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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Universal has priced its new Universal Kids Resort 50% above local family-market alternatives, but does it justify the markup? The early evidence is not flattering. 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…
This week is a rapid fire news catch-up. 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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Six Flags St. Louis ended opening day early after fights involving as many as 100 juveniles, then reinstated what may be the strictest chaperone policy the industry has seen: guests 16 and under must be accompanied by a 21-plus chaperone, with a max of 6 guests per chaperone, daily, all…
Comcast's Q1 earnings call delivered good news almost across the board, and Philip and Scott break down what it means for the theme parks division. Universal's theme park revenue was up 24%, driven mostly by Epic Universe doing exactly what it was supposed to do: increasing per-cap spending and length…
Six Flags is reinstating park president positions at 10 of its parks, less than a year after eliminating the role. This is the first major structural change under new CEO John Reilly, who, after his listening tour, described a chain that suffered from inconsistent standards and a lack of accountability…
Disney is laying off 1,000 employees across film, streaming, and marketing as it continues to shed costs and reorient itself. This comes against the backdrop of two major digital plays failing: OpenAI killed the Disney/Sora partnership and Epic Games (which Disney invested $1.5B into) laid off 20% of its workforce…
Kennywood built an entire spring event around Potato Patch fries. Celebrate Kennywood Weekends runs April 18 through May 10 with potato-themed food, a history walk, park trivia, and nostalgic photo ops. First full season under Herschend ownership, with a six-event calendar running through January.
Six Flags appointed Richard Haddrill as executive chairman of the board, replacing Marilyn Spiegel (who stays on as lead independent director). Haddrill comes from the gaming industry — he was CEO of Bally Technologies and executive vice chairman at Scientific Games. The move continues the board refresh that Jana Partners…
We just got back from TransWorld's Halloween & Attractions Show in St. Louis, a show any attraction with a Halloween or Christmas event should attend. This week, we discuss the growing trend of immersive booth experiences, the robotic pig that won Best New Product, rising insurance costs hitting independent haunts,…
Jana Partners sent a letter to the Six Flags board pushing the company to explore a sale and replace board chair Marilyn Spiegel — just one week after the Travis Kelce brand ambassador announcement. We break down what Jana actually wants, why the timeline doesn't add up, and what this…
Philip and Scott discuss the latest business news, including Six Flags' exciting announcement of Travis Kelce as a brand ambassador, leveraging his influence across their amusement park portfolio. They also dive into broader world news, examining the impact of the Middle East situation on tourism and the attractions industry, and…
This week, we're recapping the updates for IAAPA ME. Then, "Burger King is piloting an OpenAI-powered chatbot called Patty that will live in employees’ headsets and tattle if it thinks workers aren’t being friendly enough." Why are we resorting to negative reinforcement when we could design a better system to…
United Parks & Resorts reported fiscal 2025 results this week; Revenue, attendance, net income, EBITDA were all down. "Our fiscal 2025 results did not meet our expectations. While the consumer environment was uneven and our results were impacted by negative international tourism trends and volatile weather during certain peak visitation…
Six Flags posted Q4 2025 results this week. Modified EBITDA margin fell from 33.2% to 27.1%. Attendance dropped 13%, with roughly 425,000 of those lost visits tied directly to cutting winter holiday events at four parks — a decision the company now calls a self-inflicted headwind. New CEO John Reilly…
