Six Flags reports August attendance growth, revenue decrease

This release is completely bizarre. It reads like a celebration until you get to that last paragraph...

Based on preliminary operating results, revenues for the nine-week period ended Aug. 31, 2025, totaled approximately $1.1 billion, down 2% compared to the same nine-week period in 2024. The decrease in revenues reflects the impact of a 298,000-visit increase in attendance and a $5 million increase in out-of-park revenues(2), offset by a 4%, or $2.50, decline in in-park per capita spending(2). The decline in in-park per capita spending was entirely due to a 7% decrease in admissions per capita spending(2), which was the result of incremental promotions designed to drive volume, and to a lesser extent attendance mix, during the nine-week period. The decrease in admissions per capita spending was slightly offset by a small increase in per capita spending on in-park products(2), which includes guest spending on food and beverage, merchandise, games, and extra-charge offerings.

This encapsulates everything us dumb enthusiasts have been saying:

• Attendance volume doesn't offset spending.
• Low admission dilutes overall spending.
• Attracting "cheap" guests with cheap admission is attracting the people least likely to spend once they get there.

I just don't get how these cats think they're applying a novel and successful approach. They're certainly all old enough to remember Burke Six Flags and see that they're doing exactly the same thing. They know how that ended.

Yawn.

Jeff is right, this is written as a celebration that nobody is buying. FUN stock hit a low of $21.51 yesterday before coming back up slightly; investors clearly are not onboard. The Fall season is here and parks, again, have staffing shortages that will impact operations and more importantly, revenue due to food/beverage/retail locations being unavailable.

Rinse. Spin. Repeat.

Just need more Kool & The Gang and shows.

Serving more people who collectively spend less money in total does not sound like a winning strategy.

I have to say, from my standpoint, this is not entirely surprising. In our case, we traveled out of town and used our passes at Great Adventure. We'd been there before, but the kids had not. The park closed at 8:00 - nothing necessarily wrong there, though that felt early for early August.

The park felt very empty in the morning - but maybe that was our path, as we turned left and walked through a virtual ghost town to have walk-ons on Superman, El Toro, and Medusa, though we couldn't ride Mine Train or the log flume, as they were not running. Literally the first wait we had was Houdini's. Had The Flash not gone off line, we would have only waited about 20 minutes for it.

We hadn't planned to eat in the park, but even if we had wanted to do so, almost none of the restaurants in Frontier of the Lakefront areas were open.

On leaving, my daughter saw one shirt for Nitro that she thought about getting, but there was only 1 on the shelf - not her size. We could not find anything specific to the park to buy. So, from our standpoint, other than our season pass, our total expense for the day was $10 for the moveable lockers.

I am not an expert in merchandising, but, I have got to believe that there is a slightly higher margin on items that SIX Flags doesn't need to pay royalties on. That to me means at least some merchandise for Nitro, El Toro, Medusa, and Jersey Devil. I remember past trips seeing lots of kids with "new" IP based items (Batman Capes, Superman things, etc.) Maybe it is the economy or maybe it is the prices, but I just do not see the IP selling like it used to.

I want to come to your park, wow this place is empty, oh, but rides aren’t running…. Ok. Well let’s do what we can…. Let’s grab lunch, oh, most the places are closed, maybe we will just skip lunch here and leave early… maybe a shirt on the way out for the couple rides we ride, oh, they only have XXXL and XXS. Let’s just leave…. Let’s not go there again.

This isn’t exactly hard, there is a cost per guest, and the more you have the less that cost is. But you also need them to spend money. The gate can possibly cover operation expense, but the spend is what turns the profits.

In RCT you just end up with some broken benches and tipped over trash cans, but in reality you just end up with a closed park, and sold off rides, and parks turned into warehouses.

Jeff:

I just don't get how these cats think they're applying a novel and successful approach.

"We're losing money on every customer, but we'll make it up in volume!"

There is definitely nothing resilient about a business model that has an increase of customers and a decrease of revenue More customers also lead to more expenses. So the decline and profit is going to be more than 2%

it’s just like their Christmas events. They pull great crowds, but yet they are not competent enough to know how to make money from it. They can increase attendance, but they aren’t competent enough to make money from it

This whole press release reads like their bait and switch mentality. Give the investors a bunch of meaningless, favorable figures, and then hide the real problem at the end

They may see a short run, increase in revenue and profits during the Halloween events because of their up charge, but ultimately that is going to backfire as well IMO

Their whole pricing structure has been the issue all along. Cheap season passes and meal plans, cost cutting )and affecting the customer experience) and overcharging for everything else does not work.

So they double down on it and now they have more people to serve with the less revenue.

The season passes were already underpriced. if people weren’t already buying the season processes, these $99 season passes are not going to bring in people that spend money at the parks.

It was a stupid strategy and now it’s just dug their hole deeper in this low price season pass fiasco. It’s easy to lower prices, it’s hard to raise prices back, especially when the customer experience is going down the drain.

This is just finalized my belief that they will end up in bankruptcy if they ended up with less revenue after the season, pass sale and seeing the parks obviously more crowded because of the reduced price. It did not work.

This does not make me happy in any way. I really enjoyed the direction of the Cedar Fair Taft parks were headed before the cost-cutting began.

But the executives filled their pockets with merger bonuses.

hambone:

"We're losing money on every customer, but we'll make it up in volume!"

super7*:

This does not make me happy in any way.

It’s pretty tough to tell from the tone of your posts.

I'm curious...are season pass admissions included in the admissions per-cap? I could see that driving down the per-cap with the increase in passes sold.

The cheap pass strategy kind of makes sense given that the customer experience has been degraded especially this season. Disney degraded the customer experience after the post-COVID reopening (higher prices, worse product) and is now paying the price as the people they chased off a few years ago are deciding not to come back. For Six Flags, the return interval is much shorter, typically one season or less. Giving away the gate with the passes might make people more willing to chance a return visit in hopes that things got better (let's get some ice machines for Kings Island, and find somebody to empty trash cans; and for $DEITY's sake let's complete off-season ride maintenance in the off-season!). Also I wonder if someone who got into the park for "free" is more willing to spend money in the park.

But then, there's no way to know if the places where those customers want to spend their money aren't even open.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

They clearly have enough cash to make it through next season but good god do they somehow need it to turn around next year otherwise I’m going to be really concerned about their ability to exist post 2026. Was at CP over the weekend, and even though the weather was perfect, the crowds were busy summer day not busy Halloweekends Saturday. With the exception of the Conjuring (more on that later) and Cornstalkers (45 min at one point) I never saw a haunt line longer then 10 minutes the entire weekend. Parking lot was 80% full, but all those people only did the included with admission stuff, every restaurant most were using the season dining.

It did make the houses better as the actors were more hungry for scares. I was able to snag $60 haunt express all season pass. Saturday the non express tickets were $30 and the express was $99. Not enough people were willing to buy that to experience the same haunts they got last year for free. While I love a good deal, why the heck did you offer that season pass for so low a cost? I would think at a bare minimum that thing should cost you the same as one whole weekend which should have been $80 non express, $250 for express.

The other major problem is that everyone with haunt express gets a Conjuring ticket and that experience while quite good, especially if you know the movies (I got to carry the Annabelle doll and put her back in her case;) however, it cannot handle the volume of tickets sold for it nightly. They turned paying customers away every night due to the line being too long. They either need to expand the hours or find some other way to pulse people faster. The experience is 20 minutes long. The line was over an hour every night. I was a part of the very first group Thursday night and lined up about 1 hour ahead of its opening (7pm, it opens at 8) when I saw it start to form while riding Skyhawk.

RideMan:

Also I wonder if someone who got into the park for "free" is more willing to spend money in the park.

My experience was the complete opposite; The lower the admission per cap, the lower the in-park spend.

RideMan:

are season pass admissions included in the admissions per-cap?

Somewhere, long ago, I saw an explanation of how they recognize revenue for season passes month-by-month across the season. I would think GAAP would require them to do so (e.g., they can't claim the entire $100 someone pays for a pass and then close the park it applies to, nor can they just apply the $100 whenever they want to smooth earnings).

And since they don't, as far as I've seen, say "we made $X from season passes and $Y from single day tickets," I'd assume they are a blended rate.

Touchdown:

...I’m going to be really concerned about their ability to exist post 2026.

It's an asset rich company. Even if they were to go bankrupt, just as last time, it's not going anywhere.

I'm disagreeing a little here... Cheaper passes don’t always mean less spending. Some guests will splurge more since they saved on entry. only a few are cheapskates.

From a footnote in Six Flags financial statements (titled "Revenue Recognition"):

Due to the Combined Company's seasonal operations, a substantial portion of its revenues are generated from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Most revenues
are recognized on a daily basis based on actual guest spend at the properties. Revenues from multi-use products, including season-long products for admission, dining, beverage and other products and the first 12-month non-cancelable period for membership products, are recognized over the estimated number of uses expected for each type of product. The estimated number of uses is reviewed and may be updated periodically during the operating season prior to the ticket or product expiration. The number of uses is estimated based on historical usage adjusted for current period trends. Membership products beginning with the 13th month following purchase are recognized straight-line. For any bundled products that include multiple performance obligations, revenue is allocated using the retail price of each distinct performance obligation and any inherent discounts are allocated based on the gross margin and expected redemption of each performance obligation. The Combined Company does not typically provide for refunds or returns. Sales and other taxes collected concurrent with revenue producing activities are excluded from revenue.

Many products, including season-long products, are sold to customers in advance, resulting in a contract liability ("deferred revenue"). Deferred revenue is typically at its highest immediately prior to the peak summer season, and at its lowest at the end of the operating season. Season-long products, including memberships, represent most of the deferred revenue balance in any given period.

Of the $302.3 million of current deferred revenue recorded as of January 1, 2025, 90% was related to season-long products. The remainder was related to deferred online transaction fees charged to customers, advanced ticket sales, prepaid games cards and gift cards, sponsorships, advanced resort reservations and other deferred revenue. Approximately $127 million of the current deferred revenue balance as of January 1, 2025 was recognized during the six months
ended June 29, 2025.

https://s204.q4cdn.com/1552...5-10-Q.pdf

Touchdown:

Was at CP over the weekend, and even though the weather was perfect, the crowds were busy summer day not busy Halloweekends Saturday.

Give it a few weeks. The first 2-3 weeks of Halloweekends are never the insane crowds. Those first three weekend of October are traditionally when the insanity hits.

LostKause:

Cheaper passes don’t always mean less spending.

It's a balance. This is how we justify splurging on FL + on at least one of our visits. Not cheap (over $700) for a family of four, but when you are getting in for free easy to justify. With the girls being in all the things they are we simply can't be there on less-busy-days strategically like we could when we were a childless couple or a family with kids not old enough to have any responsibilities, so this helps us enjoy our once-a-year multi-day trip.

But it also swings the other way; knowing you get in for nothing can also logically lead one to say "well...why not make the most of this by enjoying all of this awesome stuff I can do without an upcharge of any kind"?

My guess is that more people fall into the latter; that doesn't mean they are cheap, it just means that when your grocery bill is up 25% and literally everything else in your life (besides Cedar Point) is sucking the soul out of your monthly paycheck, it feels good to take advantage of something that is selling itself out like a cheap whore.