Final week, The Wizard of Oz at Sphere in Las Vegas debuted, and it instantly wowed audiences. It’s not one thing you’ll discover on the 2025 film schedule, as a result of from the movies I’ve seen, it’s an entire lot greater than only a cinema expertise. We’ve talked lots about 4DX films right here at CinemaBlend, however Sphere takes that to an entire new degree, and the movies which have begun circulating on social media present simply how wonderful its first main movement image expertise is.
Now, it’s time to up the ante and mix two of the very best artistic endeavors within the twentieth Century, The Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd’s legendary Darkish Facet of the Moon, similar to I used to on my 27” tube TV in faculty within the ‘90s. It is already an enormous time for the basic story, with the field workplace success of Depraved. Let’s hold issues rolling!
The Wizard Of Oz Appears Like An Unimaginable Expertise
Once I first began seeing movies pop up on Instagram over the weekend, when The Wizard of Oz started its run, I instantly began plotting a fast weekend jaunt out to Sin Metropolis to see it. I used to be fortunate sufficient to catch 4 Phish exhibits at Sphere in 2024, and I used to be blown away by the display screen, positive, however much more by the sound of the cutting-edge venue. For The Wizard of Oz, they pulled out all of the stops:
The chairs shake, the wind blows, the leaves and apples fall from the ceiling, and that display screen seems unbelievable, particularly when you think about the film is sort of 90 years previous (but nonetheless extremely influential). I scoffed on the ticket costs at first (even probably the most reasonably priced tickets are over $100), but it surely’s simple to see from the movies {that a} ton of manufacturing went into this, and the costs, although stunning for a film, are comprehensible.
Let’s Use That Sound System For Some Pink Floyd!
Lengthy earlier than anybody knew what “going viral” meant in a popular culture sort of method, we had issues like “Darkish Facet of the Rainbow.” With lots of people in my era, phrase unfold from coast to coast that when you hit play on Pink Floyd’s Darkish Facet of the Moon on the proper time in the beginning of the film (the second time the MGM lion roars), the music and the lyrics would sync up virtually completely with the visuals of The Wizard of Oz.
For some time, we had been doing it each weekend, it appears. We’d argue over whether or not it was performed on goal by David Gilmour and firm, or if it was only a comfortable accident (it’s the latter), and we cherished each second of it. It’s an album I’ve cherished since junior excessive, and I nonetheless love right this moment, even when I’ve heard it tons of or hundreds of occasions at this level in my life. Now, I wish to hear it with that unbelievable sound system at Sphere, whereas feeling the wind blown in the course of the twister with Clare Torry’s highly effective voice belting out the singing in “Nice Gig In The Sky.”
I’m nonetheless going to attempt to get out to Vegas for the “common” model of The Wizard of Oz at Sphere, but when they lower a take care of Pink Floyd and mix it with Darkish Facet, and add it to the 2026 film schedule, I’ll be first in line.