Poof! Harry Potter park to appear in Hollywood

[December 07, 2011]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Harry Potter theme park is coming to California.

Universal Studios executives said Tuesday that the company will spend several hundred million dollars to build a Harry Potter attraction inside its existing Hollywood theme park, mimicking the success of a similar park in Florida.

At the same time, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando will get an expansion. Since the Harry Potter attraction opened in June of last year, attendance has jumped by about 50 percent.

"It was a game changer for us and frankly for Orlando," Universal Studios president Ron Meyer told reporters after Tuesday's event. "The expansion in Orlando will make it that much more of a must-see, and we'll have the same experience here."

Executives did not immediately describe their plans for the Hollywood park, but Meyer said there was enough room to expand.

"We're not landlocked," Meyer said. "We're (on) 400 acres on this lot, and 200 of them are still not developed."

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the attraction would open around 2014, but officials did not give a date.

Comcast Corp. bought a majority stake in NBCUniversal in January in a $13.5 billion deal. It bought out its 50 percent partner in the Universal Orlando theme park, The Blackstone Group, for $1.03 billion in June.

In the nine months through September, its theme-park revenue rose 33 percent from a year ago to $1.49 billion, while operating cash flow jumped 61 percent to $644 million.

[Associated Press; By RYAN NAKASHIMA]

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