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  1. I'm assuming that's a wrap on Doomsday. Watch village leave the ride to rot and degrade for 2 years before deciding to get rid of it. Also, Village with this 2-month maintenance bs for every ride has to be about saving money. Dreamworld the only rides that take that long is Gold coaster and if it's a major refurb.
    9 points
  2. Nobody wants to see that ride again on the GC. It’s a travelling fair ride essentially. We need an immersive dark ride, not a carnival ride in a room
    4 points
  3. The whole animal area is still just as popular as tiger island (even for the non-international tourists). I think it’s a great way to break up your (full day) visit to the park. It offers something different to the other parks and as the park are pushing more towards being family focused, it’s perfect for that demographic. They’ve got plenty of other land for plenty more rides.
    4 points
  4. The theming for the Flash devalues MW as a theme-park. DC Super- villains is the standard MW set, anything less is a backwards step.
    4 points
  5. That’s good they’ve gone to the effort to adding speakers and bringing back music to the area (because it definitely needed it). Maybe im being too harsh, but that feels like such a half assed effort of hanging speakers from a tree. Why not actually mounted them to a wall or somewhere more inconspicuous so you can’t see them. That tree is already cluttered with stuff, it didn’t need more adding to it. The area needed music, but if this is the best they can do, maybe they shouldn’t have bothered. I don’t know! (someone feel free to call me out if that too harsh). It’s just disappointing to see this is how the park is managed now and they seem to respond to feedback in a panic and just see what sticks.
    3 points
  6. Yikes, this comment didn't age well, did it? Claw, Motocoaster, Kenny's Flyers, Shockwave and now Serpent Slayer are closed for 2 months or more this year...
    3 points
  7. We can only hope.. And then tear down the whole area, and re-purpose the sound stage. I understand Batman Legacy will be heading off at some point this year, and with it the end of the WB Showcase concept.
    3 points
  8. Black wrap around the ride fence yesterday too.
    3 points
  9. This maybe so, but look how poorly that land has turned out. The past year they’ve repairing the damaged statues and theming, but otherwise it’s been looking very tired. I’d argue when Wild West first opened that was the highest standard Movie World had set for a land. Villains was very well done, but it wasn’t as immersive as Wild West
    3 points
  10. I think with wooden coasters you often see a big raft because there are so many ground connections that a big raft is easier than trying to coordinate heaps of closely spaced piles. Premier rides did this on their spaghetti bowl coasters too for similar reasons. https://rcdb.com/528.htm#p=1769
    3 points
  11. the slab in question: based on the footers, location, and all that, this is roughly the location that has currently been concreted (red outline). not a big portion, but it’s at least become a decent anchor for the scale & location of the area. there’s a lot of footers around, though, most currently left unpoured apart from ones which I believe are for the inclined turntable & above zig-zags (those seen within the black braced off area in the 2nd pic). I think (or, hope) these are separately poured only due to queue path seemingly going underneath this section, and not because it’s indicative of that area being outdoors.
    3 points
  12. Last year it was the same, Serpent Slayer, Claw, The Gold Coaster, Motocoaster and Shockwave all closed for 2+ months. Movie World's in comparison was far less. Why is it ok for Dreamworld, but not Movie World?
    2 points
  13. Don’t forget closing a whole waterpark for majority of the year… 🤔
    2 points
  14. You're working on an awful lot of assumptions here... I guess good thing the coaster is both Red & Yellow then.. Have you seen this in person? There is no way it goes unnoticed, especially from within the Superman Escape 'plaza', you would have full view of the attraction & station.
    2 points
  15. I don’t think in any situation, putting the flash (a red coaster) within Superman (a red coaster) was a good idea. Superman towers over Flash making it look so insignificant and not exciting. At WnW it towered over anything that was nearby and it made it look impressive, but at MW it isn’t. And with it tangled within Superman’s track I’d say guests are going to get confused with what coaster is what. It doesn’t matter that Superman is nearly 20 years old and there’s entry signage, people still get confused with this sort of thing. The Flash at MW (in my opinion) was not the right decision, but having it within Superman was a terrible idea.
    2 points
  16. Thank god they didn't. It would have been such a waste. The SE helix has been an under-utilised dead spot right at the front of the park for almost 2 decades. This absolutely is the right space for a mediocre flat ride of this size. Yea, Doomsday sucked and was a bad choice for the park, but that plot of land was well-themed when it opened and it deserves a better ride than a Surf Rider. If anything, they've missed an opportunity to update SE's story, theme the Flash to Villains and put a lot of that theming at the front of the park, all the way up to Rivals. But that would have required them to commit to replacing DD with something better, and re-theming the area - which is expensive. If they kept the theme, there are plenty of reliable, relatively inexpensive classics that could fit there - like a Top Scan (just an example). But I'd personally like to see a re-theme. DC is basically dead now as a 'movie' franchise. Dune and Madmax would be my picks, and they both lend themselves to immersive theming of an outdoor thrill flat, with an indoor simulator (like batman) in the show stage.
    2 points
  17. So long as it’s a ride, I don’t really mind what type it is, though Movie World does need a proper dark ride more than any other ride type. I just hope that, whatever it is, it’s either given an original/abnormal theme (that perhaps ties into the western vibe), or it’s a nod to Arkham (and if not this, then that GL’s successor is).
    2 points
  18. My eyes. So no, I don’t have any evidence, but from my experiences when visiting the park at times of the day the animal area can have just as many people if not more as in tiger island. And I’m not saying through shows, but tiger island isn’t a massive area compared to the wildlife area.
    2 points
  19. You won’t be stuck upside down during boarding, that’d not only be very uncomfortable, but unsafe. The seats rotate throughout the cycle, allowing for what I assume is the boarding configuration shown here:
    2 points
  20. Absolutely, WWF is by far the most immersive and detailed themed area MW has ever built and they’ve never come close to matching it since. I’m quite certain the main reason why some effort was originally put into theming the DCSV area was because the park realised they could monetise the wristbands you needed to interact with the land when it first opened. Otherwise, I’m willing to bet it too would’ve ended up just another generic superhero area with basic 2d comic book theming. As soon as it became clear that the whole wristband thing was a massive flop and they were discontinued, the park gave up on the area pretty much straight away and it’s been rotting and decaying ever since. Is it true that the reason Justice League had a major overhaul recently was due to DC complaining about the horrible condition the ride was in (claiming it wasn’t up to their standards or something like that) or was that just a rumour? Either way, I do wonder what Warner Bros think of the poor state the park is currently in.
    2 points
  21. Rode Leviathan for the second time ever today. How the f do you build that level of themeing at Seaworld, then go and think this is fine for a movie based park?
    2 points
  22. After temporarily closing in 2021 due to report of rides being injured by coaster, it has confirmed today that Do-Dodonpa at Fuji-Q in Japan has permanently closed. For those who don’t know, this was the fastest accelerating launch coaster in the world reaching 180km/h in just 1.56 seconds. It’s sad to see such a unique and impressive coaster close. Did anyone on here ever get to ride it and if so, what was that launch and the whole coaster like?
    2 points
  23. The major slab pour, is planned to happen today.
    2 points
  24. Don't forget, this is a relaunch of an existing attraction. Minimum Viable Product: The Ride, Next Generation.
    2 points
  25. Was probably my favourite flat at Wonderland - in a close way finish with Wizards Fury It would be fine as an attraction to fill a gap in their offerings - but i wouldnt be taking up valuable showstage realestate with it - it's would be just fine outside. when you only have 2-3 rides operating in your park suitable for anyone over the age of 5 - they are all major.
    1 point
  26. That'll be nice for the four days a year it's open.
    1 point
  27. I'm in camp T&J too. Wish they'd do something else though.
    1 point
  28. Movie World have teased on their social media that a new Roxy Theatre show is coming soon.
    1 point
  29. I'm firmly in the "believe it when I see it" camp with VRTP at present. “a new dining experience, in park theming enhancements and experiences and so much more” is very vague. I will note one change I noticed on the weekend some LT background music being played at the entry to WB Kids with speakers now hung in the tree.
    1 point
  30. I would love this, but I doubt it when Tom and Jerry are no longer daily appearing characters despite what the website says. Haven’t heard anything but think DC Superpets is most likely.
    1 point
  31. Late 2022, with Scooby being known beforehand, would be a pretty accelerated & reactionary choice, though.
    1 point
  32. oh boy how wrong you were. I wish that was the case but its long gone, which is really sad
    1 point
  33. New ride coming our way.
    1 point
  34. Yeah, Dreamworld is the only park I’d even consider calling a full-day park here, and that’s directly due to them offering a good variety in rides, shows, animals, and animal presentations (SW being second for the same reason, but lacking rides). If anything were to be done to Corroboree in the future, I’d hope it’s an improvement/expansion of the area (with the space freed up post-Vintage Cars), and not a removal of the area for some other attraction. And, with the somewhat newly redone Twilight Trail, and them repurposing the store nearby the Saltwater Crocodiles into a larger space for Bilby, Dunnart, Tree Frog, and Pythons, as well as their ongoing conservation efforts for many species via the DWF, a future expansion does also seem more probable than a future erasure.
    1 point
  35. I can already see how hot that tunnel is going to be in the summer. But the concept artwork doesn’t make that entrance look that bad compared to how it’s currently looking on site.
    1 point
  36. I could be wrong but don’t you release concept art years before opening an attraction.. not weeks?
    1 point
  37. ⚡ Prepare to twist, spin and speed along The Flash: Speed Force! ⚡ No Super Hero attraction is complete without captivating theming, with the creative team at Warner Bros. Movie World working diligently to immerse guests in the world of The Flash. ⚡ With lightning-inspired aesthetics, the theming works will continue until late March, setting the stage for an unforgettable adventure into the Speed Force, coming soon to #movieworldaus
    1 point
  38. So you’re saying Jungle Rush is half sinkhole
    1 point
  39. Mostly complete, and track installation has begun for the boomerang (orange side has 1/2 pieces installed). Said it about the SFC, but this time I’d be very surprised if there was an angle for this to be seen aside from on DCR. Will try later, however.
    1 point
  40. I just found this article from the Financial Review from November 2023, that hasn't been shared on Parkz yet. The article mainly talks about the history of the Kirby family's involvement in Village Roadshow and the ups and downs of it, but also talk about the parks near the end, which include some interesting details. Hidden behind Movie World on the Gold Coast is a low-rise office block painted in a shade of cream that gives a whiff of the 1990s. Inside the boardroom sit Robert and Clark Kirby, father and son, the third and fourth generations of a family who built the most successful entertainment company Australia has ever seen. Village Roadshow dominated the box office and the TV ratings for decades. Its hits included The Wiggles, Skippy, Mad Max, Bananas in Pyjamas, Brides of Christ, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert and Muriel’s Wedding. The company ran film studios, drives-ins, cinemas and theme parks. It produced VHS tapes, board games and CDs, and was early to bankroll FM radio. With cinemas and video distribution across Asia, Europe and the United States, Village snaked around the globe. It co-produced Hollywood blockbusters like The Matrix and bought theme parks from Hawaii to Hainan. Clark Kirby at Movie World: “We are by far the dominant force in the theme park industry here in Australia.“. Louie Douvis That dominance, which traces its origins back to the 1930s, is no more. A family fight turned into one of the nation’s most compelling boardroom battles as John Kirby carried out a sustained campaign against Robert – the company’s chairman and his brother. It sent the once publicly listed Village Roadshow private. Away from the spotlight, it shrugged off its gargantuan international ambitions to focus on Australian cinemas and theme parks such as Movie World on Queensland’s Gold Coast, a destination for ageing tour buses ambling off the Pacific Motorway. But this is not the Kirbys’ final act. Robert and Clark are speaking for the first time in depth about the family strain and the roller coaster ride that followed. They’re even talking about how the next generation might get involved, which would make the Kirbys unique in the upper echelons of Australian business – a family who’ve held on through five generations. “Wanna go see a theme park?” asks Clark. With tile-white teeth and voluminous black hair, the CEO of Village Roadshow is animated in real life. As we walk from the office behind film sets and into the park it’s a different world, heaving with school holiday traffic. Teens slurping snow cones dart in front of red-faced parents carrying inflatable carnival prizes. Tiny girls in tutus collapse in giggles after Superman throws a wave. Car revs fill the air from the Hollywood Stunt Driver 2 show running nearby. Clark Kirby on the cover of the December 2023 issue. Louie Douvis As Clark poses for The Australian Financial Review Magazine’s photographer, it’s clear this is not his first rodeo in front of a camera. Indeed, he seems disappointed at how tame the requested poses are. Not many CEOs want to appear in advertisements for their own company but Clark, 44, isn’t like most CEOs. He’s been made up as a zombie for Movie World’s “fright nights”, has been photographed on roller coasters and at one point was stopped by his own staff, for occupational health and safety reasons, from bungy-jumping for a photo op. His wife, Sara – a former Saturday Disney host and Seven News weather presenter – and three daughters fronted the company’s promos when the parks reopened following COVID. “He’s our Walt Disney,” says his father, Robert, who’s joined us on the Movie World tour, having just flown up from his Melbourne base. By now we’re standing next to the Looney Tunes Carousel, with Roadrunner, Marvin the Martian and a turban-wearing Bugs Bunny spinning round and round. With his cartoon-like Colgate shine, angular silver eyebrows and gregarious nature, Robert could almost blend in. Aged 72, he is training for his fifth marathon in two years. “He’ll take you through it in great detail, if you’d like,” says Clark, butting in as his dad explains he’s been measuring his heart rate since the mid-80s. He wears two smartwatches and listens to his arteries via a chest strap. Clark might not be in the same league as America’s most famous animator and entrepreneur, but he has reason to smile. Against the odds, a Kirby comeback is under way. They now own a smaller stake in the business – 22 per cent down from 42 per cent when it was publicly listed – but they say it has turned a corner. “We have evolved, shaped and steered the development of the entertainment industry in this country,” says the grandson of Village’s founder, Roc Kirby, and potentially the heir to the empire, depending on the next move by BGH, the private equity firm that owns 78 per cent. “[Now] as we come out of COVID, our focus is on the experiential component of entertainment, and it has never been more important.” Village’s Gold Coast theme parks – Warner Bros. Movie World, Sea World, Paradise Country and Wet’n’Wild – are benefiting from the wave of post-COVID revenge spending as tourists stream in. A day pass costs $105 and earnings are up 50 per cent on pre-COVID years, Clark says. Their resurgence comes as the stock of the company’s major competitor, Ardent Leisure, is down 25 per cent so far this year and shareholders are agitating for change. Globally, theme parks are enjoying quite the ride. Disneyland has pledged to spend $60 billion over the next 10 years to expand its parks – and so far there are no plans for an Australian park. “We are,” says Clark, “by far the dominant force in the theme park industry here in Australia.” And investors agree – Village Roadshow’s theme parks are in a league of their own. Says Christopher Mittleman, chief investment officer of former Village shareholder Mittleman, from New York: “Even though it’s not Disney World, it is probably the closest thing you’ve got to it over there. And Disney World itself is probably not a looming threat because the market’s a bit small for them to build one over there.” If there ever was a Walt Disney of Australia, it’s arguably Robert and John’s father, Roc. He didn’t start the family business – his father, George, had gotten into cinemas in the 1930s after a fire at their dairy farm – but he is central to the Village story. In the Second World War, he was tasked with becoming a radio operator in Papua New Guinea. Aged 23 at the time, his technical skills learnt from operating projectors in the cinema led him to dip behind enemy lines to report on the positions of the Japanese imperial army as well as intercept enemy transmissions as part of the secretive Australian special wireless group. “He worked behind the lines . . . and called in the air strikes,” Robert says. “He’d have five to 10 minutes to get out because they would just zero in on the radio contact points, and storm in, and they were never more than 100 to 200 yards away from the Japanese.” Encased in tropical heat and surrounded by malaria-carrying mosquitoes, the allied soldiers dreamed of the movies. Roc came back from New Guinea determined to set up a “drive in” just like his American soldier friends had described during their downtime. Once back in Melbourne, he set about convincing the local council as well as his father, who derided the plan as “pictures in a paddock”. But Village’s cinemas grew and grew. Robert and John joined the business when they were seven, selling lollies. “Everyone works in the cinema once you get to a certain age,” Robert says. Joining them in the business was Graham Burke, who began working at Village as a ticket collector and cleaner when he was 14. He became so close to the family he was known as the cinema mogul’s adopted son. In 1971, Village formed what would become one of the company’s most lucrative partnerships: a deal with Warner Brothers to distribute its movies in Australia. Burke, who was known for his frequent trips to Hollywood, was the driving force behind the move, according to Milt Barlow, a former Village executive who counts his time there as a career highlight. “Graham probably spoke to Warner Brothers four times a day,” he says. After Roc retired in 1988 – when the company listed on the ASX – the brothers and Burke, now CEO, expanded the business into a sprawling entertainment conglomerate, each man taking a different segment. “John was more heavily involved in the radio stations, and Rob more in home entertainment while Graham lived, ate and breathed movies,” says Barlow. They had uncanny luck in predicting shifts in technology. Roc always thought cinemas would remain king, but Robert was convinced that many would prefer to watch films at home. “The story goes that Robert was given $1 million to lose, sent to Sydney to do this silly thing called Roadshow Home Video and he very quickly made that very successful,” says Barlow. At times, it felt like Village’s executives had golden fingers. The company took a chance on a hybrid video board game called Nightmare. It was a cult success that went global, selling hundreds of thousands of units a year. Village also got lucky with Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones’ pop duo, Savage Garden. They were the only label to agree to the royalty deal demanded by notoriously tough agent John Woodruff; it was around double the rate record companies were paying at the time. But it paid off when the band pulled in millions of dollars. Robert Kirby: “My grandchildren would love to take over our jobs.” Louie Douvis “It was a decade where we grew the company into all sorts of areas – it was a glory time,” Barlow says. And everyone wanted a piece. Some of Australia’s wealthiest families bought Village stock; the Libermans and the Packers. Roc vaulted up the Rich List; Burke and his two sons became the highest-paid entertainment executives in Australia. They drove headlines with plans to buy Channel Seven and declarations that they would soon make as much money in Asia as Australia. Their dress matched the way they talked – Burke was fond of oversized glasses, John wore cowboy boots. They were a vertically integrated behemoth, with the ability to produce a film, shoot it in their part-owned studios and distribute it through their home video outlets and cinemas (and even get a cut of the popcorn). In 2011, Village Roadshow decided to sell out of its radio assets, which it had owned since the early 1980s when it was an original investor in Sydney’s 2Day FM, one of Australia’s first FM radio stations. “We are just circus folks,” said Burke at the time. “Our focus is on pure entertainment businesses. We’re not interested in anything more high-falutin’ than that.” It was a sign of what was to come. It was Village Roadshow’s rocky road to privatisation that truly wrote the family into Australian corporate lore. In some ways, the pain started with the horrific accident that killed four people on the Thunder River Rapids Ride at Ardent Leisure’s Dreamworld in October 2016, just up the road from Movie World. The tragedy, and Ardent’s poor handling of the aftermath, became a national scandal, and attendances at theme parks everywhere, including those owned by Village, began to fall. In the next few years, Village’s share price spiralled, and eventually the company paused dividends. The year 2018 was an exceptionally bad one. The share price dropped to just $1.77 in July, after nudging above $8 four years earlier, and it struggled under a heavy debt load. Village sold Wet’n’Wild Sydney – which it had spent more than $100 million building up – for just $40 million, and conducted a controversial capital raise. John became fed up. Even though he was a co-founder and had a holding equal to both his brother and Burke, he was no longer a salaried executive, having stepped back after the sale of the radio assets. Since Burke and Robert were aligned on the company’s strategy, John had lost control. As the company shed hundreds of millions in market capitalisation, John launched an all-out offensive, pointing out high salaries and raising questions over related party transactions such as Village buying wine from Robert’s vineyard, and swimwear from a business owned by Burke’s daughter. John wanted his brother to step down as chair and Burke to step down as CEO, and hired a bevy of corporate advisers, including former Rothschild investment bank boss David Kingston and legal firm Arnold Bloch Leibler. The battle for Village exploded into the public arena. At the company’s 2018 annual general meeting, Kingston described Village as the “dunce of the class”. The internal feud came as the streaming revolution arrived, displacing Village. “I can remember Graham saying the internet is for email and accountants, people are never going to watch movies on the internet,” says Barlow, hurrying to add that he saw Burke as a “giant” in the industry. A line was drawn under the affair in 2020 when the business was sold. Several private equity firms were interested, but the disruption of COVID meant that BGH was the last bidder standing and took just over three quarters for $586 million. “I am bitterly disappointed,” Mittleman said at the time, adding that smaller shareholders felt “ripped off” at what he thought amounted to a fire sale in the midst of the pandemic. “[This was a] disgraceful affair for all who facilitated it.” The rest of the company was left for Burke, Robert and John. Clark, who had been working as an investment banker at UBS, was appointed as CEO. “I don’t think BGH particularly wanted the Kirbys’ involvement but I think it was probably what massaged the deal across the line,” says one person familiar with the events. John Kirby (left), Robert Kirby and Graham Burke at Movie World for an AGM in 1995. Robert Rough Reflecting on the deal, Robert says BGH was a natural choice, having known the firm’s founding partner, Ben Gray, for more than a decade. “We have a long family history over the years, a long friendly history,” he says. And the Kirbys were never going to sell out entirely from the business that’s their legacy. “The fact is BGH bought in because of our management, we pitched the concept to them, they bought in . . . not immodestly, because of us,” says Clark. “[But] I have hurdles I have to hit as part of my employment, it’s in my contract.” Robert still rankles at the suggestion that the company was run off the rails and denies Village’s privatisation was inevitable. Instead, he says, it was caused by “dark clouds” generated by the media. “We were never under the threat of banks,” he says. “We still and always did have the alternative to continue as a public company and for the family to have that totality [of control]. Now we share that control with BGH.” Clark concedes the episode put the family under enormous pressure. “I certainly felt it myself, in terms of what is the future direction for this business,” he says. John and Robert Kirby in 1998. Robert Rough Like his father, Clark is dismissive of claims the company was poorly run. “It was great newspaper fodder at that time because we’re an entertainment company,” he says. Adds Robert: “There was just a lot of misinformation and innuendo and headlines and sensationalism that, I think, was wildly inaccurate.” And what of relations with John, who – along with Burke –  declined to be interviewed for this story? Like an experienced improv performer, Robert weaves and dodges when he’s asked about his relationship with his brother. Eventually conceding to answer, he proclaims the dispute affected everyone else more than it ever affected him. “John Kirby and I, well before any . . . dispute became public, we do live separate lives. And I have to say, that’s continued,” Robert says, eyebrows resettling. “But right now, John and Graham and I are very contented, happy shareholders in what is the new privatised Village Roadshow.” Three years on, the Kirbys are still in the process of lowering their heart rates. Before first light on the Gold Coast’s lush hinterland where he lives, Clark submerges daily in an ice bath, identical to the one he bought his father. The two sleep so well these days, they compete via their matching Oura rings. “I certainly have enjoyed being a private company a lot more than a public company,” Clark says. Talking to father and son, it’s almost as if in the Kirbys’ minds, BGH’s role as owner is one of backstage hands. “Murdoch does not even own 51 per cent of News Corp,” says Robert, who refers to his private equity backers as “partners”. BGH has three directors on the six-person board, one of which is Ben Gray, who sealed the deal and closely follows the company’s moves. Since the takeover, the company has a new head of its cinema division, a new finance director and a new company lawyer. “There’s been pretty significant changes to the management structure since BGH took over,” a person with knowledge of the company says. And yet still, there are vestiges of what was always a family business. “Whether it be a public company, whether it’s a private equity vehicle, we’re still seen at our heart as a family company,” Clark says. Village Roadshow is now doing a debt raise and restructure after it was left with an eclectic set of lenders, such as the Bank of India, in the lead-up to the privitisation. Clark tries to stop Robert discussing it, saying it’s confidential, but he’s brushed away. “We have the opportunity to find more debt facilities for both the opportunity to fund our future growth and secondly . . . potentially make a capital distribution to shareholders,” Robert says as Clark looks on, exasperated. Clark Kirby: “It was great newspaper fodder at that time because we’re an entertainment company.” Louie Douvis The parks have allowed the Kirbys to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Village has just finished a major renovation of Sea World to install The New Atlantis, an extensive precinct with a wooden roller coaster. Tens of millions are now being spent on a vast Wizard of Oz zone at Movie World, which Robert says will have a value of $100 million. It’s due to open in 2024. More hotels will follow, incorporating elements from the theme parks into the rooms and surrounds. They will offer, Clark says, “a truly immersive experience”. The cinema division, which operates in partnership with Alan Rydge’s Event Cinemas, comes up less in conversation. Rydge and the Kirbys have a long history; Rydge was a shareholder in the private vehicle, which in turn held a majority of the listed Village Roadshow. “There is some alignment between Melbourne people,” one person close to the families says. Clark says the premiumisation of their cinemas is “incredibly important” and argues streaming services have failed when only releasing movies via their own websites. “The pandemic proved once and for all that it’s far more valuable to release in cinemas than just on a streaming service,” he says. But post-COVID, cinemas are struggling outside of blockbusters such as Barbie. Wang Jianlin, the Chinese entertainment billionaire, has been trying to sell his Hoyts chain in Australia, but turned down a $700 million offer earlier this year and failed to get his $1 billion asking price, according to people familiar. The deal rumour mill is already swirling about whether BGH has a shorter timeline for hanging onto Village’s cinemas. “The general consensus is that theatres are ... in secular decline,” Mittleman says. Were there to be a sale, he says owners of Village may be thinking that they would have a “better chance of getting a fair value in the public markets when you’re not tainted by a lower-margin, lower-growth type of business” such as the cinemas. The Kirbys are aware the clock is ticking. “[BGH] want to continue to see growth in the [overall] business,” Clark says. “Yes, they will want to monetise their investment at some point. We expect that within the next three to five years.” When Packer’s Nine started building a stake in Village back in 1991, the company’s then-general manager, Ieuan Mapperson, moved to squash rumours the Kirby family’s hold over the company would loosen. “I can assure you that these are people who are thinking of their great-grandchildren’s equity in the business,” he says. Is there any sign of that changing? Robert is steadfast: “You should mention this. My five grandchildren would love to take over our jobs.” Clark, whose daughters are aged seven, 10 and 12, is clear-eyed. “They would all love my job. But their impression of my job is that I ride roller coasters and play with dolphins every day.” Some interesting notes there: Wizard of Oz land will reportedly have a value of $100m More hotels will be built that incorporate elements from the parks into them The wording sounds to me like there will be more hotels than just the one outside Movie World. The question is, where could they be and what style could they be?
    1 point
  41. Lift hill has been installed (thanks to jesse_1767 via Jaggs Journeys)
    1 point
  42. A post by the installers: MJM service from Poland. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0LVs7YhmvFENaPxYpF8LBdLHCYrpWVc7nj35hAsgGA6c9xmq6y63epdUyWvEnuJbhl&id=100054310008764&mibextid=Nif5oz
    1 point
  43. You wouldn't think the ride has a limited life expectancy because, track wise, there isn't much track to replace when required. Thunderbolt, Arkham Asylum and Sea Viper all removed because of track issues. I believe the life expectancy will be based on if people ride it.
    1 point
  44. Definitely feel like there's way too much flat comic book panel theming happening in that part of the park, way, way too much. Especially when it's supposed to be a movie park. But I can understand a very limited budget for theming for the Flash as I'm assuming they have planned for a limited life expectancy, considering the ride's age and previous issues. Wouldn't want to over capitalise
    1 point
  45. Wow! I can't wait for this to be the only ride within a ride in the southern hemisphere operating at MW.
    1 point
  46. The post states: Construction is underway for the year-round alpine coaster, and it's set to open this winter! ❄️⛷ It will be 1.5km long, reaching speeds of up to 40km/h and riders will travel along a mix of uphill and downhill tracks featuring a tunnel, bridges and circles that traverse the alpine environment. And here are the photos shared
    1 point
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