History Main / TheThunderdome

* The Thunderdome in ''MadMax'', obviously.

-->'''Dr. Dealgood''': Listen all! This is the truth of it. Fighting leads to killing, and killing gets to warring. And that was damn near the death of us all. Look at us now! Busted up, and everyone talking about hard rain! But we've learned, by the dust of them all... Bartertown learned. Now, when men get to fighting, it happens here! And it finishes here! Two men enter; one man leaves!

->"Two men enter, one man leaves."
-->-- ''MadMax: Beyond Thunderdome''

* ''BattleBots'' had The Battlebox.
** ''Series/RobotWars'' also has its own specialized arena.

* There's one of these in an ad for Kaplan Learning Centers, or Sylvan Learning Centers, or something like that. (All paraphrased.)
-->'''Female announcer''' ''(in a swing for some reason)'': Behold...Algebra! And Science and Geography! ''we see AnthropomorphicPersonifications of them, built like brick shithouses'' Who will take up their challenge?! \\
''enter three unassuming junior high school kids'' \\

-->'''Dr. Dealgood''': ''Listen all! This is the truth of it. Fighting leads to killing, and killing gets to warring. And that was damn near the death of us all. Look at us now! Busted up, and everyone talking about hard rain! But we've learned, by the dust of them all... Bartertown learned. Now, when men get to fighting, it happens here! And it finishes here! Two men enter; one man leaves!''

* ''{{Gladiator}}'': Maximus becomes [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a gladiator]] and fights in the actual original Colosseum.

* The Geonosis arena in the ''StarWars'' prequels.

* ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'': "[[IncrediblyLamePun Oh, can't we just get]] ''[[IncrediblyLamePun beyond]]'' [[IncrediblyLamePun Thunderdome?]]"

* ''IronChef'' and ''IronChefAmerica'' had Kitchen Stadium.
* The [=SyFy=] miniseries for ''{{Dune}}'' gives the Harkonnen a gladiatoral arena.

* In the Basic ''DungeonsAndDragons'' Known World setting, the Empire of Thyatis (which was based on the Byzantine Empire) had coliseums with gladiatorial combat.

* ''{{Pokemon}} Stadium''

* Oddly, in ''{{Persona 3}} FES'', there was an area like this. [[spoiler:You used it to battle it out among your party members to decide whether to go back to the past or go to the present.]]
* ''{{Wild ARMs}} 4'' had a town (can not remember the name for the life of me) where the main attraction was the Arena.

* In ''WorldOfWarcraft'', there's a big arena that looks very much like the Thunderdome in the center of the Goblin town of Gadgetzan. Unlike many other arenas, this one is not used in arena [=PvP=], or any other event, so it's just there for show.

* The Colosseum also appears in the first ''KingdomHearts''.
* The Spargus Arena in ''[[JakAndDaxter Jak III]]''.

* ''{{Futurama}}'' had a stadium where Fry and Zoidberg duked it out.

* In the ''DeltoraQuest'' series (and its subsequent AnimatedAdaptation) there is the town of Rithmere known for its annual gladiator tournaments called the Rithmere Games and Championships.

* The Hole in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}: The Pitt''.

-->"Two men enter, one man leaves"
-->-- ''MadMax Beyond Thunderdome''

* In the Basic ''DungeonsAndDragons'' Known World setting, the Empire of Thyatis (which was based on the Roman Empire) had coliseums with gladiatorial combat.

* In the ''DeltoraQuest'' series (and it's subsequent AnimatedAdaptation) there is the town of Rithmere known for it's annual gladiator tournaments called the Rithmere Games and Championships.

* [[BattleBots The Battlebox]]

* The titular event in ''{{The Hunger Games}}'' has arenas that are designed and built years in advance to be used one time and one time only. Afterwards they become tourist destinations.

* ''TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' had an arena as well, in which the player could either participate or simply watch and bet. Many of the acheivements in the Xbox 360 version were focues around climbing the Arena quest tree.

* The junk planet in ''AstroBoy'' had one with a special energy ceiling to keep robots from escaping.

* The Crucible in ''{{Fable}}''.

* ''The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion'' had an arena as well, in which the player could either participate or simply watch and bet. Many of the acheivements in the Xbox 360 version were focues around climbing the Arena quest tree.

* ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'': The Duke has an enclosed boxing ring where he forces prisoners to fight to the death with baseball bats. Watch it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkKiKtsFEwE here]].

-->-''MadMax Beyond Thunderdome''

* ''EscapeFromNewYork'': The Duke has an enclosed boxing ring where he forces prisoners to fight to the death with baseball bats. Watch it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkKiKtsFEwE here]].

* Terminal Island in the latest remake of ''DeathRace'' could count as a sort of massive version of this.

* ''TheRunningMan'' is also a large-scale example.

* Several of {{Marathon}}'s multiplayer maps are arenas, and one of them, in fact, the most popular, is actually called "Thunderdome."

** ''RobotWars'' also has its own specialized arena.

* In the ''DeltoraQuest'' series (and it's subsequent AnimatedAdaptation) there is the town of Riithmere known for it's annual gladiator tournaments called the Rithmere Games and Championships.

* The titular event in {{The Hunger Games}} has arenas that are designed and built years in advance to be used one time and one time only. Afterwards they become tourist destinations.

* The titular event in {{The Hunger Games}}.

* The Glitz Pit in ''PaperMario: The Thousand-Year Door.''