Pay (to pay) to play: drillable immersion at transmedia theme parks

Abstract

Abstract Weaving together analyses of theme park industry discourses, park experiences, ride architectures, and ticket-price data, this article extends Mittell’s (2013) work on “drillable” textuality to outline three distinct ways in which drillable immersion is being built into the experience of transmedia theme parks. In addition to being a set of forensic-minded exploratory practices and a spatially-layered arena of play, drillable immersion is also being used as an industry strategy to encourage additional capitalistic consumption and to further entrench symbolic conceptions of awe and wonder into commercialized experiences. By outlining how new media and convergence logics are being extended and mapped onto physical spaces, the article opens up new ways of thinking about the relationships between media industries and fans, adjacent cultural sites of experience, tourism, and broader histories of immersive culture.