Cult favorite “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” will be the next classic film to be transformed for Sphere. Sphere Entertainment has announced that “The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Sphere” is in development and expected to open in Las Vegas in 2027.
Sphere Studios plans to use its proprietary, ultra-high-resolution technologies to enhance and expand the original 1975 film, stretching the bizarre world of Dr. Frank-N-Furter across the venue’s massive 160,000-square-foot interior LED screen. The production will join the venue’s “Sphere Experiences” lineup, stepping into the rotation as The Wizard of Oz at Sphere winds down.
“Through Sphere Studios, we are building a slate of original experiences that push the boundaries of technology and storytelling for this new medium, while always keeping the audience at the center of the experience,” said Jim Dolan, Executive Chairman and CEO of Sphere Entertainment. “Since ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ premiered in 1975, it redefined audience participation and became a cultural phenomenon. With Sphere, we have the opportunity to take that spirit of immersion to an entirely new level.”
The announcement is bound to turn heads—and potentially spark a fresh wave of anxiety among cinephiles. Sphere’s previous cinematic venture, “The Wizard of Oz,” was a massive financial juggernaut pulling in over $400 million, but it drew fierce backlash from film purists because of its use of Google’s generative AI, which digitally inserted characters into backgrounds where they never originally stood, and left 30 minutes of the original film on the editing room floor.
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” has survived for half a century on the backs of its fiercely protective, hyper-passionate fanbase. How those fans will react to an AI-slicked, digitally altered version of their campy, grainy masterpiece remains to be seen. Furthermore, half the fun of “Rocky Horror” is the physical chaos—throwing toast, shouting callbacks, and firing squirt guns. It will be interesting to see how the pristine, multibillion-dollar Sphere handles a crowd that has historically refused to sit still and watch a movie quietly.
