Wanda Group to build theme park on Gold Coast?

[AllegroCrab]

Surely a new park on the GC can't be harmful to the other parks. The most traffic comes from people who are staying in the area for a few days and will visit multiple parks. It's not like everyone's going to forget about the parks that are already established as the most famous in Australia. The existing parks will be forced to do more to compete, I reckon it's one of the best things that could happen for consumers.

[Richard]

In Queensland, big ambitious plans (including theme parks) very obviously DO happen. You only need to take a look / drive around to see that. It's AWESOME here!!

 Certainly not saying that big stuff doesn't happen on the Gold Coast. But I'd definitely say that the vast majority of plans announced at this early, exploratory stage don't happen.

[pushbutton]

 Certainly not saying that big stuff doesn't happen on the Gold Coast. But I'd definitely say that the vast majority of plans announced at this early, exploratory stage don't happen.

True, but all plans that DO happen have to start at this stage, and this is one that sounds very hopeful so far to me (or am I being too positive?)

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

(or am I being too positive?)

As usual, yes - but in this case it's not unreasonable. It'd be great to get another park on the coast to force the duopoly into further competition - my only concern is that the suggested budget is extremely unlikely - and for that reason I guarantee this park will be nowhere near as spectacular as it is promoted - someone else did the math already on rate of return on investment and i think that is very telling.

[Chubu]

They should build it in Sydney and call it WandaLand.

[downunder]

^That's a good one, I'll pay that.

A new theme park option won't hurt, hopefully it will have some decent rides.

[GoGoBoy]

I still think it's crazy that they haven't build Legoland on the Gold Coast yet, or at the very least an indoor Legoland Discovery Centre (which I think was proposed for MW at one stage). I reckon it'd be an absolute hit. Only today I was reading an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about lego exhibitions at a couple of the museums here. They reckon attendance surges massively whenever they hold one.

[liz.wis]

The rumour is certainly getting out there, I've seen a number of crappy news sources post about it on Facebook.  

[pin142]

Don't think we will see anything Lego park or discovery centre in Queensland until some time after the Discovery Centre in Melbourne opens.

[pushbutton]

Quote

 

In todays Courier Mail

 

[Brad2912]

Cue DA objections from VRTP & Ardent. 

An extra million visitors? In what time frame? It isn't going to bring an extra million people a year to the GC, not unless it's literally in the top few theme parks in the world. 

[pin142]

Would ask why it would take the visitors and not share them but it is a Limited News article. The Gold Coast isn't really somewhere you go to visit Sea World or Movie World and neglect all the other parks or attractions.

 

The only way they will take profits from the existing parks is if they were stupid enough to go even cheaper than the basically free price the currently being charged.

[Levithian]

Per year. It might do in foreign visitors now the dollar has dropped. Especially given how invested in media they are in china, so they could hit the tourist mark pretty hard. 

The company is massive compared to existing interests here in aus. Put it this way, village roadshow, through all their assets, annual turnover is about 1/3rd the after tax profit of wanda. The worry would be how long they are prepared to run at a loss to gather market share and draw people away from other parks. If you are taking on a company that plans billion dollar investments and is banked by a company with 50 billion a year turnover, then if you are any of the parks on the coast you'd probably be losing sleep at any hint of chinese property developers buying land on the north coast.

Always a worry of getting too big, too quickly though. Might be why they are taking on a lot of foreign investment, to get away from the chinese property market.

[DisneyDoll]

Hi everyone, I saw this & thought it was worth mentioning considering all the speculation.

http://www.afr.com/lifestyle/arts-and-entertainment/film-and-tv/could-chinas-dalian-wanda-bring-jurassic-park-to-australia-20160105-gm02x6

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Isn't this just a follow-up story to the original "it could be a disney" story? Except now let's talk about a Universal product instead? Don't we already have a topic for this Millionaire wacko?

[DisneyDoll]

34 minutes ago, AlexB said:

Isn't this just a follow-up story to the original "it could be a disney" story? Except now let's talk about a Universal product instead? Don't we already have a topic for this Millionaire wacko?

Yes, your quite correct. It is the same guy but I thought that it was worth posting separate to the Disneyland thread as it is being insinuated that it could be more Jurassic Park....Obviously I was wrong seeing this has now been bumped into that thread.

Edited January 6, 2016 by DisneyDoll

[iwerks]

It insinuates Jurassic World not Jurassic Park. It would be strange if those two were split. Could make for a great park - something that could attract a lot of visitors to the Gold Coast.

[djmcbell]

It definitely would be strange if JP and JW were split up, but existing JP "themed lands" are themed around JP, and don't really have the space (I think) to incorporate new JW attractions, or JW theming (since JW is a lot more modern).

I don't think they'd build an entire park around JP/JW though, it'd just be an area, but it'd make sense for them to theme it to JW over JP now - especially if they can see how the sequels are going to turn out too and work that in (the sequels are still years off, but so is this park - if it materialises).

[Brad2912]

Are you guys missing something or am I?

there is no correlation between a potential buy-in to Legendary Pictures and the Australian theme park proposal. 

They could have used the name of any of Legendarys hundreds of movies, but just chose JW as it is its most successful and recent.

There isn't a single word or phrase other than the provocative choice of title wording that mentions they will look to link the theme park to a movie property owned by a movie-house that they MAY become part owners of (and the unrelated picture from Universal of the JP ride)

[DisneyDoll]

Yet another article about this park.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/australian-holidays/queensland/billionaire-plans-to-open-jurassic-theme-park-on-the-gold-coast/news-story/04b407ab738c6c2b68cb2e9e9363d78b

[Theme Park Girl]

God I hope it's true and something comes of it... JP is one of my all time fave movies and the sequels are pretty much up there with it. I literally squealed with joy when I saw the article in my FB feed this morning. A dinosaur themed Park would be better than a Disney Park in my books any day!!! 

Bring it on I say ???

[Brad2912]

But once again there is no linkage between the a purchase of Legendary pictures and a theme park. 

Just because they are building a theme park and 'may' own a share in a film production house that happens to have produced Jurassic World, doesn't mean they are building a Jurassic Park theme park. 

[joz]

I agree.  Also, it's a dinosaur themed park.  How long till attendance starts declining after people get bored of Dinosaurs, and the owners start playing god making new dinosaurs to keep the public entertained?  Also does anyone think their might be a military application to such a move?

[Richard]

Given the media took "No comment" to mean "We are 100% building a Disney park in Australia", it's not surprising that they're trying this angle now. 

Neither Disney or Universal -- who likely have a very long-term licensing agreement for Jurassic Park theme park attractions regardless of who is a part-owner of Legendary -- are going to be in any hurry to sell any rights to a company to build an Australian park that would be heavily marketed to a Chinese audience in direct competition with their own strategies in Asia. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, DisneyDoll said:

Yet another article about this park.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/australian-holidays/queensland/billionaire-plans-to-open-jurassic-theme-park-on-the-gold-coast/news-story/04b407ab738c6c2b68cb2e9e9363d78b

Not really - its a rehashed version of the gold coast bulletin article previously shared (they even quote the bulletin on several key points) - there is no new information here - just expanded speculation.

42 minutes ago, joz said:

I agree.  Also, it's a dinosaur themed park.  How long till attendance starts declining after people get bored of Dinosaurs, and the owners start playing god making new dinosaurs to keep the public entertained?  Also does anyone think their might be a military application to such a move?

I think you're onto something Joz. with all the war going on in the world, wouldn't it be cool to create animal-based soldiers to do our fighting for us? There's definitely some criminal intent in their motives.