Movieworld replacing stunt show

[Rollercoaster13]

Warner Village Theme Parks is planing to open two new Australian firsts at both Sea World and Warner Bros. Movie World, but as a result, closing a Movie World icon. Movie World will be ditching the iconic Police Academy stunt show to make way for the Hot Wheels show, including many car stunts similar to the show already operating. The new show will cost Warner Village around seven million dollars and will be replacing the old stunt show, Police Academy which has been at Movie World since it opened in 1992. Police Academy is one of Movie World's only original attractions still operating. Batman Adventure is the only other original attraction still operating from the parks' opening. The Police Acadey show also recently won the award for the longest running theme park show worldwide. Sea World is also planing to introduce hippos to their park, setting back Warner Village around five million dollars. The hippos will be built a new home with temperature controlled environments and large pools. Both attractions are set to open in the middle 2009.

[sonic123488]

Does the police academy stunt show really need to be replaced? It's still a great attraction and I don't think it needs to be replaced, even if you haven't seen the movies it's still great

[mickey_079]

I was told (not sure who by) that it the police academy theme will still be the same, just a different storyline and different set and different stunts and vehicles. Many people love seeing police academy show and I personally think I should stay. IMO I think if it was a hot wheels show, it would most likely end up like the action man show at Wonderland.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Not that i'm questioning your credibility... but.... well.... ok i'm questioning your credibility. I have to say Pixel that your contributions so far don't allow me to believe that you would have this information before some of our other more reliable sources. Where does this information come from? How reliable is it? Why haven't our other sources close to WVTP come out with this yet? I find it difficult to believe in SEA world that hippos would come before other, more... saltwater? animals. Also, as has been discussed many times before, Sea World has a BIG land shortage. Anything SW installs needs to be a BIG draw card to be worth the money. Shark Bay was worth it. Dolphin Cove was worth it. The Eye was worth it - even if only for the iconic value to point out to more tourists that there was actually a park there. I can't see hippos being a big drawcard. Hippos in captivity have been done. Taronga Zoo has hippos, and to be honest, they're a small backwater attraction, simply because they're... well they're boring. Hippos prefer swamps and lakes, water that doesn't have a high visibility, which is bad for a public attraction, especially since they prefer to spend a lot of their time 98% underwater. As far as police academy, the show still packs them in 3 times (or more) per day. The only reason I could see them getting rid of PA is if it weren't financially viable, and the majority of the expenses on that show (besides staffing) has got to be the pyro, which can't be that much compared to the capacity of the attraction and the price of an entry ticket. People have talked long and hard about replacing PA, but the fact is that even today, the show is still immensely popular. It is rare that i go to the park and don't stop by to see one of the shows, and many people are the same. I know one employee of WVTP who catches the show in his lunchbreak on occasion. If the statement is true, I really hope Movie World rethink the idea, especially if the show is only to be rehashed with new corporate branding that has less and less to do with Movies, it is afterall, MOVIE world. I'd like to see a western stunt show. Universal pull of an incredibly good stunt show with a smaller stage and about the same capacity. I know movie world had something similar in the past but i'd like to see it again. In reality, the stunt shows all rotate around a few simple ideas: Guns, and explosives. Lots of them with big bangs Transport - either horses for a western, or Cars for a more modern version Street Fighting - choreographed action of fake punches, kicks, and aerial maneuvers. Falls - one or more people launching themselves off a building in a simple fall Grand Finale - a very big, impressive, all encompasing closure to the show- movie world has the big helicopter exploding, and the last time I saw Universal, the entire building facade fell down on top of someone. A Hot Wheels themed stunt show will obviously have to revolve more and more around the vehicle stunts. If it is using the same stage, this means that there is very little that the cars can do, short of a few donuts. This also means with more vehicle action, there would be less guns, less street fighting, less falls, and makes for a lower impact as far as a finale goes, if the finale is to revolve around the cars also. The police academy characters also have 7 movies to draw the groundwork from in regards to the plot. Harris is the mean captain, with a bad attitude and ambitions of greatness, lassard is bumbling, but always seems to come out squeeky clean, and proctor is the idiot who makes the jokes and gets the laughs, as well as the one who gets dumped on a lot. This franchise spent a lot of time developing the characters in these movies, and this is part of the reason why the show is still as popular today as it was when it was first released. The familiarity with hot wheels is going to drop, as there is nowhere near the same options for familiar, recognisable characters. If they were to replace the show, other more modern alternatives could include the lethal weapon series, as the characters are well developed, and still reasonably modern. Rush Hour could be an option, or a change to less vehicle related action and go towards one of the more recent Marvel releases - like hulk or fantastic 4. If its going to be replaced, fine. I think its a bad idea at the moment, however retiring something still in its popularity instead of waiting until it has gone stale doesn't seem to be MW's strong point, looking at batman adventure. But if it is replaced, there has got to be a better franchise out there that offers a more solid delivery to the public with a well rounded and balanced show, like PA is now, than a Hot Wheels show that is purely relying on branding to get bums on seats, and definitely won't get the repeat attendance that PA gets now. Maybe Hot Wheels could discuss something with Dreamworld - perhaps they could say its another dedication to australian motorsport and get Dick Johnson to put his name to it for a year or two. IMHO Hot Wheels is something Dreamworld should go for, but not MW.

[BNErider]

He grabbed the un-edited copy from me off msn. The information can be found on WVTP's website.

[joz]

http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20071015/pdf/3153lfxlw0rp9g.pdf Oh how I love these Village releases, there's lots of fun stuff in there, including attendance numbers, revenues, future major attractions and future business ventures.

[BNErider]

Yep. Did the old owners release this much information about future rides?

[Richard]

Village Roadshow have always been fairly upfront about some forthcoming attractions for the next year or so in financial releases. Since the 1980s Village Roadshow has been an owner of these parks; the most noticeable thing that changed with the buyout is that now Village takes all the profits. The really interesting thing is this was the first time they've released park-by-park attendance figures in about a decade, as well as such a detailed account of each park's financials. You can also be sure that this isn't everything for the next 18 months mapped out. They're certainly getting closer to floating off the theme parks, that's for sure.

[MickeyD]

QUOTE: "Police Academy is one of Movie World's only original attractions still operating. Batman Adventure is the only other original attraction still operating from the parks' opening." um sorry no Batman opened at the end of the second year!! The only other original standing attraction is the Looney Tunes River Ride! Anyway, new attractions are always welcome if you ask me! hahaha, I predicted this would happen way back at the start of the year:) I will be suprised though if the new Stunt Show opens in the same spot as it is the one things that bugs the neighbours out the back the most.. Time will tell I guess. As for SW, Hippos hey? Personally I would have preferred a new ride. LONG OVERDUE SW!! As Richard said, not EVERYTHING is mentioned in these reports

Edited October 15, 2007 by MickeyD

[Gazza]

Notice in there, one of the things was a "locker hire buyout" for 2.7mil, I wonder if being the owners they could have more freedom to control prices, they could for example remove the usage charge for the SE lockers.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Gazza, I think more likely that the buyout would be so that they actually make the money from the lockers, rather than let the profits go to the owners of the lockers. I can't see them spending millions on the buyout, only to make it free. I'd rather they spend the money on new attractions, rather than either making them free, or leaving them as they are.

[Gazza]

Yeah true, though it is across all parks When I said more freedom I had other things in mind too, In the peak season at WnW what would stop them from putting up rental prices. At SW maybe they could do hourly rentals rather than full day ones at the water park. Promos would also be possible,at WnW for example a reduced rate for season pass holders. These are just examples, it could also be something much better. Makes me wonder why parks would let out operations of lockers (and in DW's case the arcade) to 3rd parties, these would be simple enough to run yet make a lot of money. In any case, I can see the 2.7mil being paid off very quickly. I mean with 1mil visitors a year at wet n wild, and if the usage rates between visitors was just 25% (4 people sharing) then that is $1.75mil coming in through WnW alone. Now, as for a couple of other things in this. I guess it was inevitable police academy was on the way out, given its popularity I think they should say it's closing to get the 'one last time' crowd. Disney did a similar thing when the main st electrical parade was on the way out. With the new show, I hope somehow they do work in some elements that relate it to the movie theme (like what has been done with Lights Moteurs Action at Disney studios Paris) it would be a shame if it were just a generic car show. As for the Hippo exhibit, I think it is a good addition, I look forward to something of the same standard as their past couple of exhibits. Any news on where in the park it is going (surely that is not ASX sensitive info) Another interesting thing MW is getting 1,323,524 Whereas DW is getting 1,368,141 Thats just 44,617 people between them (So on average DW would get 126 extra people per day) If there is such a small difference between attendance, why is there such a big difference between queue times at both parks?

Edited October 16, 2007 by Gazza

[Original]

When I read the first post I was about to say "Where did you get your infomation from? Are you sure the parks want this realised." But as I read on they have realised, I still thought it was still hush hush from I what was told by someone. But yeah as far as I can remember that's what they've got and in the asx thing before that section it says John Mezies so I imagine it would be pretty accurate! I think the stunt show would be something like "Lights Motor Action" At disneyland. http://ozcoaster.net/index.php?option=com_...7&Itemid=32 Don't forget this is Movie World, they always do a good ride or attraction. With the noise I think it will be very noisy and loud with cars all the time so maybe a roof over the top of it could reduce the noise a bit? What do you think? The hippo's I think will be great and if they spend most time underwater (98%) then wouldn't there be a underwater viewing deck? I think they will do it great, (they travel the world looking at big attractions) I think they know what there doing and why. I think it will be great and interesting just like Shark Bay, Don't forget Shark are underwater 100% of the time!!! Way to go WVTP!!!

[Gazza]

^I think the point AlexB was getting at was that underwater viewing wouldn't really help since Hippos live in murky water.

[MickeyD]

Interesting stuff. Thanks for the article Richard. I'm a little suprised to hear MW has once again fallen in the shadow of DW's attendance figures. I guess after years of barrolling out Annual passes to locals, DW may be in the winning streak (slightly) with the numbers through the gate but I very much doubt they are coming even close to MW's $-per-guest figures..

[Richard]

Thats just 44,617 people between them (So on average DW would get 126 extra people per day) If there is such a small difference between attendance, why is there such a big difference between queue times at both parks?

You needn't look any further than the operating margins between the two parks. Movie World's is around 30% - more or less the industry standard around the world. Dreamworld's is up at 40%. When there are reports that Dreamworld's brand new roller coaster has two hour queues while only running one of the two trains available, it's pretty clear that the dollar is coming first. Per capita spend (revenue divided by attendance) is marginally lower at Movie World; Dreamworld have hovered around $60 for the past few years (in-line with Movie World), but they've managed to push it up to $64 this year. Not really surprising considering you're paying a good $15 for a very sub-par meal at Dreamworld these days (as one example). As far as hippos go, I've seen my fair share of them at zoos around the world. I'd have to say they rate in the top five for most boring creatures out there. Evidently the market research they've been doing in recent times has sampled people who've never had the privilege of seeing morbidly obese animals do nothing for hours on end.

[nessva]

I think it'd be a huge shame to see the Police Academy Show go. I remember going to MW in high school and after the show we got to hang around and talk to the stunt crew.

[BNErider]

I do agree with you there. I cannot believe my eyes when I read it but it's on their site so we know it's true. About the hippos... I think people would visit them because they're weird and different. I know I'd look at them because I've never seen them before.

[nessva]

I gotta say, once you've seen one Hippo you've seen them all. They don't really interest me.

[BNErider]

Why put my name in the story?

[Gazza]

^WTF, both articles have the same subject matter, but you can tell each has been written independently of the other. This is a change from previous articles

Warner Village Theme Parks is planning to open two new Australian firsts at both Sea World and Warner Bros. Movie World, but as a result, closing a Movie World icon.

This is incorrect, Hippos are not an Australian first as there are already hippos at a number of zoological parks in Australia. Edited October 16, 2007 by Gazza

[BNErider]

Oh well, one Australian first

[Richard]

This topic was falling apart at the seams. Please direct discussion to the following topics: Hot Wheels stunt show discussion Unknown hippopotamus attraction discussion Theme park food