Warner Bros. Movie World
Warner Bros. Movie World is a theme park on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. Owned and operated by Village Roadshow Theme Parks, the park opened on 3 June 1991. It is part of a entertainment precinct, with the adjacent Village Roadshow Studios and nearby Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast, among other sites operated by Village Roadshow. Movie World is Australia's only film-related theme park and the oldest of the Warner Bros. parks worldwide. As of 2016, it receives a yearly average of 1.4 million visitors.
In the late 1980s, a failed film studio lot and its adjacent land were bought out by Village. They entered a joint venture with Pivot Leisure and Warner to develop the land into a theme park. Designed by C. V. Wood, the layout was inspired by Universal Studios Hollywood and Disney's Hollywood Studios, and opening attractions were designed to educate guests about the processes behind filmmaking. The park has since expanded to include an array of attractions that are based on Warner and related DC Comics properties. It has survived financial hardships and remains among Australia's most popular tourist destinations.
Attractions range from thrill rides such as Batwing Spaceshot and Superman Escape to family attractions such as Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D and Wild West Falls Adventure Ride, entertainment at the Roxy Theatre and the Hollywood Stunt Driver live show. Among the seven operating roller coasters, DC Rivals HyperCoaster is Australia's tallest, fastest and longest, and Green Lantern Coaster has the world's third-steepest drop angle. Film characters regularly roam the grounds to interact and take photos with guests. Each afternoon, characters participate in a parade along Main Street. The seasonal Fright Nights and White Christmas events are hosted annually.
History
1986–1991: Set-up and opening
interest in the Australian film industry grew rapidly during the 1980s. Italian-American film producer Dino De Laurentiis visited the country in 1986; he had worked with Australian film alumni in recent years and noted industry buzz over the film Crocodile Dundee. With De Laurentiis Entertainment Limited, he commissioned and constructed a film studio in Oxenford, near Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, Queensland. The studio was to produce the action film Total Recall, but after their finances were jeopardised by several box office bombs, De Laurentiis left the failing DEL in December 1987. Production on Total Recall halted and AU$3.4 million worth of studio sets were dismantled. Village Roadshow, who had an established partnership with Warner Bros. in Australia, bought out DEL entirely in 1988 and opened Warner-Roadshow Studios in July.In October 1988, Village acquired a large lot of swampy land adjacent to the studio complex from investment company Ariadne Australia. The following month, Village persuaded Warner to acquire 50% of the studio and announced that a theme park, provisionally named Warner World, was to be built on the recently acquired land. Warner recognised the value proposition in the theme park more than in the studio. In July 1989, the two companies entered a joint venture to develop the park with Pivot Leisure, part-owners of a property trust in Sea World, a local marine mammal park. American designer C. V. Wood was commissioned that year to design the park. He had six park designs in his portfolio at the time, including Six Flags Over Texas and Disneyland, and modelled Movie World's layout on Universal Studios Hollywood and Disney's Hollywood Studios. It was scaled to let up to 13,000 guests visit all attractions in a single day, even during peak periods. Construction took about 16 months, relied on labour from local workers as much as possible and cost an estimated $120–140 million, of which Pivot contributed about $30 million.
The opening ceremony held on 2 June 1991 was attended by more than 5,000 people, among them celebrities such as Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. To mark the occasion, Premier of Queensland Wayne Goss cut a novelty film reel with Eastwood and Bugs Bunny. The evening prior, 1 June, a special edition episode of Hey Hey It's Saturday shot on-location had host Daryl Somers interview many of the celebrities in attendance, such as Eastwood and Russell. The park opened to the public on 3 June. Between 400 and 500 jobs were created upon its opening. The initial guest admission fee was $29 for adults and $19 for children. With increased international tourism to the Gold Coast since the 1980s, Village had hoped to tap into a market with American and Japanese customers; attractions were subtitled, and tour guides were trained, in Japanese. Described as the world's first "movie-based theme park" built outside the United States and the first "American-style" theme park since Tokyo Disneyland, it was expected to draw between one and 1.5 million visitors within its first year.
1991–1998: Early attractions
Opening attractions at Movie World educated guests about the processes behind filmmaking. Marketing slogans billed it as "Hollywood on the Gold Coast" and its design was intended to capture the aesthetic of American theme parks such as Disneyland and Universal Studios. Beyond the Fountain of Fame opening plaza, Main Street featured replicas of buildings and facades from various Warner films, such as Rick's Café Américain from Casablanca, the bank robbed during Bonnie and Clyde and the Daily Planet building from Superman. A film studio tour included the Movie Magic Special Effects Show with audience participation on a live set. There were two live daily shows: the Western Action Show featured actors performing amusing stunts with live animals and the hour-long Police Academy Stunt Show staged shoot-outs and car chases for an audience of 1,500. The Warner Bros. Classics & Great Gremlins Adventure interactive dark ride had guests escape from a gremlin invasion of a studio set. Young Einstein Gravity Homestead, based on the 1988 film Young Einstein, featured sloped floors and optical illusions to simulate the effects of gravity. The Roxy Theatre screened 3D films. The Looney Tunes Land children's area featured several attractions, including the Looney Tunes River Ride dark water ride and the Looney Tunes Musical Revue live show.Batman Adventure – The Ride, a $13 million motion simulator ride, opened on 23 December 1992. The ride's four-minute film portion, directed by Hoyt Yeatman and produced at the Dream Quest Images animation studio, featured props and set pieces from the film Batman Returns. McFadden Systems, Inc. manufactured the motion platform and Anitech designed the 20-person simulation capsule. The ride was widely anticipated and immediately popular upon opening. More than 12,000 people visited on 30 December and set a single-day attendance record. In 1995, the Western Action Show was replaced by The Maverick Grand Illusion Show, based on the comedy film Maverick. Lethal Weapon – The Ride opened as the park's first roller coaster in December. The Suspended Looping Coaster by Vekoma was the first of its kind to feature a layout with a helix. It was Australia's first inverted coaster and its construction required more than 600 tonnes of steel.
File:Lethal Weapon The Ride.jpg|thumb|right|Lethal Weapon – The Ride was the park's first roller coaster.|alt=A train loaded with passengers plummets through a banked turn on Lethal Weapon – The Ride; the coaster's lift hill and rollover inversion are in the background.
Marvin the Martian in 3D opened in December 1997 at the Roxy Theatre as the world's first animated 3D film and on Boxing Day, 26 December, Looney Tunes Land reopened as Looney Tunes Village with several new rides. Boxing Day 1998 saw the opening of the Wild Wild West. The flume ride by Hopkins Rides was at the time the largest single ride investment in Australia and featured an artificial mountain that was approximately wide and tall. Originally to be called Rio Bravo after the 1959 Western film of the same name, the ride was renamed to tie-in with the 1999 film Wild Wild West. In their annual report, Village identified Wild Wild West as a crowd-pleaser and credited it with the attendance spike that year.
2000–2008: Expansion
, a Vekoma Junior model, opened on Boxing Day 2000; it was Australia's first coaster designed for children. During 2001, the Great Gremlins and Gravity Homestead attractions closed, and the Looney Tunes Splash Zone was added to Looney Tunes Village. Two new attractions opened on Boxing Day: Batman Adventure – The Ride 2, a refurbishment of the original, and the Harry Potter Movie Magic Experience. Built on the Gravity Homestead's footprint, the $2 million Harry Potter attraction was a direct tie-in to the film series' first film, The Philosopher's Stone, and featured a walk-through replica of Diagon Alley and a live owl show. The following year, it was updated with the release of The Chamber of Secrets to feature film set pieces such as the flying car and creatures of the Forbidden Forest. Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster opened on 17 June 2002; the $13 million Wild Mouse coaster by Mack Rides was themed to the 2002 film Scooby-Doo. The indoor ride featured ghost train elements, an elevator lift and a coaster section.The Harry Potter attraction closed and was replaced in September 2003 by The Official Matrix Exhibit, which featured props from the Matrix film series. In 2005, Village announced expansion plans totalling $65 million for their Gold Coast parks, in which Movie World would receive a share with two new attractions. First, the Roxy Theatre was refurbished for a new film, Shrek 4D Adventure. Opened on 17 September, the experience used sensory effects, moving seats and animatronics. Superman Escape, the other attraction, opened on Boxing Day. The $16 million Accelerator Coaster by Intamin was the park's first major thrill ride in about a decade. Batwing Spaceshot, a $5 million Space Shot by S&S Power, opened in December 2006.
Looney Tunes Village was renamed to Kids' WB Fun Zone in 2007, with two new rides added. Police Academy Stunt Show drew its final curtain call on 30 April 2008 after 16 years and 18,000 performances; the enduringly popular attraction was among the world's longest-running stunt shows at the time. Its replacement, the $10 million Hollywood Stunt Driver, opened on Boxing Day. A cast of 10 stunt drivers were selected from more than 200 applicants and, in preparation for the show, the venue was renovated to increase its stage area and seating capacity from 1,400 to 2,000 guests. Another new live show, Looney Tunes: What's Up Rock?, replaced The Musical Revue. In October, construction of a roof over Main Street was completed. The 4,000 square metre roof supplied by MakMax Australia was designed to improve guest protection from the elements and provide for a 2,000-person capacity venue for functions and events.