Las Vegas’ giant glowing orb may be about to send Dorothy back down the Yellow Brick Road, with an upgraded batch of flying monkeys along for the ride. Sphere CEO James Dolan is eyeing a September debut for a second-pass version of The Wizard of Oz after the original became the venue’s biggest commercial success yet.
Dolan told KLAS 8 News Now that Sphere plans to debut “Wizard 2.0” in September, although the company has not yet released a formal schedule or detailed what will change. He also acknowledged that Las Vegas is in Sphere’s slower summer season and promised audiences they are “going to go for a ride with the witch.”
The timing is not exactly random. Sphere Entertainment’s second-quarter results showed total revenue of $313.6 million, but the company still posted a $61.3 million operating loss and $50.9 million in adjusted operating income, down 17% from the same quarter last year, according to the company’s earnings report.
Sphere itself was the bright spot, generating $226.4 million in quarterly revenue, up 29%, while its adjusted operating income rose 60% to $39.9 million. The company said 220 performances of The Wizard of Oz at Sphere helped drive higher per-show revenue, making the proposed 2.0 version look less like a novelty and more like a repeatable business model.
That model is already producing blockbuster-level numbers. KLAS reported that The Wizard of Oz has generated roughly $450 million in ticket sales and sold more than 3.6 million tickets, while Sphere shares climbed nearly 6% by the end of Thursday’s trading session.
What Wizard 2.0 Could Change At Sphere
As of Friday, Sphere’s official show calendar still lists the production simply as The Wizard of Oz at Sphere, without a separate 2.0 label. The venue’s current experience runs about 75 minutes and uses its 160,000-square-foot interior display, wraparound visuals and immersive effects, according to the Sphere schedule.
The existing production already includes wind, fog, haptic seats, pyrotechnics, falling objects and other sensory effects, with the venue warning guests about “flying objects” and intense lighting. Sphere’s official experience page also highlights 167,000 programmable speakers and AI-assisted visual techniques, leaving plenty of room for the company to add new spectacle without changing the basic Emerald City itinerary.
Oz Is Carrying Sphere’s Bigger Expansion Plan
The company is using the Las Vegas hit to build a broader content and venue pipeline. Sphere Entertainment says The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Sphere is expected in 2027, Sphere Abu Dhabi is targeted for completion by the end of 2029, and plans for a National Harbor venue continue moving forward; Hoodline previously described that project as a mini-Sphere gamble.
For Las Vegas, the stakes are straightforward: keep a high-cost venue busy between concert residencies and turn one successful nostalgia property into a durable franchise. If Dolan’s September target holds, the next wave of flying monkeys may be less about a new movie than a test of whether Sphere can keep re-selling the same trip to Oz.
