How could Movie World expand?

[scott]

The Ghost Ship idea isn't a bad one. I can't really think of anywhere in the park to put it though, although near WWF wouldn't be too bad, like how disney put Haunted Mansion in the western area.

[PattieBoi]

How about a whole new section in the park...call it...hrmm lets say Amittyville? You know that movie?

[taronga]

I've suggested this in another thread but, what about a ride like Disney's haunted mansion based on the Corpse Bride movie instead.

[LunaParkFanatic]

PattieBoi, Your a champ! Movie World needs a horror/creppy area. It'd be really good! Then they should put in the Ghost Ship ride, AmityVillie house etc!

[PattieBoi]

They should make it EXTREMELY freaky, like so freaky that children under the age of 13 aren't allowed to enter than land unless accompanied by an adult! Nah on second thoughts, that's too far. Just stick to the normal creepy/freaky section in the park.

[GoldCoast_ROG]

Another extreme coaster to kick the DW Big-5 thrillride marketing concept in the guts. Just look at some of those steel rollercoasters in some of the other parks, with today's technology shouldn't it be feasible to run one around and through the park overhead? When you look at DW's Cyclone, Lethal Weapon, Superman Escape, they are all perched totally within their own piece of space, shouldn't it be possible to construct a track through and around parts of the perimeter of the park, for a speed / thrill ride lasting 4 minutes, and use one of the buildings as a load/unload station and perhaps some theming? A rollercoaster with say 2 or 3 sections where the carriage is re-accelerated 'ala Superman Escape style. Would be awesome, even more so if they get Intamin to build this one as well, and drag the track across behind the studios across to near Wet'n'Wild for an awesome speed ride, through Wet & Wild above the splashing action, for a bird's eye view of the water fun, then another accelerator section through a couple of loops, a camel hump or two, a ground-hugging bend and back to MW. A 4-5 minute ride, running 4-5 carriages a minute apart, capacity 30 people each, that would sound like the go, with an intelligent loading and unloading section where you'd have a total of 10 carriages in service and deploy them as they are loaded, simultaneous loading and unloading on several tracks and platforms. It should be feasible to move 1500 people an hour or more this way and have an awesome coaster to boot

[Gazza]

But something like that would cost many $$$. And to accomadate 10 trains would require tons of blocks, and train storage areas. Plus to use a superman style launch would require a complete stop, LIMS would be the go.

[Adam]

A very interesting concept GoldCoast_ROG, but I don't believe Movie World would want to build something like that (at the moment). I mean, they're just days away from opening a brand new 12 million dollar high speed launch coaster. A park that size doesn't need two.

[GoldCoast_ROG]

I beg to differ. Superman Escape is the first major, new technology coaster to be built here for a long time - unless I'm mistaken Lethal Weapon (1995) was the last major Rollercoaster investment for our fun parks here, the only others that come close are DW's Cyclone, and the Corkscrew over at Seaworld. $12 million might sound like a huge investment, but remember they've held back in pumping big bucks into big rides, the Scooby Coaster was a huge thing at around $9 million I'm told, and it still pulls the crowds, the novelty factor as far as I'm concerned on that ride is wearing thin, but my kids share the same enthusiasm as everybody else that lines up when it's busy. Scooby coaster has lots of life left in it. Interestingly, Wild West Falls, despite being the biggest single fun park investment, isn't pulling in the crowds in a similar way, I guess the prospect of getting wet might hold some people off. Notice they've only recently begun to pull out the big guns as far as investing money is concerned, with Superman Escape and another $20million expanding Wet & Wild, obviously the number crunchers at MW are keen to up crowd numbers, similarly DW's keen to capture the wet and wild market with its massive $57 or so investment in its own water park. In my view, MW needs another major, and I mean major thrill ride beyond SE. When you look at what US parks are investing in coasters, particularly Cedar Point's millenium force, a 2min 20sec ride mega rollercoaster, top speed 92mph. 12 steel rollercoasters in the one park These days, the Gold Coast is not only Australia's top tourist destination, but also one of the most popular destinations in this corner of the globe, major attractions such as Superman Escape and other expansion of the parks is a major contributor to domestic and international tourism, and no doubt these parks are raking big bucks as well - apart from that, there's good debt and bad debt, borrowing to build more thrill rides sound like a good investment to me, or go public and list on the stock exchange, and offer shareholders discounted park entry $25 million: http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/theme...new05/kingdaka/

[shadowshadi]

i know what would be cool a rollercoaster that starts in movie world go to wet n wild then somenow all the way to sea world and back

[Adam]

Movie World is a family-orientated theme park – so instead of comparing it to Cedar Point, why not compare it to something like Universal Studios? Universal Studios Hollywood is a very successful park, similar to Movie World (but obviously on a larger scale), that only has one major roller coaster attraction. The park still manages, however, to entertain and attract large volumes of people from all over the world. While I do agree that the continued expansion of Movie World would benefit the Gold Coast immensely, I don’t think their next attraction has to be a roller coaster.

[GoldCoast_ROG]

i know what would be cool a rollercoaster that starts in movie world go to wet n wild then somenow all the way to sea world and back

now that would be F in awesome ..... yet sooooo unrealistic in terms of cost .... hmmm, perhaps not.... make it public transport infrastructure, a triple-loop coaster with ground-hugging turn along the beach for a quick stop at Laycock Ave, then a Kingda-Ka style ride to next stop main beach, then some loopy loops to seaworld, then a speed run to DW, naah forget that, straight to MW, wet'n'wild, up to McLaren Rd/Castagno Ave Nerang, (three guesses why ), and another stop just outside Nerang BC (Post Office) - after all might as well be able to check the PO Box on the way thru now that's nuckin' futs as they say but not bad for a wild run of the imagination set free on this glorious Gold Coast Wednesday morning ...

Movie World is a family-orientated theme park – so instead of comparing it to Cedar Point, why not compare it to something like Universal Studios? Universal Studios Hollywood is a very successful park, similar to Movie World (but obviously on a larger scale), that only has one major roller coaster attraction. The park still manages, however, to entertain and attract large volumes of people from all over the world. While I do agree that the continued expansion of Movie World would benefit the Gold Coast immensely, I don’t think their next attraction has to be a roller coaster.

Good point, still from the response I get from people, especially foreign tourists, whom I make conversation with in queues, especially Lethal Weapon, Scooby Coaster, the general consensus is what they seem to enjoy rides the most, especially thrill rides. Build a thrill-ride only park and you'll find you'll alienate quite a number of people to whom this is not the major focus, even though you'll have a strong niche market, but you're right getting more family orientated widens the overall appeal. MW's management is realising this as it's lagged behind DW over the years, which has established itself with more rides, even though they aren't as efficient in pumping people through the rides, and the lack of theming. MW's come from a more 'this is how movies are made' attraction to a theme park with themed rides attraction and really had to build something else apart from Lethal Weapon to put the place well and truly on the map. Superman Escape is an awesome addition to the park and its distinctive blue and red structural colours stand out and makes the whole thing very visible from the M1 motorway, whereas before nothing really stood out like dogs balls in a big way. Will make an interesting sight for drivers passing the park on the M1 having those distinctive yellow carriages going around the track if the timing's right......

[Slick]

Ok, that's it. I'm putting my big foot in the door. Adam is dead on correct with Movie World being a much more family orientated park, and of course ROG all the people in the Lethal Weapon queue line are going to think they should put in another thrill ride, because that market of people that ride Lethal Weapon would naturally want more thrills. Maybe if you made some conversation to some families in the children's area of the park (as suss as it sounds) you'd find they'd say a totally opposite thing, so I don't think you can use that as a legitimate reason to build another thrill ride. And then you're going from arguing your point to contradicting yourself... What's up with that? Building a basically thrill-only based park has been done and has been widely successful, check out parks like Cedar Point and Six Flags MM for example, their thrill ride market is indefinitely larger than their assortment of family attractions, and they still make larger amounts of money than alot of our theme parks combined (even if they are the size of several of our parks combined. ) And that Sea World idea. Can I label that "n00b" already? How on earth are you expecting to get a strip of land that runs from wnw and mw to sw? As inventive as it was, I think I can safely say it'll never happen. lol. Oh, one final thing that's been bugging me, you quoted Kingda Ka costing 25 million, thing is, in that number would be more 32 million Australian, a little bit more out of reach than it may seem.

Edited December 14, 2005 by Slick