Feb. 26, 2026
NEWS: six Flags Rethinks Seasonal Events
Six Flags is rethinking seasonal events after cancelling Christmas lead to an estimated loss of 425,000 visitors. Also this week:- Imminent Doom Haunted House wins OSCARES Best New Haunt Award. Read the news here
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Coming up your weekly roundup of news from around the
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haunt industry. Welcome to the show. I'm Philip on the
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HN Show. We bring you the haunt news, information and
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education you need to prepare for Halloween. On Tuesdays, we
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bring you a roundup of news from haunts worldwide. Read
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more about these stories and so much more in our
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free weekly newsletter. Subscribe at the link in the show notes,
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and as always for the news roundup, I'm passing it
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off to Darryl.
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Six Flags has admitted during its Q four twenty five
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earnings call that cutting winter holiday events at four parks
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was a mistake. The company canceled Winter Fast at California's
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Great America and King's Dominion, and Holiday in the Park
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at Great Adventure and Six Flags Over Georgia, resulting in
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an estimated loss of four hundred and twenty five thousand visitors.
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DFO Brian Witherow sat on the call in hindsight that
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decision did not optimize profits at every park the way
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we needed it to. Those events can be meaningful demand drivers,
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Removing them created a self inflicted headwind in terms of
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both attendance and operating leverage. The company said it will
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rethink its holiday strategy market by market in twenty twenty six,
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rather than applying what Witherow called a broad brush. The
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seasonal advance admission was part of a broader earnings call
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in which the new CEO, John Riley, two months into
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the job, painted a picture of a chain operating without
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consistent standards across its twenty six parks. Full year modified
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evident margin fell from thirty three point two percent to
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twenty seven point one percent, and attendance dropped to forty
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seven point four million guests. The company also recorded a
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one point five one eight billion goodwill impairment, up from
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forty two million the previous year. Riley has toured fourteen
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parks so far and collected over three hundred efficiency proposals
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from frontline staff servicing issues ranging from rented equipment that
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could be purchased outright to ride up time and food
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quality gaps. The underlying demand is there, and the biggest
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value creation opportunity is through better execution, Riley said. The
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company carries five point eleven billion dollars in net debt
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and has committed excess free cash flow to debt reduction
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for seasonal event operators. The six flag admission reinforces a
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familiar lesson cutting events to save money rarely works when
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those events are driving attendance, per cap spending, and season
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pass value. This week, Green Tagged Insights breaks down the
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full earnings call and listening tour and whether Riley can
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finish the operational merger that its predecessor's plan failed to deliver.
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Follow the links in our show notes to watch the
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full Green Tagged episode. Trans World Vendor Spotlight Videos Vendor
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spotlight videos or short form professionally produced video features filmed
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live at the show floor at trans World's Halloween and
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Attraction Show. Each spotlight highlights one new product or one
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best selling item in a focused, thirty second interview style format.
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These videos are editorial features distributed through the Haunted Attraction Network,
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the leading news resource for the haunted attraction industry. Each
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Vendor Spotlight includes placement across the Haunted Attraction Network, including
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Haunted Attraction Networks, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, newsletter, LinkedIn and website,
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plus the opportunity to be tagged as a collaborator. Cost
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is three hundred dollars. Contact Philip at Haunted Attraction Network
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dot com to book yours today from the boathouse to
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the Best First Year Haunt. The story of Imminent Doom.
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Imminent Doom Haunted House in Kilgore, Texas has won the
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twenty twenty six Oscars Award for Best First Year Haunt
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from the Haunted Attraction Association. The Haunt opened for eight
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nights and twenty twenty five and a twelve thousand square
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foot fully indoor, climate controlled building featuring thirty five actors
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and a thirty minute walkthrough behind it is Connor Beats,
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who has been building Haunted attraction since seventh grade. He
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started converting his grandparents boathouse in Lake Cherokee into a
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Haunt every year. In twenty twenty one, while in tenth grade,
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his family helped him purchase the building at Kilgore to
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house the permanent professional attraction. He spent the next three
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years building it out before opening the doors. I wanted
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to make sure that the moment I opened those doors,
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people were going to get the best show that I
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could possibly give, Beats said. The Haunt storyline draws from
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Kilgore's real story as an oil boomtown, with a narrative
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in which drilling operations accidentally unleash an entity from the Underworld.
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BEATS also runs CTCH Productions, a sculpture and fabrication company
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whose props are appeared in Showtime's Dexter Resurrection. For twenty
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twenty six, BEATS is doubling the schedule to sixteen nights,
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expanding the midway, and shifting the focus to actor driven scares.
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A one night Luck Runs Out event was scheduled from
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March fourteenth, and at Crampis event is planned for December.
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Beats will be recognized at the OSCARS Award Banquet on Saturday,
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March twenty eight at trans World Helloween, an attraction show
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in Saint Louis. The ceremony is free and open to
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all attendees. Doors open at five pm in the America Center,
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Room two forty one. Zombie Joe's Underground Theater Group presents
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Nightmare Streetscapes Nighttime Terrors await in Zombie Joe's Underground Theater
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Group's news production Nightmare Street Scapes, taking place Fridays through
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Sundays February twenty seventh through March eighth in North Hollywood, California.
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Nightmare Street Scapes will take audiences on a theatrical journey
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through the realm between the world of lucid Dreams and
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the forsaken city streets and alleyways of life. Due to
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mature themes, the performance is for audiences ages seventeen and older.
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Tickets are on sale now starting at twenty dollars online
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or twenty five at the door. Ask the Haunter Philip Bernandez, Marketing,
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AI trends and more. The latest episode of haunt Topic
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podcast from Haunters Toolbox is now available. In this episode,
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Philipernandez of the Hunted Attraction Network discusses how to create
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a successful off season event, how to spend your marketing
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budget effectively, what is changing in the haunted attraction industry
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for twenty twenty six, and more. Follow the links in
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our show notes to listen to the full episode. Some
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upcoming events February through April twenty twenty six trans World's Halloween,
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an Attraction show in Saint Louis, Missouri, March twenty six
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through twenty nine, The Spooky Swap Meet from Los Angeles, California,
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April twenty four through twenty six, and the East Coast
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Haunters Convention Oaks, Pennsylvania April twenty fifth and twenty six.
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And that's all for the news this week. Today's episode
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was produced by me Philip Bernandez, with reporting by Daryl Plunky.
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Post production by David Swope. This haunt News Update is
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a production of the Haunted Attraction Network and you can
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sign up to our weekly newsletter at Hantattraction network dot com.
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Support for this episode comes from Gantum Lighting and Controls.
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Until next time, Haunters, Stay Scary. This is a Honted
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Attraction Network production.
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