Usually, it’s news of new and upcoming rides that gets theme park fans cheering. But this week, many fans have been celebrating a ride closing, instead.
Six Flags Magic Mountain confirmed over the weekend that it will remove its Green Lantern: First Flight roller coaster to replace it with another, as-yet-unannounced attraction. Green Lantern spun riders heels over head on a layout that looked more like one of those old Japanese pinball machines than a traditional roller coaster. It was the first Intamin ZacSpin model in the United States when it opened in 2011.
Wait a minute — 2011? That makes this coaster, what, less than eight years old? It’s worse than that, actually. Even though the park just confirmed the ride’s closure, Six Flags has not run it since 2017, so the coaster lasted barely six years.
Yet six years was six too many for some fans.
“One of the worst coasters I’ve ever ridden. Glad it’s dead,” one reader responded to my Tweet about the announcement.
“Good riddance,” another wrote. The only remotely positive response was, “Sad to see this one go but hopefully it’s for a great replacement.”
Movies might play for a few months, at best, in theaters. TV series might run for years. But theme park attractions are designed to last for decades. By running only a few summers, Green Lantern: First Flight counts as a definite flop in the industry.
But it’s hardly the biggest fail among local theme park attractions. Green Lantern lasted five years longer than Submarine Quest at SeaWorld San Diego, which ran less than a year after its 2017 opening. From the name, you might assume that this was an underwater ride that looked at some of SeaWorld’s countless marine animals. But it was an elevated track ride where the only sea creatures to be seen were displayed on screens.
Nope. Yet fans pretty much yawned at that ride instead of showering it with hate, like they did another short-lived attraction themed to an underwater creature. Universal Studios Hollywood’s “Creature from the Black Lagoon: The Musical” lasted just one summer before the park put the show out of its audience’s misery.
Yes, that was intended to be a musical comedy version of the 1954 Universal horror classic. It didn’t work, getting bad reviews from everyone save one idiot reviewer who bought into the camp and thought it hilarious. (Uh, that was me, by the way.)
Don’t think that Disney is escaping this hall of shame. Rocket Rods might have been one of the most expensive flops in the company’s theme park history, limping around Tomorrowland for a couple of years in the late 1990s before breaking down for good.
At least many fans liked that attempt at a high-speed version of the old PeopleMover, unlike Disney’s next big flop, Superstar Limo. Perhaps the most cringe-worthy attraction in Disney history, that dark ride through Hollywood lasted only for California Adventure’s first year before Disney pulled the plug.
So don’t feel too bad, Six Flags. Flops happen to everyone. Because if you’re not failing now and then, you’re not trying hard enough.
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Robert Niles is the editor of ThemeParkInsider.com. Follow him on Instagram @ThemeParkInsider.
