The AI-infused retooling of The Wizard of Oz that opened last August at Sphere in Las Vegas has now sold almost 3 million tickets, grossing $370 million.
Sphere Entertainment provided the updated tally on the film, which it sees having plenty of playability left, during the company’s first-quarter earnings report. Sphere handily beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations for the January-to-March period, with losses of 4 cents a share far narrower than the Street’s estimate of a loss of 45 cents. Revenue jumped 38% year-over-year to reach $386.4 million, also beating forecasts.
Sphere CEO James Dolan (who affected a giddy tone on the company’s quarterly earnings call Tuesday, perhaps due to his New York Knicks’ recent dominance in the NBA playoffs) discussed plans to build a global “network of Sphere venues.” As of now, the Las Vegas site is the only one up and running, but a full-sized Sphere is progressing through early planning in Abu Dhabi and a scaled-down one at National Harbor near Washington, D.C. is slated to open by 2030. Other sites are being studied for both smaller-scale and full Spheres.
Musical acts like Metallica, U2, Backstreet Boys, The Eagles and Phish have performed concerts at Sphere, with those shows mixing with Wizard of Oz, whose 75-minute running time enables multiple showtimes during days when music is on tap at night.
Dolan said the company has “confidence” in Wizard of Oz being “a strong performer in 2026 and beyond.” The revamped version relied on Google for its AI work. Warner Bros., as the copyright holder was involved in the update of the 1939 classic, as were producers including Jane Rosenthal. Plenty of film purists and critics howled about the overhaul, which by necessity had to use AI to generate characters left out of the original cut of the film.
Given the singular nature of Sphere, which boasts the world’s highest-resolution screen and proprietary sound, ticket prices for Wizard of Oz start at around $100 and go a lot higher. The experience goes far beyond the likes of premium large-format auditoriums showing Hollywood blockbusters, with wind machines, flying monkeys and jets of flame augmenting the visuals.
Sphere President and COO Jennifer Koester said on the earnings call that the company is “seeing solid demand for Wizard of Oz from all segments of the market, and that includes our cost-conscious consumers. … the value proposition is really resonating with consumers.”
Later this year, Sphere will premiere extreme-sports documentary From the Edge, directed by Free Solo Oscar winners E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. The company has said it is talking with a range of IP holders and filmmakers about potential projects to fill out its slate of non-music programming.
Asked by an analyst for the company’s main takeaway from the Oz release, Dolan said it was the fact that the Las Vegas building can accommodate multiple shows in one day. He said a diversified daily offering over time will be “good for the bottom line” of Sphere, whose stock has risen 47% in 2026 to date.
“You’re gonna see things like, at 11 o’clock or 10 o’clock in the morning, The Wizard of Oz; at 2 o’clock From the Edge; at 4 o’clock, a different piece,” he said. “You could have multiple viewers in there because the building is built that way. I mean, there’s literally very little changeover from one show to the other. The biggest changeover is when we do concerts. And even that, we were able to accomplish the changeover in under an hour.”
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