The Wizard of Oz show at the Sphere in Las Vegas has sold more than 2 million tickets, Sphere Entertainment said Tuesday morning. It has resulted in more than $260 million in ticket sales for the show, which opened Aug. 28.
On Sunday, the company announced plans for its second U.S.-based venue to be located in Maryland’s National Harbor, 15 minutes outside of Washington, D.C. It will be the first smaller-scale Sphere with a capacity of 6,000 seats. The Vegas Sphere has 17,600 seats and can hold up to 20,000 people.
The National Harbor Sphere will cost roughly $1 billion, The Washington Post reported, or less than half as much as the $2.3 billion Vegas Sphere. The project will use a combination of public and private funding, including approximately $200 million in state, local and private incentives, according to the announcement. Sphere’s partners in the project are the state of Maryland, Prince George’s County and real estate developer Peterson Companies.
It is unclear how much in construction costs Sphere Entertainment will be on the hook for, but CEO James Dolan has long talked of opening Sphere replicas with partners to share the cost. Dolan found a willing financial ally for the second Sphere project, which was announced in October 2024 in Abu Dhabi.
The Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi will fund construction and pay Sphere a franchise initiation fee for the right to build the arena that will use Sphere’s proprietary designs, technology and intellectual property. After the opening, Sphere Entertainment will collect annual fees for “creative and artistic content” licensed by the company, including Sphere Experiences like The Wizard of Oz, and the use of patents, technology and IP.
Sphere initially targeted London as the locale for its second venue. The company submitted a proposal to the city in 2018, but London Mayor Sadiq Khan rejected the plan in 2023, two months after the Vegas Sphere opened.
Concerts generate most of the headlines for the Vegas Sphere, and advertising on the 580,000 square foot “Exosphere” is also buzzy, but the bulk of the business is driven by the Sphere Experience. The Wizard of Oz is the latest show to debut, replacing Postcard from Earth, which had been the primary Sphere Experience since the venue opened
The Sphere Experience generated an estimated $333 million in revenue last year, according to J.P. Morgan. It was nearly double the $188 million tallied from concerts and other events. Advertising and sponsorship revenue was $95 million.
The Las Vegas Sphere ranked first on both Billboard’s and Pollstar’s lists of the top-grossing venues worldwide in 2025.
