Have you ever wanted to participate in the Squid Games? Perhaps you’d like to visit Hawkins, Indiana from Stranger Things? Starting next month you may get that chance in Dallas and Philadelphia in a new concept called Netflix House. Netflix is bringing its internet entertainment to the real world in the form of “immersive, in-world experiences that let you step inside your favorite shows, dig into themed meals at our in-House restaurant NETFLIX BITES, or grab exclusive merch from our shop.” These aren’t “rides” in the classic theme park sense, but more immersive worlds with actors and other interactive elements. These new venues will be called Netflix House Dallas and Netflix House Philadelphia and will be permanent locations where you can interact with your favorite Netflix worlds.

Immersive, in-world experiences that let you step inside your favorite shows, dig into themed meals at our in-House restaurant NETFLIX BITES, or grab exclusive merch from our shop.

https://www.netflixhouse.com/

Netflix has done many immersive temporary installs and pop-ups before, but these are permanent locations. Netflix House builds on more than 40 previous live experiences for Bridgerton, Money Heist, Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Perfect Bite, and NETFLIX BITES. The new “houses” will essentially serve as a place to group these great experiences permanently and like the previous Netflix live experiences, it appears live actors will be a big part of the Netflix House experience (based on current job listings). I’d expect the individual experiences in these permanent locations to swap out from time to time (just like a theme park gets a new attraction), but the facility will remain ready to accept the next new hot IP. The Dallas and Philadelphia locations will both be attached to large malls, Galleria Dallas and King of Prussia Mall respectively, with around 100,000 square feet of space. Getting space like that probably wasn’t too tough with the closure of a lot of mall department stores (the Dallas Netflix House location was a Belks department store) and I’d guess the malls will be thrilled to have them to help increase traffic in general. Both those locations are slated to open in 2025 with the Las Vegas location opening in 2027.

It sounds as if each location will not be a carbon copy of the other and have some distinct attractions. At Netflix House Philadelphia you’ll experience immersive environments based on Wednesday and One Piece along with VR games at Netflix Virtuals based on top Netflix IP, high-tech mini golf at Top 9 and screenings at Tudum Theater (named after the Netflix “sound”). At Netflix House Dallas, you can experience immersive environments based on Squid Games and Stranger Things along with “Netflix RePLAY”, an arcade-like experience with physical challenges, story rooms, and retro-style gaming. Netflix has already launched the Netflix House website with tons of information to keep fans updated and where you can join a wait-list for early access tickets and have a great Tadum blog article about it..

Netflix has long been considered a competitor of companies like Disney, but that’s been restricted to competing with the Disney+ streaming service and merchandise. The opening of Netflix House opens up a further area of competition between the two companies in the form of experiences. In the past Netflix has licensed out its properties to theme parks for use in things like haunted houses like the Stranger Things haunted houses at Six Flags last year, but but Netflix may now choose to keep this IP for themselves going forward. Many of the Netflix properties can be on the “dark” side and more suited for Halloween attractions. However, Halloween fright is now becoming a year round business with companies like Universal opening up a permanent Halloween Unleashed location at Area 15 in Las Vegas in August.

It’ll be fun to see where Netflix takes this over the next few years. I’m not expecting huge outdoor parks with roller coasters anytime soon, but things more like the Area 15 in Las Vegas and its Meow Wolf Omega Mart. Some of the legendary immersive experiences like the Hilton In many ways there is a Venn diagram of entertainment where theming and rides often overlap at our typical theme park. However, great theming doesn’t always need a ride like has been demonstrated with Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart. Immersive entertainment lets us lose ourselves in a different world for a brief period of time. If you’ve been to the Las Vegas location you know it’s so much more than a grocery store (no spoilers here). With technology the lines between different types of “immersive entertainment’ are blurring with theme park, family entertainment center, VR and other types of live experiences all vying for guest dollars. More themed entertainment choices closer to home is a win for themed entertainment fans.