MOVIE WORLD’S ALL-STAR OPENING
It doesn’t seem like 25 years ago that a cast of Hollywood heavyweights added to the glamour of the opening of the Gold Coast theme park
CONSTRUCTION of a new rollercoaster at the Gold Coast’s Movie World has got theme park fans’ tongues wagging this week. The latest structure, thought to be a metal sit-down rollercoaster, is expected to debut early next year and is the latest in a line of upgrades being announced throughout 201617 to mark the park’s 25th anniversary.
Warner Bros Movie World opened on June 3, 1991 in a celebrity cavalcade of excitement.
The $120 million theme park was built in the late 1980s and featured a fully operational movie studio and rides and was expected to attract about 13,000 people a day.
But before the Oxenford project, originally 167ha in size, opened, a celebrity-filled ceremony was planned.
Leading the charge was Hollywood superstar Clint Eastwood who arrived in time to celebrate his 61st birthday with a cruise on the Broadwater aboard a luxury catamaran.
No expense was spared for the 40-odd guests including Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Mel Gibson and his wife Robyn, Yahoo Serious and American film moguls from the Warner Bros Studios.
Eastwood was greeted by longtime fan and restaurateur, Robyn Horley who gave Eastwood a bottle of champagne, and he rewarded her with a kiss.
Eastwood’s party cruised to Stradbroke Island and back again.
On the night before the opening, Darryl Somers and the crazy Hey Hey It’s Saturday crew took over the Gold Coast’s new theme park and interviewed several of the stars.
At the opening, premier Wayne Goss said it would be impossible to calculate the economic benefits the park would generate for the state.
He said the production of five feature films and three major television series there had already injected $100 million into the state’s economy.
Mr Goss joined Eastwood and Bugs Bunny in cutting the ribbon and officially opening the park.
Warner Bros executives told more than 5000 invited guests that the Gold Coast would become one of the movie-making capitals of the world.
“This is as up-to-date as any studio anywhere in the world,” Warner Bros president, Mr Terry Semel, said.
Other stars to attend the opening were Australian actors Nick Carrafa and Fiona Corke.
Terry Jackman was on the board of Village Roadshow and was the owner of the land where the park was built.
He said it was hard to believe it happened 25 years ago.
“It has been a great attraction for the Coast and the opening day was exciting,” he said. “I played a game of golf with Clint Eastwood which was a lot of fun.
“The opening with all the stars was great, they were all nice people.”
Now, 25 years later, the park gets about 1.4 million visitors annually.
Last week the park’s new multimillion-dollar DC Comicsthemed precinct opened.
The centrepiece of the precinct is a looping ride called Doomsday Destroyer, named for the villain who killed Superman in 1993.
In June, plans for a $35 million golf attraction with US entertainment company Topgolf were unveiled, with the facility set to open late next year.