In October 1988, Village acquired a large lot of swampy land adjacent to the studio complex from investment company Ariadne Australia (who had been crippled by the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash). The following month, Village persuaded Warner to acquire 50% of the studio and announced that a theme park, provisionally named Warner World, was to be built on the recently acquired land. Warner recognised the value proposition in the theme park more than in the studio. In July 1989, the two companies entered a joint venture to develop the park with Pivot Leisure, part-owners of a property trust in Sea World, a local marine mammal park. American designer C. V. Wood was commissioned that year to design the park. He had six park designs in his portfolio at the time, including Six Flags Over Texas and Disneyland, and modelled Movie World's layout on Universal Studios Hollywood and Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park. It was scaled to let up to 13,000 guests visit all attractions in a single day, even during peak periods. Construction took about 16 months, relied on labour from local workers as much as possible and cost an estimated $120–140 million, of which Pivot contributed about $30 million.