Comic-Con 2024 Let You Walk into The Bear, Shaun of the Dead and Planet of the Apes (Sort Of)

Looking at eight of the offsite exhibits and stores at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, some of which were more successful than others.

If you’ve never been to San Diego Comic-Con, the idea of an offsite — or activation, as they’re often referred to — may be a bit confusing. After all, it would make sense if all of Comic-Con were, well, inside Comic-Con, right? But as the convention grew bigger and bigger in the past couple of decades, so did the ever-larger offsite events various studios have created as additional promotion for their series and films. If you’re a big fan of a particular property, this is often a cool opportunity to see a special, very limited time event for it - and on top of that, you often don’t need a Comic-Con badge to go to these either, giving additional fans the chance to pop in. Or wait in a long line to pop in at the least.

Over the years, some of these offsites have been notably elaborate and immersive, from the recreation of Flynn’s Arcade from Tron: Legacy to my all-time favorite SDCC offsite: When they created a fully functioning upscale Taco Bell based on Demolition Man, to celebrate that film’s 25th anniversary. On the flip side, you have other locations that either are more of a hodgepodge, with different aspects based off several shows from the same studio, or ones that are pretty much just a pop-up store - but usually a highly focused and well themed store. 

There are so many offsites at this point, it’s nearly impossible to get to all of them, particularly given how much there is to do at the convention itself. But I managed to check out eight of them this year at SDCC, so here’s an overview of what I saw - and, in a couple of cases, what I didn’t get to see.