Can IP Save Howl-O-Scream?

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 San Antonio. Sony says it is the first time either film has been licensed for a major Halloween even

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Aug. 2, 2026

Can IP Save Howl-O-Scream?

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July 26, 2026

Fortnite Comes to Halloween Horror Nights, Orlando Market Slows

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 the weakest one, since Fortnitemares is already a Halloween event. The harder questions are operati

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July 20, 2026

Legoland Shanghai Hits 2 Million: What China's Fastest Park Launch Means

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 Delta for the first time in a summer quarter, average trip costs jumped 24%, and 53% of Americans say th

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July 13, 2026

Six Flags Hires a New COO, Meow Wolf Flips the Disney Model

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 with shared shorthand and a proven seasonal-events record saves years as they pivot back to the season

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July 5, 2026

What Comcast’s Split Means for Theme Parks

A historic day for our industry as 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.

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June 28, 2026

When to Change a Theme Park, and When Not To

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 Parks eliminated the legacy dining plan at its six former Six Flags properties. CEO James Harhi told

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