Dome theater opens at Container Park in downtown Las Vegas
About 25 people reclined in their seats watched as a father and daughter gawked at animated dinosaurs from 65 million years ago.
In another video, helicopters flew over a desolated brick building while Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” played all around the crowd.
Lastly, the crowd watched asteroids explode as presenter Mark Carlson pulled the trigger on a modified laser tag gun.
“It’s the first of its kind,” said Carlson, operations vice president for theater operator Downtown Project.
The two movie scenes and game were part of a preview Thursday for the planetariumlike Dome theater inside Downtown Container Park on Fremont Street.
Opened quietly on April 10 and now receiving promotion, the theater offers six attractions with tickets starting as low as $5 and aimed at visitors as young as 4.
The Dome has existed in front of Container Park since the shopping center opened in 2013. Holding about 75 people, the theater’s primary use was private events and cocktail mixers,
The theater is another attraction to bring people to the park, the flagship of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s $350 million downtown redevelopment project.
Downtown Project’s other properties include the Gold Spike bar and various motels and parking lots in the Fremont area.
The theater will also offer package deals for visitors to see a show and order from a fixed menu at Container Park restaurants The Perch and Big Ern’s BBQ, Carlson said.
The five video presentations shown in the theater include the one about dinosaurs, one about the solar system and three 40-plus-minute visuals each set to songs by a different band, with choices of U2, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.
The light gun game will eventually allow up to eight players, with enough guns for four for now, Carlson said. The game lasts about eight minutes.
The park will coordinate so that theatergoers aren’t disturbed by noise from the Container Park’s fire-breathing praying mantis statue, he said.
He will also work with Turmeric Flavors of India across the street to minimize disturbance by dance music bleeding in from the restaurant’s rooftop nightclub.
He wants to expand the theater’s educational videos for kids, but for now, investment in the theater has received early praise from visitors, Carlson told the crowd.
“For us, it was really a no brainer,” he said.
Contact Wade Tyler Millward at wmillward@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4602. Follow @wademillward on Twitter.
If you go
Where: Downtown Container Park, 707 Fremont St.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Ticket prices: $5 to $15
Closest parking: Meters are just outside the park. A paid lot is across Eighth Street
