Green Tagged: Theme Park in 30

Comcast reported Q3 earnings on October 22, and the parks had little good news. Universal parks revenue fell 4.4%, and adjusted EBITDA fell 17%. CEO Mike Cavanagh said, “Competitors were quicker to anticipate and recognize softness in demand and adapt their marketing strategies.” Japan is still losing attendance as China discourages travel there, and Epic Universe is still working through ride thr...

A 42-year-old man died on October 12 after he was ejected from Goliath, the B&M hyper coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia, striking four children on his way down. Six Flags closed Goliath that afternoon and, by the next morning, nine coasters it calls similar at six other parks, and SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Williamsburg closed Mako and Apollo’s Chariot. Magic Mountain reviewed Goliath...

Six Flags Magic Mountain has permanently retired X2. The announcement follows two hospitalizations in July, three brain-injury lawsuits filed in September, and a law firm that says hundreds more riders have contacted it. Park president Brian Oerding says the ride consistently passed safety tests and was closed because “when we see guest confidence affected, we take it seriously.” The plaintiffs’ a...

Netflix House is adding a K-pop Demon Hunters experience, opening November 12 in Dallas and November 20 in Philadelphia. It's a linear, play-based experience where guests start backstage with HUNTR/X, help restore the Honmoon after a demon crashes the show, and meet Derpy Tiger as a giant puppet built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. In Dallas it replaces Stranger Things, and in Philadelphia it repl...

JANA Partners is pushing Six Flags to explore a sale again, according to The Wall Street Journal. It's JANA's second push this year, but this time there's no public letter and no statement from Six Flags. JANA pointed to disappointing second-quarter results, and Philip thinks interest rates explain the timing. About $1.48 billion of Six Flags' roughly $5 billion in debt has a variable rate, so the...

We kick off the show by apologizing for mispronouncing ArieForce One last week and addressing some of the comments about the UAE. On the UAE, listeners raised labor conditions, LGBTQ safety, and J.K. Rowling, and we address each one based on firsthand experience living and working in the region. Then, the news. Legoland Dubai, Real Madrid World, and Motiongate reopen on October 7, which means a lo...

Six Flags now lets guests finance a season pass, or any online order of $49 or more, through Flex Pay by Upgrade. It is presented as a way to spread a pass into monthly payments, and it is a loan from an outside lender, with a credit check, an 18-and-over requirement, a possible down payment, and an APR from 0% to 36% depending on the borrower. For a company this cash-constrained, the move makes s...

Six Flags settled the wrongful death lawsuit over X2 at Magic Mountain on August 27, two weeks before trial. Christopher Hawley, 22, rode the coaster in 2022, lost consciousness after exiting, and died the next day of a subdural hematoma. The settlement is not an admission of liability, and Six Flags maintained the ride passed daily inspections. X2 has been closed since July, when two riders were...

Six Flags is moving its corporate headquarters from Charlotte to Arlington, Texas, with the transition complete by March 2027. CEO John Reilly framed the move as "concentrating our personnel, processes, and decision-making" in one office to improve coordination among the new executive team. This is an efficiency of time. The pure money play would be stipends and no office at all. A turnaround buil...

Six Flags announced its largest Halloween lineup ever: 448 experiences across the chain, including 11 new haunted mazes, 196 scare zones, and live entertainment offerings. Four new licensed franchises headline the year, with Jason: Blood Reign, Final Destination: Death's Playground, Blair Witch: No Signal, and Diablo: The Infernal Path each landing at multiple parks alongside returning brands like...

Universal detailed its Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood plans at Midsummer Scream, and the throughline is small IPs moving fast. Art the Clown returns in three controlled deployments: a Terror Tram takeover built around an original storybook and metal Christmas covers from Ice Nine Kills, a dedicated photo op, and a character encounter. Nikki from Curry Barker's Obsession joins as a character exp...

Six Flags’ new leadership is successfully reorienting the company toward repeat visitation, yet this quarter its debt cost more than its parks earned. The strategy of getting more passholders to attend more often and spend more, thereby increasing lifetime spend, is working. Revenue and attendance were up, adjusted for the divested parks, and the upcoming Halloween season, with 448 Halloween-theme...

United Parks is bringing licensed IP to Howl-O-Scream for the first time, licensing two Sony films across all five of its events. Busch Gardens Tampa and Williamsburg each open an Anaconda house on September 11 with different storylines, Fear Has No Escape in Tampa and Dead on Arrival in Williamsburg, while I Know What You Did Last Summer: The Final Catch opens at SeaWorld Orlando, San Diego, and...

Halloween Horror Nights is bringing Fortnitemares to both its US events this fall, a scare zone modeled on the game's annual in-game Halloween event, complete with the Battle Bus and a few HHN-exclusive additions. Fortnite is the most-played console game in the United States, with more than 650 million lifetime registered players, a brand larger than the event hosting it. The creative objection is...

Legoland Shanghai passed 2 million guests in its first year, the fastest any LEGOLAND resort has reached that mark. We break down the numbers behind the milestone: an 80% family guest base, 230,000 minifigures sold, and a guest pool expanding well beyond the Yangtze River Delta. Then we turn to what Delta and the big banks just revealed about the travel economy. Premium seats outsold coach at Delt...

Six Flags has appointed Mark Pauls as Chief Operating Officer, an operator who worked alongside CEO John Reilly at both Palace Entertainment and SeaWorld. At Kennywood, Pauls converted Phantom Fright Nights into the hybrid Phantom Fall Fest and expanded Holiday Lights to 24 nights, adding the park's first January operating days. Reilly has board support for now, but not much time, and a partner wi...

Comcast confirmed it will separate into two independent publicly traded companies, one focused on entertainment and one focused on connectivity, through a tax-free spin-off of NBCUniversal, expected to be completed within roughly 12 months. The new NBCUniversal, with Mike Cavanagh as CEO, will be a focused media and entertainment company “anchored by its growing theme parks division,” with Univers...

Three news items this week, all of them about change: when to make it, when to skip it, and how to communicate it. Disneyland is facing backlash after replacing one of the old skeletons in the Pirates of the Caribbean with a new projection-mapped animatronic. Screens and AI are deeply unpopular right now, and replacing a classic animatronic with a projection might have been a misstep. Enchanted Pa...

Universal has priced its new Universal Kids Resort 50% above local family-market alternatives, but does it justify the markup? The 20-acre Frisco park opened for press previews this week ahead of its July 1 launch, priced from $54.99 on weekdays to $79.99 over Labor Day weekend, and aimed at children aged 5 to 9. A family of four runs about $220 to $320 before parking and food, against $50 to $130...

This week is a catch-up: seven news items we hadn't gotten to yet, with a quick read on each.-Oogie Boogie Bash. Disneyland is replacing the Frightfully Fun parade with a Madame Leota's Swinging Wake cavalcade for 2026. For a limited-ticket event, swapping wait-and-watch for come-and-go gives guests more of their evening back, as long as it's well executed.  -Magic of Disney Animation. Disney deta...

Disney and Six Flags both shared details about new projects, and this week, we’ll compare them. Disney announced the story behind Monstropolis, the new Monsters, Inc. land coming to Disney's Hollywood Studios. The experience is built around H.U.M.A.N. Day, short for “Humans Understand Monsters Are Nice”, a citywide celebration that brings humans into the monster world for the first time. Set after...

Six Flags found itself at the center of a chicken nugget fiasco this week, amidst a power struggle on its board. Six Flags banned content creator Alan Farrell for life from all its parks after he posted an Instagram video of himself eating a 10-piece box of chicken nuggets atop Millennium Force, in violation of the park's safety policy banning loose articles on rides. The situation raises question...

Epic Universe Vice President Jeff Polk sat down with a small group of reporters to mark the park's first year, discuss its unique design elements, and push back on expansion timelines. The design choices, the new Captain Cacao meet-and-greet, and Universal's beta tests of an open Celestial Park hub all point in the same direction: they need smaller experiences to soak up crowds, and they may event...

United Parks Q1 was rough across the board: attendance & revenue were down, and the net loss widened to $34.1 million. CEO Marc Swanson blamed unfavorable weather (again) and a decline in international visitation. Despite the misses, United Parks repurchased approximately 2.6 million shares for nearly $93 million, reiterating its belief, as in last QTR, that the stock is materially undervalued...

Six Flags posted a strong Q1: 2.9 million guests (+4%), net revenues up 12% to $225.6 million, and per-cap spending up 6% to $69.26. More interesting, though, is that the new regional pass is driving cross-park visitation, and CEO John Reilly named SoCal and Texas as the markets where the pass is already working. Six Flags is leaning into this by announcing expanded summer programming and teasing...