Six Flags Entertainment Corporation today released the final quarterly financial reports for the old Cedar Fair and Six Flags theme parks.
With the merger of the two companies becoming official last month, future earnings reports will be for the combined company. But the release of the final reports for the separate chains illustrates the differences between the old companies' parks.
The former Cedar Fair parks welcomed 8.6 million guests in the three months ending June 30, while the former Six Flags parks drew 6.9 million visitors during that period. Per capita guest spending at the parks was $59.54 at the legacy Cedar Fair parks, while the average guest spent $61.22 on admission and in-park purchases.
Attendance was up 17% year-over-year for the legacy Cedar Fair parks and down 2% at the legacy Six Flags parks, though a difference in the number of operating days for each chain during the quarter when compared with the previous year accounted for some of that disparity.
Keeping with that, revenue was up 14% at legacy Cedar Fair, to $572 million, while it dipped 1%, to $438 million at legacy Six Flags. Both sides reported an Adjusted/Modified EBITDA Margin around 36%.
"I am extremely pleased with the second quarter performance of the legacy Cedar Fair portfolio, which produced record levels of attendance and net revenues, and generated a 570-basis-point lift in Legacy Cedar Fair Adjusted EBITDA Margin in the quarter," Six Flags Entertainment Corporation President and CEO Richard A. Zimmerman said. "While weather conditions have negatively impacted demand trends in July, we are confident that the combined portfolio is well positioned to deliver a strong full-year performance in 2024."
"Since completing the merger on July 1, we have quickly implemented initial integration plans to start to realize the meaningful synergy and growth opportunities now available to us," Zimmerman said. "In the near term, we are focused on advancing our strategic initiatives and instilling our core operating principles across our portfolio to tap into the tremendous potential we believe exists in the combination of these iconic portfolios of assets."
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It's a fiscal calendar shift at Cedar Fair. They had 53 more operating days in Q2 for 2024 compared with 2023, while legacy Six Flags was down 58 net operating days compared with the year prior.
Thanks for sharing the final results for the old Cedar Fair and Six Flags parks. Looking forward to reviewing the details!
David Senior Editor at https://xtrasaas.com
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"though a difference in the number of operating days for each chain during the quarter when compared with the previous year accounted for some of that disparity."
That doesn't really make much sense, particularly when looking at the operational calendars for the 2nd Quarter (April through June). If anything, Cedar Fair parks would have had fewer operating days in 2Q24 when compared to 2Q23 since a number of that chain's parks pulled back from year round operations this spring. SF never attempted year round operations, so their operational days should have been pretty close between 2Q24 and 2Q24. As usual (and like the evergreen weather excuse, which is again cited here as a primer for any 3Q disappointments), these financial reports will find whatever lame reason they can concoct to explain results that don't meet expectations, which are often not reasonable projections to begin with since companies are deliberately bullish to prop up their stock.
I think it's quite telling how much Cedar Fair has been outperforming SF, yet this merger was billed as a combining of equals.