Days after Jim Dolan won a long sought-after chip with his New York Knicks, the billionaire mogul is ready to roll the dice on a major movie bet at his unique orb-shaped venue, The Sphere.
The next movie in the works for a reimagining at the 17,600-seat venue is an experiential take on Jim Sharman’s 1975 cult feature The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which has become a staple of community screenings and has been adapted multiple times for Broadway. At the Sphere, Rocky Horror will unspool sometime in 2027.
While its Wizard of Oz experience had a price tag of around $100 million to bring the adaptation of the 1939 Judy Garland feature to the Vegas masses — including recreating a tornado inside the venue — it’s unclear if Rocky Horror will carry a similar budget. A Sphere rep declined comment on the adaptation’s price tag. The project is being put together in a deal with Primary Wave Music and 20th Century Studios.
“Through Sphere Studios, we are building a slate of original experiences that push the boundaries of technology and storytelling for this new medium, while always keeping the audience at the center of the experience,” Dolan stated in unveiling the project. “Since The Rocky Horror Picture Show premiered in 1975, it redefined audience participation and became a cultural phenomenon. With Sphere, we have the opportunity to take that spirit of immersion to an entirely new level.”
