www.parkworld-online.com
Dr Jack Samuels
that elevate the movie's engagement.
Finally, a driver for movie theater success has got to be the reduction in the number of theaters after COVID. A great number of independent or small chain theater operators closed their doors during COVID and never reopened. This has greatly reduced competition between venues. 3. The preponderance of the conversion of shopping centers to what I called in the 1980’s in several publications “Leisuremalls”. Instead of retail merchandise stores, many mall operators and other retail lessors are renting their space to leisure and entertainment facilities at attractive rates. These types of enterprises are opening at a scary rate. It is highly doubtful that all of these attractions will survive. The American Dream Mall in New Jersey is the first true “Leisuremall,” as it has more space leased to recreation and entertainment than merchandise stores. The number of small attractions, as well as larger ones such as the huge indoor waterpark and theme park, makes it unlikely that all of these will survive.
In the more local to my home Rockaway Mall, a Simon Property, they have been rapidly leasing to attractions including a more traditional game room, a newer concept called “Digland Kids”, which has a variety of miniature construction-type vehicle
OCTOBER 2026
toys that kids can play with in a huge sandbox, and a “Power-up Arena,” a large active playpark attraction on two levels. The latter is in the category of imaginative, active playgrounds that seem to be spreading fast; not far from Rockaway, another attraction in this category, called “Adrenova Park,” has opened in a strip mall. The footprint of the later is about one tenth the size of the Rockaway Mall facility.
One that has already failed is the reported $10 million investment in a playschool-based attraction at Garden State Plaza. This attraction was based on legendary toys like Play-Doh and Tinkertoys. The attraction largely failed due to the limited market for it, which was largely three- to five-year- olds. Much too narrow a market to sustain such an
attraction, as the investors found out. Interestingly, in the same upstairs location, there was a planned attraction based on another of Hasbro's products. This was supposed to be a Nerf-based attraction. This attraction would be far more likely to succeed due to a much larger demographic audience. There would have been other aspects of the attraction that would have made it a hit, such as repeat appeal due to the competitive nature of many of its elements.
New York City and other locations around the world are also seeing a lot of what we would call sensory attractions. Many of these will fail due to their large footprints, lack of repeat appeal, and the over-preponderance of similar facilities. New York also plays host to a lot of vertical tourism attractions, a category that I wrote about the growth of years ago. These include Rockefeller Center’s “Top Of the Rock”, the World Trade Center “One World Observatory”, and the newly remodeled to compete with others Empire State Building, “SUMMIT One Vanderbilt,” that combines art with a view, and “The Edge” at Hudson Yards, the only one with 360-degree views as the platform is all glass. There does seem to be an endless demand for this sort of thing due to digital photography opportunities to commemorate your visit.
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