EGAN PRODUCTIONS , LIONSGATE AND AREA15 COLLABORATE TO CREATE THE JOHN WICK EXPERIENCE IN LAS VEGAS
by Philip Hernandez
In a city built on spectacle, it’s often difficult to rise above the noise. But Las Vegas transplant Jason Egan, founder of Egan Productions, has made a career out of doing just that. The JOHN WICK EXPERIENCE, a collaboration between Lionsgate, AREA15 and Egan Productions, brings together all he has learned through years of crafting immersive and interactive experiences in Sin City.
The JOHN WICK EXPERIENCE combines popular IP, themed beverages, interactive group experiences, and “interactors” under one roof to create a compelling 90-minute experience that blurs the lines between escape room and themed entertainment.
Seeing opportunity on The Strip
Egan Productions
Jason Egan moved to Las Vegas at age 22, identifying an opportunity in the city’s lack of quality haunted attractions. “The entertainment capital of the world was being served by temporary haunts in grocery store parking lots,” he says. “No one was investing in permanent infrastructure or high-quality scenic.”
After raising capital working at MGM Grand, he launched his first haunted house in a 10,000-square-foot abandoned ballroom near The Strip. The permanent location allowed him to build higher-quality sets than the competition. The work soon caught the attention of Circus Circus, which was looking to add a similar experience to its property.
At age 23, Egan contracted with Circus Circus to build and operate a professional seasonal haunted house on their property. The result was Fright Dome, which would run for 15 years and rank among the top five haunted attractions in the nation by USA Today. Fright Dome became a Vegas institution, and it’s where Egan first learned about the power of IP, finding underserved demand, and building partnerships that transform cult fandom into scalable business.
Learning the power of IP
During the Fright Dome years, Egan experimented with licensed collaborations. He worked with Lionsgate on SAW-themed mazes, brought in Halloween and Friday the 13th IP, and partnered with filmmaker George Romero. The relationship with Lionsgate began here, in the seasonal haunt context, years before it would evolve into permanent installations.
In 2016, he created a haunted house based on Five Nights at Freddy’s. The response was immediate and visceral. “Fans were literally breaking into the attraction just to capture footage,” he says. “Their videos generated millions of views online.”
While witnessing how excited fans were to see their beloved stories brought to life was inspiring for Egan, the business model was brutal. Seasonal haunted attractions face cash flow constraints because they must generate a year’s worth of revenue in a single month. “It’s like having a year-round business, but you only have 23 working days to make your money,” Egan explains. “That is a real tall order.”
Another issue is scale. Operating for one-month caps overall capacity because haunted attractions can only put through so many guests per night. “You can’t add more hours to the night or more days to October,” he jokes.
The escape experience innovation
By 2017, Egan began to take notice of another market gap and opportunity. Local escape rooms lacked the production values and storytelling depth he’d developed in haunted attractions, but there was clearly an opening in the marketplace for that level of quality. “At that time, the market standard didn’t prioritize compelling narratives and high-quality scenic,” he says. As he did fifteen years prior with haunted attractions, Egan would redefine the local escape room experience.
This new genre of escape experience combined multiple rooms of quality scenery with theatrical elements, while leveraging IP relationships. Additionally, the year-round business model addressed both the cash flow and capacity issues he faced with haunts. Rather than having a single group solve puzzles in a single room for 45 minutes, he built linear, multi-room attractions where groups moved through elaborately themed environments roughly every 10 minutes, allowing for steady throughput throughout the day.
In collaboration with Lionsgate, Egan opened The Official SAW Escape in 2018 (later named Best Escape Room by USA Today). Escape Blair Witch followed in 2021, continuing his collaboration with Lionsgate. With each project, Egan refined the format, culminating in 2023 with his largest installation: Escape IT, produced in collaboration with Warner Bros.
Escape IT is divided into two experiences, chapters One and Two, corresponding to the movies. Each experience lasts 90 minutes, and guests travel through 16 rooms featuring live actors and show sequences that follow each movie’s plot. Guests work together to solve puzzles in each room, walking through iconic scenes from the movies while trying to escape before Pennywise catches them. “When guests first approach the Neibolt House, you can see the reaction on their faces,” Jason says. “We’ve had many sold-out months, and demand remains strong.”
Crossing genres
As Escape IT was growing in popularity, Universal Destinations & Experiences announced Universal Horror Unleashed for AREA15 in Las Vegas. Egan’s escape experiences were already differentiated from Universal’s walkthrough model as they relied on people actively solving puzzles together and participating in the story, which was fundamentally different from being scared by actors in a linear haunted house. Still, as he considered expansion, diversification beyond horror made strategic sense. “I thought this was probably a good time to look beyond my go-to genre of horror,” he says. “I knew we had to diversify and would be better off if we didn’t put all our eggs in the horror basket.”
Around the same time, Lionsgate began developing an experience at AREA15 based on the John Wick franchise. With Egan’s relationship with Lionsgate stretching back to the early Fright Dome days, continuing with SAW Escape in 2018, and followed by Blair Witch, he was a natural choice for the project’s producer role.
The project marked Egan’s first major installation in the action genre. The creative process was also different, featuring a three-way collaboration with Lionsgate and AREA15. It wasn’t a standard licensing deal, with the collaboration involving everyone from early concept through execution. “We knew the standards would be incredibly high, but we were ready for the challenge,” Egan said.
Concepting the John Wick Las Vegas Continental
In the world of John Wick, The Continental is a neutral-ground hotel that serves the criminal underworld, operating under strict rules that prohibit violence on the premises. The New York location, managed by Winston Scott and concierge Charon in the films, provides specialized services to its exclusive clientele through a gold-coin currency system.
Lionsgate wanted to create a Las Vegas branch of The Continental with its own identity – distinct from the New York location – while remaining authentic to the brand. “To bear the John Wick name, it was necessary for the attraction to be an authentic and compelling action-packed experience,” a Lionsgate spokesperson explains. “Everything from the world needed to come to life in a credible and captivating way.”
As with his previous work redefining local haunted attractions and escape rooms, Egan saw an opportunity with the JOHN WICK EXPERIENCE to incorporate trends from the themed entertainment industry and build on the format of his previous experiences. For example, Escape IT lacks a space that offered drinks, food, and VIP experiences along with a place where guests could reflect on the experience.
The solution centered on one of The Continental’s defining features: its hotel bar, which operates as a public space where anyone can visit without purchasing the experience ticket. There is also a second bar, the Unseen Bar, a hidden speakeasy that serves as the exit point for guests completing the experience. The bars contribute to the themed environment, increase dwell time before and after the core attraction, create additional revenue sources through beverage sales, and give guests space to linger in the themed environment.
The John Wick Las Vegas Continental’s design offers several strategic benefits:
- Extended dwell time: The two-bar structure encourages guests to extend their stay well beyond the core attraction, which takes 45-60 minutes.
- Integrated amenities: Both bars and retail spaces are tied directly to the narrative rather than functioning as separate add-ons, maintaining immersion throughout the visit.
- High-quality live performances: Bar staff are interactors who maintain character while also serving drinks.
- Tiered packages: While the core attraction experience remains the same, the additional bars create the opportunity for customized packages, offering guests various bonus experiences that also increase per capita revenue potential.
The guest experience
Upon arrival, guests check in at the concierge desk and, depending on the package they purchased, may receive a gold coin. Guests can redeem their coin for a drink, enjoy the John Wick Las Vegas Continental Bar’s atmosphere, and interact with staff. The concierge, bartenders, and other staff provide background on the John Wick Las Vegas Continental’s rules, The High Table’s authority, and the world guests are about to enter. This pre-experience time allows guests unfamiliar with the films to understand the stakes before the action begins.
When called, guests board an elevator simulator that transports them inside the world of John Wick. They then find themselves in the Switchboard room where contracts and bounties are posted. Guests speak to interactors assuming the role of accountants about current bounties when suddenly the switchboard comes to life.
The experience guides guests through themed environments inspired by the world of John Wick, where they collect items and complete tasks to aid their escape. For example, guests engage in training and meet with a tailor to inquire about bulletproof garments. Each space incorporates interactive elements and show sequences that advance the escape narrative.
The journey concludes in the Unseen Bar, a speakeasy-style space hidden from public view. The bar maintains the John Wick aesthetic and offers specialty cocktails, temporary tattoos mimicking the films’ iconography, and occasional live performances. Guests can remain in the space as long as they wish.
To maintain the high level of interactivity, the experience uses a controlled entry system. Groups of twelve enter every ten minutes, with VIP options available for private group experiences. “Smaller groups allow us to maintain intimacy and ensure every guest can actively participate,” Egan explains. This approach prioritizes engagement over throughput, allowing guests to meaningfully interact with the environment rather than moving through as passive observers.
Recognition and what’s next
The JOHN WICK EXPERIENCE opened in March 2025 and currently maintains a 4.9 rating on Google with over 2,600 reviews. According to a Lionsgate spokesperson, “Fan love and guest reviews are our greatest success metrics.” Industry insiders have noticed as well. Recently, the attraction was honored with a TEA Thea Award.
The Thea Award validates more than the commercial success of the attraction. For Lionsgate, it recognizes the further expansion of a billion-dollar film franchise into location-based entertainment. For AREA15, it confirms their model of drawing guests off-strip for high-quality immersive experiences.
For Egan, the award represents the culmination of a strategic approach developed over two decades. Each time, he developed solutions that raised industry standards while building sustainable business models.
His portfolio now spans horror (Escape IT), action (JOHN WICK EXPERIENCE), and hospitality-entertainment hybrids (Odyssey Manor at AREA15). He operates six attractions, with more in development, including family entertainment ventures soon to be announced.
The formula is tried and true: identify gaps in growing markets, execute experiences that address those shortfalls, and build collaborations with studios seeking to extend their IP into physical spaces. As the location-based entertainment industry continues to evolve, Jason Egan remains at the intersection of market demand and untapped opportunity. •
