Village
Roadshow commenced operating in 1954, owning and managing one of the
first drive-in cinemas in Australia in the Melbourne suburb of Croydon.
From these modest beginnings, the Company gradually expanded its
drive-in cinema circuit with the addition of more traditional or
"hardtop" cinemas in major population centres. Village Roadshow entered
the vertically related businesses of film distribution in the 1960s and
film production in the 1970s.
In the eighties, Village
Roadshow was a pioneer in the development of state of the art multiplex
cinema complexes. The Group's developments raised cinema exhibition
standards to new levels with stadium seating, the latest sound systems
and advanced projection technologies. These cinemas were the forerunners
to the high-quality multiplexes that operate in Village Roadshow's
cinemas today.
In the late eighties,
Village Roadshow's growth strategy required greater access to capital.
This was achieved through a "back door" stock market listing and
additional capital raising through the takeover of De Laurentis
Entertainment Limited in 1988, which then changed its name to Village
Roadshow Limited, still retaining a major shareholding of the Kirby and
Burke families' holding company, Village Roadshow Corporation.
In the nineties,
Village Roadshow further diversified into complementary entertainment
businesses. This included the purchase and development of theme parks:
initially Wet'n'Wild (originally Cades County) in 1989, then building
Warner Bros. Movie World which opened in 1992, the acquisition of Sea
World and Sea World Resort & Water Park (originally Sea World Nara
Resort) followed later in 1992 and opening Australian Outback
Spectacular in 2006. Most recently, Village Roadshow opened Topgolf at
the Gold Coast in 2018.
Also in the nineties,
Village Roadshow expanded its Cinema Exhibition business
internationally, operating cinemas in up to 20 countries. Today, the
Cinema Exhibition business has returned to its roots and operates
solely in Australia. Village Roadshow also purchased the Triple M radio
network in 1993 and subsequently integrated it to create the Austereo
Group. This was a separately listed company on the ASX in which Village
Roadshow had a majority shareholding until March 2011.
Village Roadshow also
owns 20% of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, a Los Angeles based
entertainment business that includes the Village Roadshow Pictures film
production business, and included from February 2008 to March 2013, the
Concord Music Group.
In 2012, Village
Roadshow acquired Edge Loyalty, re-branded Edge. The addition of UK
based Opia in 2015 formed the Marketing Solutions division, focussing on
digital platforms and rewards. Edge was sold in 2019.
Wholly owned
subsidiaries of Village Roadshow also operate the multi-level Lionsgate
Entertainment World theme park at Novotown on Hengqin Island, China and
operate (and have a majority ownership interest in) Wet'n'Wild Las
Vegas.
