The AI-powered version of “The Wizard of Oz” presented at the Sphere in Las Vegas made $290 million in ticket revenue in 2025, Sphere Entertainment announced in its earnings call on Thursday.
Sphere CEO James Dolan also revealed that his company is in talks to bring other new presentations to the unique Vegas venue and will develop an “enhanced” version of the “Oz” film that is tentatively scheduled to roll out in late 2026.
“I’m not even sure, to be honest, whether we need ‘Wizard of Oz 2.0’ with the demand that we’re seeing” Dolan said on the earnings call. “But we’re gonna do it anyway. … I think that will probably give that product even more legs, and then we have product behind it that we think is going to be maybe as good as ‘Wizard of Oz.’”
One of those upcoming projects is “From the Edge,” an action sports documentary that will see filmmakers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin reunite with the subject of their Oscar-winning doc, “Free Solo,” climber Alex Honnold.
Along with showing Honnold’s death-defying climbs in the Sphere format, other daredevils like free diver Alenka Artnik, skier Markus Eder, BASE jumper Katie Hansen Lajeunesse and surfer Kai Lenny will be featured in the project, which is expected to come out sometime next winter.
The sphere version of “The Wizard of Oz” uses Google DeepMind AI technology to expand the classic 1939 film starring Judy Garland across the vast expanse of the Sphere’s 16K wraparound LED screen. AI-generated versions of the characters were created to add in characters when they are outside of the frame of the original cut, which was primarily directed by Victor Fleming.
While Dolan said in a CBS Sunday Morning interview that “our standard on this was not to modify the film at all,” the Sphere version of “Oz” cuts roughly 30 minutes from the original version to run at a tight 75 minutes, allowing for more screenings per day and to fit in special screenings and performances from musical acts.
Though that change angered cinephiles online, Sphere “Oz” has nevertheless become a hot ticket among Vegas tourists and residents even at ticket prices starting at $144. Dolan also says that other studios are in talks with Sphere to bring their films to their theaters, though rights issues with creatives may prove to be a hurdle for more recent blockbusters.
“Every IP holder that we talk to is incredibly enthusiastic about taking their IP and putting it into this new medium. They all would like to do it. There’s just a question of, what’s the payback for them, what’s the value of it, and how much revenue can we build off of their IP?” Dolan said.
