Action Theater

Action Theater
Action Theater at Kings Island
California's Great America Status Operating Opening date 1994
Canada's Wonderland Area White Water Canyon Status Operating Opening date 1994
Carowinds Area County Fair Status Operating Opening date 1993
Kings Dominion Area International Street Status Operating Opening date 1993
Kings Island Area Coney Mall Status Operating Opening date 1994
General statistics
Attraction type	Motion simulator
Previously known as	Paramount Action F/X Theater (1998–2008) Days Of Thunder (1994–1997)
Fast Lane available at California's Great America

The Action Theater (or Action Theatre at Canada's Wonderland), is a simulator ride in Cedar Fair Entertainment Company amusement parks. Each theater has two sides – one is 3-dimensional and the other shows films. Five Cedar Fair parks feature Action Theaters: Great America in Santa Clara, California, Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario, Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina, Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia, and Kings Island in Mason, Ohio. All five of these parks belonged to Paramount Parks at the time the attractions were installed, and in most cases were known as Paramount Action F/X Theater until Cedar Fair removed all references to Paramount properties.

History

The theater opened in 1994, in the Paramount Parks, operating as a twin-sided motion simulator called Days Of Thunder, based on the movie Days of Thunder. This film ran from 1994 to 1997. In 1998, the building itself was renamed The Paramount Action F/X Theater to represent its changing films, and Days Of Thunder was replaced with James Bond 007: License to Thrill (California's Great America's Action Theater, though, still has minor Days of Thunder theming, such as race flags and coin-operated RC NASCAR vehicles). Dino Island 3D was shown from 1999–2000, Meteor Attack in 2000, and Superstition in 2000 and 2002. In 2001, the theme parks presented The 7th Portal (based on the web comic by Stan Lee) as a three-dimensional ride in which the riders help the Data Raiders fight the Nullifiers.

In 2003, SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D made its debut at the theme parks. In 2006, The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera was presented. It had been closed after its last run in 2002 at Universal Studios Florida. In 2007 the Hanna-Barbera ride was taken down and was never shown at the theater again. In 2008, the theater was renamed Action Theater (to remove the ties to Paramount), replacing the action movie signage with a comic book theme.

As of 2013, Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia, is currently showing at Carowinds and Kings Island. California's Great America is currently showing Happy Feet: Mumble's Wild Ride while Canada's Wonderland is currently showing Monsters of the Deep 3D, and Kings Dominion is showing "The Lost World 3D".^[1] The theaters playing Dinosaurs Alive! have had the motion seats removed.^[2]

Kings Island

At Kings Island, temporary simulator movies have been housed annually in the theater during the park's FearFest (under Paramount) event, including Elvira's Superstition, Dracula's Haunted Castle, and Funhouse Express. In 2008 the empty right side of the theater houses the hospital section of Urgent Scare with the entrance being an infected city rioting and the exit being a military quarantine zone which was overrun.

References

External links

• Official page at Carowinds