Another Movie From Haunted Mansion Attraction

Walt Disney directed his Imagineers to begin designing the popular attraction in the early 1950s, but it didn’t open until 1969, three years after the studio founder died

There is nothing more precious to a Hollywood studio than IP — of which Disney has plenty.

Just as characters from Disney movies are featured at the company’s theme parks, so do the attractions crosspollinate and become movies. Many were dubious when the studio announced plans to make a movie based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The Johnny Depp-led franchise transformed into a giant box office success following the first movie’s release in summer 2003.

Later that year, The Haunted Mansion, starring Eddie Murphy, also hit theaters. The film earned a so-so $182 million at the global box office against a $90 million budget (the film has since become something of a home entertainment Halloween classic). Disney will have another go this summer, when Justin Simien’s star-packed Haunted Mansion opens. Rosario Dawson plays a mother who discovers her new home is haunted and stars opposite Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto and Owen Wilson.

Simien worked closely with Walt Disney Imagineering, which is responsible for creating, designing and building all theme park attractions. The creative division, founded by Walt Disney in 1952 to assist with Disneyland, also is responsible for keeping an eye on cruise ships, merchandise product development, games and publishing.

“Our whole focus is putting [park] guests in the middle of a story,” says Mark LaVine, a writer and executive of story development at Imagineering.

The Imagineers also assisted filmmakers on the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and the 2021 Jungle Cruise movie. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Jungle Cruise stars Dwayne Johnson as a riverboat captain who takes a scientist, played by Emily Blunt, in search of the Tree of Life. LaVine says it’s important for films to have Easter eggs and props people will recognize from the ride.

“Some of the jokes that Dwayne Johnson tells are jokes that you’ll hear our skippers say in the parks,” says LaVine. “There are a lot of park original stories that have this kind of potential, which is exciting.”

Above, from left: Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, still one of the most popular attractions at the park decades later; early story sketches of the attraction drawn by Ken Anderson in 1967.