Fright Fest came early this year for Six Flags investors: The theme park chain said earlier this month that Q2 attendance was down 9% from last year and it had recorded a third straight quarterly loss.
Shares are also down 47% year to date—not exactly the thrill ride you might expect from a company with the stock ticker symbol FUN.
Watch your six
Six Flags has struggled to get attendance back to pre-pandemic levels. It blamed some of this year’s drop on thunderstorms and high temperatures, but competition is heating up, too. According to the Wall Street Journal:
- Revenue at Disney’s domestic parks rose 10% year over year in its most recent quarter.
- Attendance at United Parks and Resorts (SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, etc.) increased 1% year over year last quarter.
- In May, Universal debuted its $7 billion Epic Universe theme park.
Sprinkling sawdust: Six Flags has taken steps to clean up its financial mess, announcing plans to shut down a park in Maryland and sell the land. Additional sales are being considered to pay down debt and fund bigger and badder coasters at higher-performing parks.
The company also recently laid off hundreds of full-time staff following its 2024 acquisition of Cedar Fair. The same day as their most recent bad earnings report came out, CEO Richard Zimmerman announced he would step down by the end of the year.—BC