title: Riding the movies
title: alternative cinema exhibition and kinetic spectatorship in theme park movie rides
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Hipps, Matthew
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2026
Subjects: exhibtion
film studies
movie rides
spectatorship
public abstract

description: This dissertation analyzes and historicizes the films and cinematic exhibition structures of theme park ride systems and kinetic theaters which support the popular appeal of a phenomenon known as movie rides. Synthesizing amusement park thrill rides, visual effects craftsmanship, world’s fair attractions, and movie studio filmmaking, contemporary theme park movie rides purport to offer audiences the opportunity to “ride” the movie or become immersed within a film franchise. Through forms of spectacular exhibition in audiovisual and haptic experiential traditions, movie rides have become popular contemporary film venues that seek to restage deep rooted anxieties associated with embodiment and immersion in the digital age. My project argues that theme park movie rides have redefined the scope of contemporary nonstandard film exhibition as a unique form of visceral cinematic spectatorship. Through a close analysis of several movie ride systems, as well as detailing fundamental design characteristics which span across a range of ride examples, I show that movie ride systems are significant objects of study which help to better understand film exhibition and spectatorship found beyond the mainstream movie theater.
description: To organize this work, my dissertation’s chapters progress geographically from the outside towards the center, starting with peripheral spectacles surrounding movie rides in ride systems, then to kinetic movie theaters and moving chairs, and culminating with an investigation of the rube-like tactile and playful movie spectator at the epicenter. The struggle to effectively define theme park exhibition spaces in film studies coincides directly with my dissertation’s aim to bring these undertheorized spaces into greater conversation with film history and the rich array of “alternative” media practices which have been part of the moviegoing landscape for more than a century. By sketching a more complete history of the theme park movie ride experiences and v detailed explanations regarding the specificity of various embodied aesthetic practices found in these exhibition systems, my project aims to bring greater clarity to movie ride system designs and narrative structures. Largely run by American film studios, theme parks and their movie rides create popular attractions which hold important implications on how they contribute to, and work in conjunction with, the contemporary American film industry. A more nuanced understanding of movie rides can also help to illustrate how film spectatorship becomes transformed in the blockbuster age through ideations of the human body as it relates to technology studies, phenomenology, and the recent re-emergence of trends in visceral cinema spectatorship. In detailing a more expansive view of film exhibition and spectatorship practices, my project’s comprehensive history and analysis of theme park movie rides’ show how their impact on the film spectator challenges the traditional notion of moviegoing as primarily seated and immobile. Overall, my project sheds light on the multifaceted nature of movie rides, their immersive and participatory elements, and their influence on film spectatorship both within theme parks and within contemporary film culture more broadly.