters, like something from one of Roald Dahl’s more frightening short stories.
But post-COVID, thousands of Houstonians have flocked to shows such as “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience,” which ran for several months in 2021. Currently, art enthusiasts are awaiting the opening of Meow Wolf Houston, an art installation that originated in Santa Fe 15 years ago and is expected to open its Fifth Ward location sometime this year.
“Jurassic World: The Exhibition” is expected to be a hit here, having been well-reviewed and well-attended in previous cities. Since 2016, Neon says, more than 8 million people have attended around the world, and the company is building three additional sets to bring the show to more cities.
Like other immersive experiences, Baker noted, Jurassic World: The Exhibition has been boosted in recent years by the post-COVID demand for getting out of the house. But this exhibition is also helped by the enduring appeal of its stars, he added.
“Everyone just has a connection to dinosaurs,” Baker said.
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