Warner Bros. Movie World Madrid drops Six Flags for management

I heard the following rumor regarding the GIB: Its was supposed to go to Six Flags Belgium (now Walibi Belgium). The rumored location was the area where the Huss Top Spin is now. Now, with SF buying so much Vekoma rides, they got the Boomerang for almost nothing. Now... instead of building the chinese theater at WBMW, they put the GIB there and SFB got stuck with the Boomerang... knowing that SF other park in Belgium already had one for 18 years! The Boomerang should have been sent to Walibi Lorraine, as that's the park that need any new rides they can get.

In Six Flags last conference call on 11/9 SF stated that they were close to reaching a deal so they could terminate their management contract and get rid of their 5% stake in the park, which makes it seem that they wanted out and were not forced out.

I think large parks in untapped markets always have shakey starts. As has been mentioned, all the parks in Spain have had a bad year, so Movie World was unforuntately timed.

Whilst they all do market research before they build, it will take a few years before parks can adjust to the type of visitors they get. Millennium Dome in London never had this chance and was a failure, Disneyland Paris had this problem and added rides like Space Mountain and Indiana Jones.

Movie World is changing, too. This year it has added more visior-orientated things like visitor information posts, more sitting areas and has reacted to guest feedback.

Season ticket sales were well up this year and are apparently not included in the 1.1m visitor figure (not confirmed, though), and guest feedback has been far more positive this year.

Not a good year, but I think being in charge of themselves they will be more passionate about the parks' success. Whilst I don't share the same negative opinion of Six Flags as you guys (Movie World is one of my favourite parks), I do think that the new management will benefit the park.