Japan To Get Harry Potter World Of Its Very Own

Japanese moviegoers spent $900 million to see the Harry Potter movie series and they gobbled up JK Rowling’s books as quickly as they could hit store shelves and now Universal Studios has announced plans to open a new Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in Osaka, Japan.

The company hopes to duplicate the success of the US park by 2014 and the announcement comes at a time when a second part si already being built in Hollywood, California.

The new park like its US counterparts will feature rides, a Hogwarts castle and even the Hogsmeade Village.

Universal Studios points out that the Hogwarts edition to the Universal Orlando park has pushed up attendance by 68% and they expect the same type of number jumps in Japan when the new attraction is completed in just a few short years.

While Universal Studios says three parks is all that is has planned at this time, there is always the chance that more could open now that the company can not rely on any more Harry Potter movies to bring in the billions of dollars they had been making during the series’ stellar run in theaters that lasted more than a decade.

It will be interesting to see if a Wizarding World is every opened in England, considering that is where the books originated and gathered their first exposure to Harry Potter fans.

Here’s a quick look at a few of the rides park visitors in Japan can expect to see when they enter the Wizard World of Harry Potter for the first time:

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Do you think Harry Potter mania is going to reach a tipping point if Universal Studios keeps opening more Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme parks in other locations?