Melco Crown Entertainment’s Studio City
, James Packer’s third casino in Macau, has secured partnerships with Warner Bros. and comic book outfit DC Entertainment, adding more family-friendly features.
In addition to the 130m tall Ferris wheel, the Golden Eye, an ongoing production of The House of Magic, a 5000-seat entertainment centre, a TV-broadcast studio and a version of the Ibiza dance music institution Pacha Nightclub, the massive complex will also include a 30,000 square foot family entertainment center that will feature Warner Bros and DC Comics characters like Tom and Jerry, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.
Melco Crown Chief Executive Lawrence Ho said that Studio City would also introduce Macau to Batman Dark Flight, a virtual reality ride.
The $US3.2 billion (AU$3.9 billion) Hollywood-inspired gambling and entertainment complex is set to open in the third quarter of this year and begin operating 400 gaming tables and 1600 hotel rooms.
Gambling revenue in Macau fell 2.6% to 351.5 billion patacas ($54.4 billion) in 2014, the first fall in 11 years since the city began releasing financial reports in 2002. Studio City’s mass-market-friendly features are intended to reduce reliance on high rollers amid a Chinese government crackdown on corruption that has hit VIP gambling revenues.
“Studio City will radically enhance and diversify Macau’s evolving leisure experiences as Melco Crown Entertainment works to anticipate, innovate and ultimately satisfy the ever-growing needs of the region’s and world’s leisure destination visitors,” Ho said.
“It [Studio City] will represent Asia’s ‘next generation’ of immersive, world-leading, entertainment-driven gaming and leisure destination experiences, as we work to support Macau’s tourism development and diversification,” Ho added.
Studio City will be promoted by the short film The Audition—a joint venture between James Packer and Director Brett Ratner’s RatPac Entertainment—starring Leonardo Dicaprio, Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt and directed by Martin Scoresese, a promo for which is viewable below.
