Universal Studios Florida (also known as Universal Studios or USF) is a theme park located in Orlando, Florida. Primarily themed to movies, television and other aspects of the entertainment industry, the park opened to the public on June 7, 1990. It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal and features numerous rides, attractions and live shows. Universal Studios Florida was the first component of the larger Universal Orlando Resort to open, ranking eleventh in the world and sixth in North America for attendance among amusement parks in 2019 while hosting approximately 10.9 million visitors. In addition to the theme park aspect, early design focused on providing guests with a behind-the-scenes look at film and television. A significant portion of the park operated as an active production studio. As producers and filmmakers showed a lack of interest in filming onsite in Orlando, Universal's approach evolved, transitioning to a first-person perspective for its heavily themed rides, areas and attractions. The resort eventually expanded with the introduction of two additional theme parks, Universal's Islands of Adventure, the restaurant and retail epicenter Universal CityWalk, both in 1999, and Volcano Bay in 2017. In 1982, Universal contemplated the idea of opening an amusement park in Florida to compete with Disney.They considered building a larger, more immersive version of their Studio Tour tram ride located in Hollywood, retaining the Backlot tour theme to set it apart from what Disney was offering at Disney World.However, Universal abandoned the idea after attempts to partner with a skeptical Paramount Pictures failed to materialize.They continued to focus on their Universal Studios location in Los Angeles, planning an upgrade to the Studio Tour with a new, massive scene based on the 1976 film King Kong.It opened in 1986 as King Kong Encounter and became an instant hit with guests, which prompted Universal to revisit the notion of building a Florida theme park. That same year, former Disney Imagineer Peter Alexander, who worked on the life-size King Kong animatronic and was now an executive at Universal Creative, met with his friend and renowned director Steven Spielberg to discuss the creation of a Back to the Future simulator ride.Star Wars creator George Lucas, who recently helped Disney design the well-received Star Tours attraction at Disneyland, had previously boasted to Spielberg that Universal was incapable of building such a ride.Spielberg and Alexander gladly accepted the challenge and began working on the ride's concept. Universal was already working on the design for its backlot tram tour attraction in Florida, which would include multiple scenes depicted at the Hollywood location. In 1987, Disney CEO Michael Eisner, previously the CEO at Paramount when Universal pitched their Florida park idea several years earlier, announced intentions to create their own studio backlot tour at Walt Disney World.The new area, to be called Disney-MGM Studios, was a preemptive move to counter Universal's planned introduction into the Orlando market.Although Universal publicly announced their Florida park intentions prior to Eisner's announcement, Disney was in a better position to fast-track construction and open sooner.[4] This forced Universal to rethink their approach and abandon the tram tour concept.Instead, they opted to build standalone attractions while retaining the overall studio backlot theme.Their projected opening day lineup would include Kongfrontation, Jaws, and the Spielberg and Alexander collaborative project, Back to the Future: The Ride. A large theme park with separate attractions was a new concept for Universal, and their creative team ran into multiple obstacles during development and testing.Among the casualties from the early troubles was the Back to the Future ride, which had its opening delayed by nearly a year. The park was built for an estimated $630 million, with 50% ownership in the hands of MCA Universal and 50% belonging to leisure company The Rank Organisation.While under the ownership of Seagram, MCA Universal would again partner with The Rank Group (corporate successor to The Rank Organisation) a decade later in the $2.5 billion major expansion of Universal Studios Florida.The expansion included the addition of Universal's Islands of Adventure, Universal CityWalk and several hotels.In 2000, The Rank Group sold its 50% stake to Blackstone Capital Partners for $275 million, who in turn sold it to NBCUniversal for $3.165 billion, giving the company 100% ownership of the resort.
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