Movie Park Germany closed its 25th anniversary season with a successful Halloween Horror Festival and a solid increase in visitors compared to the previous year. Germany’s largest movie and amusement park can also report a satisfactory increase in visitors in the summer.
With the new Multi Dimension Coaster “Movie Park Studio Tour“, a new family ride opened this year in Hollywood in Germany, bringing to life the biggest production in recent park history. The park was also able to make positive headlines with its Corona concept: Just like in 2020, Movie Park Germany also shone in the spotlight with its detailed hygiene and infection protection measures in the second year of the Corona pandemic.
“The safety and health of our visitors and employees were always our top priority. Our hygiene and infection protection concept has again proven successful and no chains of infection among our guests and employees could be detected in the 2021 season,” says Managing Director Thorsten Backhaus. “Over the course of the year, the concept was repeatedly adapted to current conditions, including the addition of admission rules (vaccinated, recovered or tested guests). However, the visitors already knew most of the basic measures from last year and were well acquainted with the situation on site. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the authorities once again for their good and constructive cooperation. A big thank you also goes to all visitors and our staff for the good teamwork.”
The leisure industry had to face the effects of the Corona pandemic again this year. Thus, the lockdown until the beginning of June unfortunately did not allow a regular season start in 2021: “Of course, we are not able to live up to visitor records of previous years in the second Corona season. Due to the lockdown, we were only able to start the season around 60 days later and had to adhere to capacity restrictions again this year,” says Thorsten Backhaus. “However, we can also look back on this season with pride and confidence. We can see a constant positive development in visitor numbers compared to last year. In addition, and despite the pandemic, we have opened a new main attraction for our guests with the “Movie Park Studio Tour”. The new coaster receives very positive feedback from our visitors and represents an important milestone for the future development of the park.”
Since the opening in June, the Multi Dimension Coaster has introduced visitors even deeper to the world of Hollywood and taken families on a Hollywood studio tour at speeds of up to 60 km/h through various sets and scenes. Sound and special effects, two launch elements forwards and backwards as well as a 360-degree turntable provide an immersive experience with multimedia elements.
The coaster has already been able to play itself onto the screens of the specialist press and has been honored with various awards. At the Parksmania Awards 2021, the “Movie Park Studio Tour” set the international stage as “European Top New Attraction”. The attraction also made its way into the spotlight at the parkscout | plus Awards 2021 as “Europe’s Best New Rides in 2021” and “Germany’s Best New Rides in 2021” as well as at the European Star Awards, where the family ride ranked among the “Best New Coasters”.
With the beginning of the summer vacations, the “Movie Park Studio Tour” became an important spot for families and has since then been one of the most popular attractions on the studio lot. In general, a positive increase in visitor development could be noted during the summer vacations: “Despite stricter corona measures than in the previous year, we were able to record a solid increase in visitors this summer season. While the beginning of the vacations still brought bad weather, the number of visitors increased continuously from the beginning to the end of the summer vacation period. Especially in the last weeks, we were well booked – along with nice, stable weather,” says Thorsten Backhaus.
Particularly noteworthy is also the fall period, in which the increase in visitors continued consistently: “With the Halloween Horror Festival, the park was able to attract a lot of visitors and the 2021 season finally came to a conciliatory end.” This year, Movie Park Germany provided new shock moments among the guests with the action-packed horror course “Acid Warrior” and the re-themed outdoor maze “Fear Forest”, among others. The popularity of the event was also reflected in its sales figures: on twelve event days, the capacity limit was almost reached – eight days of which the Halloween event was even sold out.
After the last day of Halloween, Movie Park Germany is now taking its official break from Hollywood-like adventures. In the 2022 season, movie action and family fun will hopefully be back on the production schedule as usual: “Of course, we hope for regular park operations next season. However, we are aware of the current incidence counts and are monitoring them closely. We cannot estimate at this point to what extent certain measures will still continue next year and we are eagerly awaiting the political decisions,” summarises Thorsten Backhaus. “However, we hope for a regular season start and to be able to reopen our previously closed attractions such as the stunt show ‘Crazy Cops New York’, the 4-D cinema, ‘Time Riders’ and ‘The Lost Temple’.”
If the pandemic situation permits, Movie Park’s studio gates are scheduled to reopen regularly on March 25, 2022.
