Let me tell you about my surreal morning. I'm walking up the pastel-colored stairs from Squid Game with other journalists in a single-file line, genuinely frightened of what lies before me. In the South Korean Netflix series, characters who ascend these stairs usually end up in body bags after failing some killer children's game. Me? I arrive in a food court, where options include WWE Smashburgers, Stranger Things-inspired BLT's, and Selling Caesar salads. I may not be forced to walk the Squid Game glass bridge or die trying, but I'm certainly being tested today.
This morning, I visited the site of the Netflix House—a new entertainment complex at the King of Prussia mall in Philadelphia, PA, which opens to the public on Wednesday. Though Netflix stars will walk the red carpet tonight to celebrate the grand opening, I was there a bit earlier in the day to preview the streamer's first attempt to leverage their most popular shows into a Dave & Busters-esque experience. If Netflix will ever make the jump from a streaming service to a Universal Studios theme park, this is where it all begins.
The Netflix House is a massive site containing a Dolby theater, a nine-hole miniature golf course, a food court named Netflix Bites, multiple VR experiences, a One Piece-themed escape room, a Wednesday-themed arcade, shops to purchase exclusive merchandise only available at Netflix House, and unlimited areas to take photos such as a replica of Wednesday's door room and life-size cut-outs of the KPop Demon Hunters singers. Somehow, I rested the urge to take a selfie in front of the Philadelphia-specific "NetPHLix" sign.
Right now, it's just as chaotic as it sounds. The Netflix House is a hodgepodge of fandom where bright and flowery Bridgeton photo displays are propped up right next to a gargantuan replica of the sentient dismembered hand from Wednesday. The building reminds me of my trip to the opening of Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2023. One step outside of Mario's Toadstool Kingdom and you're high-fiving a mascot of Optimus Prime right beside a gaggle of Minions enjoying some Johnny Rockets milkshakes.
It's disorienting. But according to CNBC, Disney's theme parks brought in $34.15 billion last year. So, the streamer is throwing all their IP at the wall at Netflix House to see what sticks for audiences outside Philadelphia. (Netflix is also opening locations in Dallas, Texas and Las Vegas, Nevada). Instead of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, Netflix has Wednesday Addams, Eleven, and the Squid Game guards. It might not be a seamless experience, but I bet walking from Disney's spinning tea cups to the Tower of Terror didn't make any sense at first either.
When I was a kid, one of the best places to hang out was the bowling alley. It had arcade games, laser tag, pizza, soda, and glow-in-the-dark pins. You could bowl for strikes, wipe the floor with your friends at the air hockey table, and shoot zombies on one of those House of the Dead arcade consoles with the plastic guns attached. You had your birthday there, probably, but for parents I imagine it was just a place to go with your kids. In 2025, it may take something like the Netflix House for children to leave their homes—or for parents to even want to take them there.
I'm a bit skeptical of this entire ordeal, if you couldn't tell. A man dressed as a navy officer from One Piece who barks orders at me in an immersive escape room isn't exactly my personal idea of fun. Neither is a WWE Smashburger with crumbling buns and incredibly thin patties. Each experience, including the bizarre nine-hole miniature golf where you're playing for points instead of abiding by regular golf rules, also costs around $39 per ticket. The One Piece escape room averages around an hour in length. And if my tour guide is right in predicting that, "for hardcore fans of One Piece, everyone will want a picture with the ship," then I imagine long lines for photo ops will awkwardly flood all these spaces—some over 15,000 square feet in maze-like floor designs.
After my tour, I sat down at the "Now Pouring" bar in the Netflix Bites food court and spotted a drink on the menu named The Mind Flayer. It's a Stranger Things-inspired cocktail with Maker's Mark Bourbon, lemon juice, and blackberries that arrives with a cloud of cotton candy on top. Maybe—just maybe—it's the right concoction of sugar and booze needed to really appreciate a place like the Netflix House. I didn't order one. I don't even think the bar was open, even though a drink would have helped. So, I took a moment to really take in the decorations at the venue instead. I saw a sign above my head that read "Orange is the New Snack" and I chuckled out loud.
Was I finally starting to see the full picture of the Netflix House, or does the algorithm work its way through the air vents in here? For now, I just need to find those Squid Games stairs again. Unlike the series, I'm lucky that I was allowed to leave the Netflix House alive.
No comments:
Post a Comment