Green Tagged: Theme Park in 30

This week, we're looking at Six Flags' latest earnings. Q3 revenue rose 1.4%, and attendance was flat; year-to-date, attendance is up 1.5%, and revenue is up almost 3%. That is with October attendance down 9% due to weather and the Goliath closures.The strategy hasn't changed: more passholders, more on regional passes, and more visits per pass. Cross-park visits are running about five times last year’s level, and about three points of attendance moved from single-day tickets to passes and memberships.The day before earnings, Six Flags announced its holiday dates and Black Friday deals: new live shows for Holiday in the Park at Magic Mountain, a Snoopy ice show at Knott’s, and Holiday in the Park returning to Great Adventure and Over Georgia after both were canceled last year.Meanwhile, United Parks reported the same week. Attendance fell 4.7% through nine months, adjusted EBITDA fell 5%, and net income fell 28%, with per-capita spending up 2.8%. SeaQuest is delayed to 2027, and the company teased a new ride announcement at IAAPA Expo and a Middle East project.Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

Six Flags confirmed that ArieForce One, the RMC coaster it bought when Fun Spot America Atlanta closed, will reopen at Six Flags Magic Mountain in 2028 or 2029. The news landed a few weeks after Magic Mountain closed X2, amid the Goliath fallout, and days before Six Flags reports earnings.The company also sent a letter from the CEO to every passholder on October 23 with two commitments: seat belts on Goliath and other coasters with similar restraints, and independent engineers and ride inspection specialists reviewing safety procedures at every park. Seat belts raise the obvious question of why the rides ran so long without them. The outside review is the right move, although Six Flags has not said who the reviewers are or who holds the company to their findings.In the second half of the episode, we take stock of this year's Halloween and look at the trends driving Halloween innovation: Guest Play, Good Seamless Entertainment, and Great FoodListen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

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 throughput.Comcast expects Orlando to stay soft through the first half of 2027.Comcast also warned of a Q4 charge of over $1 billion for what Cavanagh called “the most significant operating and cost transformation in our company’s history.” No one mentioned layoffs, though Bloomberg and TheWrap have reported them, and there is no savings target or timeline. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

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 and reopened it within three days. Hersheypark never closed Candymonium: its own inspectors and an independent one cleared the ride, and the manufacturer found no engineering basis to shut down similar coasters. Three investigations are open, and none has named a cause. The park reopened for Fright Fest on October 16 with Dr. Fright’s Dead Man’s Party renamed Dr. Fright’s Party, and Six Flags shares have fallen every day since, from $11.92 to $8.11.IAAPA’s statement puts the serious injury rate at 1.27 per million roller coaster rides, which makes a shark attack more likely. Those numbers matter to everyone except the public, who hear "roller coaster" and "death" and remember X2 from last month. The rest of the industry should get in front of it with its safety procedures, because every park that closed a coaster just told its guests the ride might be dangerous, and that question spreads. Meanwhile, Universal Orlando is bringing back the horror makeup show with Blumhouse attached, spanning the classic monsters through modern horror. Classic monsters get a contemporary hook, Blumhouse gets a physical touchpoint, and the backlash to the show’s removal confirmed the demand.Finally, Nashville Zoo canceled Zoolumination after visa applications for its Chinese lantern artisans were denied. Any event that depends on artists from outside the country needs a parallel plan.Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

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’ attorney responded the same day, saying the closure came too late and the lawsuits continue. Meanwhile, Six Flags is surveying passholders about adding its name to Cedar Point and Kings Island, with options like Six Flags Cedar Point and Six Flags Over North Ohio. Mattel’s first indoor waterpark is set for Bellevue, Nebraska, at the end of 2027, with a Barbie pool and a Hot Wheels slide tower. The city owns the building and is funding it with up to $110 million in bonds.Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

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 replaces One Piece. That means Netflix House is swapping experiences in under a year, while Horror Unleashed won't change a house until late next year. The asset-light model, the viewing data behind every IP choice, and that price point all work in Netflix's favor. The detail isn't at Univers's level, and guests increasingly don't seem to need it to be. Making the tiger a puppet also reads the room at a moment when audiences are tired of screens.Meanwhile, Chimelong has deployed more than 300 humanoid robots from Agibot at its Spaceship park in China, covering live entertainment, guided tours, retail, hotel check-in, and table tennis with guests. Plenty of hospitality jobs go unfilled, and robots that give directions or move luggage could free staff for personal work. Whether operators use them that way or simply to cut jobs will decide how this lands. Adoption in the U.S. is unlikely anytime soon, since American sentiment toward AI runs the other way, while China's tighter AI rules have left its public more comfortable with robots.Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

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 Fed's September hike adds about $4 million a year in interest, and each bond that comes due will likely be refinanced at a higher rate. That debt also makes a sale harder, because any buyer is mostly buying the debt.Meanwhile, three more riders have sued Six Flags Magic Mountain over brain injuries they say they suffered on X2, and their law firm says more than 100 others have hired it. The complaints allege fraudulent concealment, claiming the park kept running the ride after learning of injuries. None of it has been proven, but the story keeps getting worse for Six Flags.Enchanted Parks is running Halloween at all six of its parks, including its first season at the parks it bought from Six Flags. Every park has a daytime family event, four add haunted houses at night for an extra fee, and all of them offer allergy-safe trick-or-treating. Running both formats in a transition year lets the new owner see which one pays.Finally, five Six Flags parks made the top 10 of a Stasher study of America's most overrated attractions, with Great Adventure at number two. The Hollywood Walk of Fame ranked first and Plymouth Rock third, so take the list with a grain of salt.Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

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 lot of people in the region are going back to work.Sphere is bringing The Wizard of Oz back on September 25 with new effects, including animatronic winged monkeys flying overhead, scents, glitter, and what the release calls pyrotechnics. The building and the screen were the expensive part, so each new layer is relatively cheap, and each one makes the show something you can't recreate at home.In Pigeon Forge, Rocky Top Mountain Coaster is running a nighttime overlay called Zombie Invasion, with live actors, fog, and military props along a track that already had half a million dollars of lighting. The coaster is already paid for, and fog rising off a hillside on the Parkway is better marketing than any billboard.Finally, the Golden Ticket Awards. Dollywood won four, the most of any park. Six Flags Fiesta Texas won for Monster Mash Bash a year after winning for Voodoo Dolls, and Europa-Park was named best park. Nobody agrees with every winner, but the awards recognize excellence, and the whole industry benefits when they do.Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

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 sense: Six Flags gets paid up front, the lender carries the risk, and no internal department has to exist. The program helps most the people who need it least, since guests who cannot buy a pass outright are the ones who draw the highest rates. A day later, Six Flags said it acquired ArieForce One, the Rocky Mountain Construction coaster that closed August 2 when Fun Spot shut its Atlanta park, and will reopen it at an undisclosed park in the 2028 to 2029 seasons. No price, no timeline, but the name stays. A used coaster costs a fraction of a new one even after teardown and transport. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi named its three Harry Potter lands: Diagon Alley, Hogwarts Castle, and the Forbidden Forest, the first Potter lands outside a Universal park and the first built by the company that owns the IP. Whatever the online reaction to the region, this is a good sign for anyone in the industry. New immersive builds with real show control mean work; Warner Bros. has run physical experiences since the London studio tour, and Miral knows how to run a theme park. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

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 hospitalized with brain hemorrhages within days of each other, and Cal/OSHA opened an inspection that is still ongoing. We're divided on this, so let's take some time to tease it out.Meanwhile, Enchanted Parks renamed Six Flags St. Louis to Mid-America Adventure. The name is the first step. The harder part is making every choice that makes the park feel different from Six Flags, and guests will call it Six Flags for years regardless.Finally, Halloween's recall season arrived early: a clown costume pulled from Target, a German soldier costume pulled from Walmart, Amazon, and Target, and Knott's Berry Farm removing an Inked T-shirt over concerns it carried a racist caricature. Fans suspected AI, and the Six Flags statement on human-led design never says AI wasn't used. Either way, a person approved it, and anyone recreating the golden age of animation is recreating an era that was racist by default.Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.