PHILADELPHIA – Comcast has Universal Studios theme parks in Hollywood and Orlando. The Walt Disney Company has run Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and other global theme parks for over half a century. And, now, Netflix is getting into the destination mix in its own unique way. This week, the first stand-alone in-person Netflix experience, Netflix House Philadelphia, will open its doors to the public. And it’s genuinely full of surprises.
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Located in suburban Philadelphia, the first Netflix House is a 100,000 square feet multi-purpose event space and includes many of the amenities you’d expect. There’s a Netflix Bites restaurant similar to the first Las Vegas location. There’s an official store where 70% of the merchandise is exclusive and not available online (we were unaware there was actual “Frankenstein” merch until today). And, of course, photo-friendly interactive environments that are in the public lobby (the “Bridgerton” one is quite smart). What you might not expect is a Top 9 mini-golf game (filled with WWE, “Bridgerton,” “Floor is Lava,” and “Is It Cake?” tie-ins), a 229-seat state-of-the-art Tudum theater (available for local events), and two very in-depth “interactive experiences.” The first being “One Piece: Quest for the Devil Fruit,” an escape room-like event that is family-friendly and features franchise easter eggs (and series spoilers). For “One Piece” fans, it will be a lot of fun.
The second is “Wednesday: Eve of the Outcasts,” where everyone’s favorite anti-heroine is forced to take over party hosting duties for her roommate Enid. It begins in a recreation of the duo’s Nevermore Academy dorm room before taking visitors into a large sweeping chamber filled with a multitude of interactive elements, including a carousel (that may not work, but is stunning to look at) and more than enough eye candy to justify the cost (a separate $39 ticket). For anyone skeptical of what Netflix is trying to accomplish, that massive room is impressive enough to make you reconsider. In fact, it’s so eye-popping you may wonder how far away Netflix really is from its own destination theme parks. That’s not a topic Greg Lombardo, Vice President, Experiences, wanted to discuss, but, in his view, the local element to Netflix House is key and a big differentiator from their competitors.
“The mural in the front of the building is by a local artist named Emily White, who is based in Philadelphia and is an incredible muralist and artist,” Lombardo says. “We brought her in to create that mural. On the facade, you’ll see a lot of local flavors brought into the menu at Netflix Bites, the Netflix plot twist, the giant pretzel. We’ve got a whiz, which is really delicious as one of the dipping sauces in Philly. And I think the [Philly-specific] merchandise is a great way, again, to give fans what they want when they want it.”
A Netflix veteran since 2019, Lombardo says the pop-up touring experiences that the streamer has launched over the past few years has informed “every inch” of this new, Netflix House.
“We’ve been to many, many countries around the world,” Lombardo says. “With those popups, we’ve had over 10 million fans go through them, and it really informed our studio spaces, which are these sound stages where we have our featured experiences. And if you think about the studio space, the infrastructure down to the very small details, that was really a space that is going to be much easier to move these experiences in and out throughout the year. A lot of that is because of those great learnings we had by going into former Best Buys and Babies R’ Us boxes on the road. It’s been invaluable.”
As Lombardo explained, new experiences centered on other Netflix properties will switch out throughout the year. The goal is to keep up with what “fans are watching, what our fans are loving.” In other words, the Netflix House concept is destined to be nimble.
“The space is intentionally designed to be able to update and offer people a chance to discover new stories whenever they come,” Lombardo explains. “So whether you have 15 minutes or you have three hours, if you’re a fan of entertainment, we’re pretty sure that you’ll find something to love when you visit. And it’s pretty safe to say that when you come back, there’ll be something new to discover.”
Netflix could have included experiences for “Squid Game,” “Stranger Things,” or other popular franchises in their first house, but decided to save them for Netflix House Dallas, which is scheduled to open next month. While an experience centered around “Wednesday,” the most popular show in Netflix history, is a given, you may not be aware of how big a hit “One Piece” is. Or that a third season has already been greenlit before season two drops this February.
“‘One Piece’ is the most popular anime in the world. It has a massive fan base. And our first season of the live-action ‘One Piece’ did extraordinarily well,” Lombardo says. “And we found that not only did the fans of the anime love that new series, but we brought a lot of new fans to the title into it. Who doesn’t love Pirates, right? And who doesn’t love a good quest? And it’s important for us to offer a real variety of formats within Netflix House. So if you go to “Wednesday: Eve of the Outcast,’ you’re able to walk in and explore it at your leisure and kind of discover ‘One Piece’ is more of a narrative adventure. So, you’ll go from room to room, you’ll encounter villains from season one in every room, and you’ll walk into those worlds of ‘One Piece’ and have to solve some really unique challenges along the way. So, I think ‘One Piece’ worked for a number of reasons. It’s a beloved title, it’s a great world to bring to life, and it offered us a really different format.”
One of the more intriguing decisions behind Netflix’s House strategy is location. Netflix House Philadelphia is a permanent tenant in the King of Prussia mall, a shopping center that is reportedly the third largest in the U.S. Netflix House Dallas is part of the Dallas Galleria Mall, also in a now renovated department store box. And both locations allow for a separate outdoor entry, a smart move for an entertainment space that will often be open to 11 PM or 12 PM on the weekends. Some may wonder if a more urban location would be a more buzzworthy move (a third house, set for next year, will be near the tourist-friendly Las Vegas strip), but the longtime Netflix executive sees major upside in suburbia.
Lombardo notes, “What’s important about that is these balls are very popular destinations already. People come here day in and day out throughout the year, and we want to be really convenient. We want to be accessible to our fans where they are. So going into these really well-trafficked and established mall destinations and then creating this incredible entertainment venue that has all that connectivity and ability to operate all hours of the day, that’s really exciting for us because just like the service at home, when you turn on Netflix, it’s, it’s right there. It’s at your fingertips. And we’ve had fans welcome us into their home for over two decades, and we thought about time, we welcome them into ours.”
Find out more information about Netflix House Philadelphia here.
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