WEBVTT
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These theme park trends could impact your haunt that's coming
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up on today's show. Welcome to the show. I'm Philip
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on the HN Show. We bring you the news and
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insights you need to prepare for Halloween. This podcast is
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just one part of what we do. Our free weekly
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email newsletter rounds up every story, video, and podcasts in
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one place. You'll find the sign up link on our
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website and in.
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The show notes.
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Today you'll hear the full audio from my recent guest
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appearance on the fearworm Wormhole Show. With Tyler Barnett, operations
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director and partner at Fearworm, we unpack Universal's new FanFest nights,
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It's gamble with Dark Universe and the rise of off
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season activations like music festivals and summer slasher events. You'll
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hear how IP partnerships, luxury tier VIP add ons, and
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even tariff pressures on materials can reshape your pricing and
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value proposition this fall, Plus tactics for leveraging local brands
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when Hollywood licenses feel out of reach. The Fearworm Wormhole
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streams live every other Friday on Facebook. The link to
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the Facebook page is in the show notes as well.
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If you'd like to join the next session. Okay, let's
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dive in.
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Happy Friday, everybody. And it's a weird one because we
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have back to back wormholes. We have one last week
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and now we're here today. How are you? I have
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a special episode for you today. Joining me on this
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wonderful conversation about theme parks and how it impacts haunted
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houses is none other then Philip Hernandez from the HANT Network. Philip,
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how the hell are you on this Friday?
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I'm here, I'm alive, a little barely recovered from East Coast,
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but I made it.
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I understand. I have this. We had a haunted house
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commercial shoot, I guess a week and a half ago, two
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weeks ago. I got sick after it, and I feel
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like I have just this lingering cough. So apologies in
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advance if I had a cough up on this wormhole
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and it's just it's I feel fine, it's is there's
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this cough and it won't go away. Yeah, but uh no,
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uh So on today's wormhole, let's talk about Philip and
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is why you're here. I wanted to pick your brain
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about the amusement park theme park business. Some trends that
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we are seeing in that industry and how that may
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impact the haunted house industry.
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All right, I'm ready.
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It's a it's a heavy topic. So much so I
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guess Philip, let's let me ask you this right now.
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What are what are things you're noticing that just top
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line could be impacting haunts that you're seeing already impacting
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the amusement park business.
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So before we get into like too many of the
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trends stuff, i'd I'm going to start off because I
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was just working on stuff for fanfast Nights, so it's
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like literally like on the top of my brain.
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I was like literally like.
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Editing it last I was editing the real version last night,
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which is like taking our like twenty five minute overview
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and trying to make it into like two and a
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half minutes. Somehow I had to like re record the
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intro or the voiceover because I was like, this is
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voiceover is not going to cut it. So I actually
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think that this is one of those things that has
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like so much potential for haunts, and I'm surprised that
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nobody really is talking about it in that way. I
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think you get all the like normal like bloggers have
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done their videos, but I'm like, look, guys, like Halloween
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Hornites is the most successful Halloween event in the world,
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like by far, and I think that for you remember
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that used to be a shoulder season. You know that
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Halloween season used to be should like when by you
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back in the day that us be Shulders season. And
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it's true that Universal didn't start it, but Universal has
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helped us because they have made the awareness of a
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haunt event. It's like Universal is like the gateway drug
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for a lot, right. You know, they do marketing all
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globally and they market this Halloween haunt attraction thing and
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it gets people more aware of it, which helps all
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of us. So they've helped us grow in the market share.
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But they've also turned that shoulder season into a big
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profit maker. And basically they're like the other big time
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shoulder season is like right now, we're in it.
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Right now. It's right after the spring break.
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Before the season, so you've got this like month of
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dead window. And they're like, what if we can do
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Halloween horn Nites again, another Halloween Hornites And I think
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that could be enormous because it also could open up
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It's like they're doing the hard work already of trying
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to take like a horror brand and being like, hey,
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we also can do this, and if they can do that,
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I think it could really that's like half the battle
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for the Haunts, as you know, is the brand idea
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of like how does a brand, horror brand, you know,
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do non Halloween stuff. It's harder in America because we're
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so focused on you know, we want to silo Halloween
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for the Haunt season, but horror is your round, so
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they're trying, and then they're like, also, fandoms are year round,
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so it's like I think that is like the potential
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there is.
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Huge because I think it could open It could.
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Give Haunts the coverage and to to really open up
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to first spring events and do spring things and I want.
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And there's two examples actually that are like so we
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just posted as article on this one that I just
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posted on the website that actually sent me. But there's
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Fright Nights in West Virginia is doing a final cut
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summer slaughter event.
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And it's kind of like it's it's I think it's
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like it's very similar.
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To Fanfas Nights, where like the guests like walk through
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scenes and they have to like they're challenge to like
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trying to make it out of a slasher, but it's
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it's very much like you have a role, you play
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a role, you.
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Had to take photos, you have to do slash your stuff.
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Like it's really fun that way, which I think is
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a great idea. And then you know Field of Screams
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is doing a music festival, right and then all that yeah, yeah,
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then they're opening the haunts and also doing the music festival, right,
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And I'm like that is a great idea. Like it's
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because they already have the asset there, had the band there.
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I mean like, yeah, if you have the property, you know.
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I know. So the past couple of years, for those
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who don't know there, there has been a music festival
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like an ed M festival at Fear Factory in Salt
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Lake City.
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Yep.
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They have the venue, They've got the big building, tower
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area to set up stage, all the craziness. So I
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think you're right. I think you're right on with this
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of how can we look to this event that's a
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universal is doing. How can we interpret that for hours
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and get people? And sometimes it is doing more than
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just your haunt, you know. I think Field of Screams
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has a great idea with the music festival and all that,
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but they're also kind of a side opening haunts and
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you know, part of that I think also stems from
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there's a heavy metal festival that travels around called not Fest. Yeah,
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part of not Fest, like the back game where the
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vendors are, is a haunted house. It's a traveling hant house.
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That's part of the experience.
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Yeah, so it it's together.
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There's precedent, you know, like what you're saying, there's precedent
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and it fits together.
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And I think that's like that again, it's it's show.
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I think the assets you talked about, like like Salt
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Lake City, I know they do a great event there
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and they have a huge area there where they can
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hold a lot of people. And the asset is also
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the same thing Universal is doing, because the main part
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of Fanfast Nights is the back of the future Destination
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Hill Valley experience.
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And I did write like a thing.
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Like an article with like charts where I was like,
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was it a good idea to do dungeons and dragons
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and star Trek instead of doing anime? And I would
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argue it was not a good idea, But that's a
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different show. And there's large parts. But basically I was like,
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I feel like somebody on this team did not do
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their like basic research and here's all the reasons why
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it would have made more sense and way more money
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to do it the other way. But anyway, Back to
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the Future was the main thing, and that is taking
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an asset that they have and just reusing because they have.
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You know, you're taking on the trams over to the
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back lot where you're on the scene from the movie
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the Courthouse Square, and they've turned it basically into Sleep
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No More meets Back to the Future.
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So it's a forty.
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Five minute looping experience and you get to follow the
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characters and interact with them. But they already had the asset.
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They didn't rebuild the square or the clock tower, right.
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They did add items and they did help, you know,
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make it, but it's not like they built that whole thing.
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And that's what you're saying that Fear Factory is doing
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as well, because you have the stage already, you know
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Field the Screams doing this, you have the thing already.
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It's how do you figured this out to.
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Bring people into it and monetize it in a different
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way that's not just about your haunted house.
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Yeah, no, I think that's a great point and the
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kind of you know, this a question popped in my
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head for you, and I've thought about this. I've been
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thinking about this for a long time. Some haunts. I
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know there are some experiences that are already do this,
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But part of that draw to fan Fest or to
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the music festivals is that unfortunately, I guess I'm trying
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to think of the nice way of putting this, but
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like haunted houses as a brand, they're just not as
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big as we think they are. Oh yeah, And so
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when you have these music festivals, like you almost need
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the artist to be that draw, to have that brand.
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At what point, Philip, do you see haunts And I
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know some have already done this, but stemming out and
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actually getting the rights or paying for rights to use
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you know, movie IP or comic IP or some type
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of IP to then create an experience around because right now,
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the only thing I could think of commercially is Halloween
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or Nights you know, or six Flags. They did Friedfest
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yet last year, which I would call a failure, but
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I would Yeah, you know, it's but like kind of
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going that route.
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Yeah, that's funny.
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Because you and I would call that a failure, but
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I feel like they thought it was a success and
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also RW I thought it was a success because they
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like use it as their main marketing point to sell
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you know, Legoland.
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Yeah, so that was that was a thing.
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So that's an interesting question, and I think the answer
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is the thing that's holding it back is actually the haunters,
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because I think haunters want to do their.
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Haunts, right. I mean, that's that's that's the simple thing.
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I mean you look at like the people that are
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serious about business, you know, like like Spencer. I mean,
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that's why they're doing the music. I mean, you know,
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I mean I think that's a big piece of it.
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Because look at Jason Egan over in Vegas.
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Right.
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So Jason, I think is probably been the most successful
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at non horror IP because he built the john Wick experience.
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And this is a haunter.
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This is a guy who started in haunted houses and
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then he did the IT experience, and he's did the
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Blair WB project, and he did like even a horror
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pizza shop. I mean, he's like been all about horror
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and then he's like he's like, look, Universal is coming
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to my backyard. With Horror Unleashed, and I know that
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I'm not gonna be able to compete against that. So
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what I'm gonna do instead is do what they is
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follow the opportunity that they're creating by coming into the market.
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So they're coming in with a horror IP that's like this,
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you know whatever he's like, So I'm going to make
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an adventure based action IP experience that compliments it. And
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you know, I think but in his case, you know,
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like you know, he likes horror, like I know he
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likes I mean, you know, I think that's the bigger
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problem I think is that the haunters, that's what they
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want to do, and so you know, like with Hush,
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like Hush is in an example, they're doing like a
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teaky event at the bar for the summer, and it's
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like has something to do with horror, right, But I
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think I think it's more that the haunters are holding
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it back. Because anybody, especially now that Licensing Expo has
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announced so many partnerships with the TA and with the