The new Six Flags Entertainment Corporation reported its first financial results since closing the merger of the legacy Cedar Fair and Six Flags companies on July 1.
The new Six Flags reported attendance of 21 million guests for the period ending Sept. 29, 2024. With an average guest in-park spending of $61.27, net revenues totaled $1.35 billion for the quarter, with a net income of $111 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $558 million.
For comparison, the two legacy companies reported a combined 21.7 million guests in the third quarter of 2023, before the merger. Per capita spending at the legacy Six Flags parks was $56.37 last year and $61.65 at the legacy Cedar Fair parks during that period.
"Since completing the Merger, we have been finding ways to operate more efficiently and reducing unnecessary costs while still delivering a high level of guest service," Six Flags President and CEO Richard A. Zimmerman said. "By the end of 2024, we expect to have delivered $50 million of run-rate cost synergies, and we are already taking steps to achieve the remaining $70 million of anticipated cost savings by the end of calendar year 2025. While we intend to invest back into our parks to enhance the guest experience and drive attendance growth, we are focused on funding those efforts with additional cost savings across the portfolio, allowing us to retain 100% of the realized synergies."
Zimmerman also spoke about Six Flags' long-range financial strategy.
"Four months ago we launched Project Accelerate, a transformational initiative to harmonize our operations and unlock the full potential of the new Six Flags. We have only scratched the surface of what we can accomplish, and we are moving with a sense of urgency to optimize performance and execute our new long-term initiatives. I’m highly confident that focusing on our core strategic objectives will deliver superior and sustainable value creation over the next several years, enabling us to reach our new target of at least $800 million of annual unlevered pre-tax free cash flow by 2027."
FYI, "unlevered pre-tax free cash flow" is defined by Six Flags as "Adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditures."
As part of Project Accelerate, Six Flags management has set a target of increasing its annual attendance to more than 55 million guests and expanding full-year Modified EBITDA margins to more than 35% by 2027. The legacy Cedar Fair and Six Flags companies drew a combined attendance of 48.9 million guests in 2023, according to the TEA/AECOM Theme Index report.
The Project Accelerate goals also include an effort to better integrate technology across the company, enhancing the guest experience, maintaining "a disciplined approach to the prioritization and activation of capital investments," and to "review the park portfolio over time, to optimize the asset base, narrow management’s focus, and help reduce net leverage."
To keep up to date with more theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekly newsletter.
I guess the per cap number being closer to Cedar Fair's from the previous year is good news here, but the rest of this nonsense is meaningless. I guess the point here is that Six Flags is going to continue to cut spending and raise prices in the hopes of banking enough revenue to afford new additions. However, as we all know, things never work out that way, and the theme park business is one where you can't put the cart before the horse.
I do anticipate a lot of changes over the next few months, which is the off-season for many of the parks. The biggest question marks will be what SF does with its 2 biggest coasters, Kingda Ka, which is rumored to be closing forever any day now (why we're headed up there this weekend) and TT2, which has an unknown future as Zamperla works to figure out how to get the reworked coaster to operate reliably. Aside from Siren's Curse (a last second add to Cedar Point), Raptera (likely green-lit before the merger), and Alpen Fury (at Canada's Wonderland), the rest of the parks in the chain are getting NOTHING new for 2025 aside from 2024 attractions that were pushed back. Ultimately, this significant pullback in investment and removal of high maintenance cost attractions may work in the short term to balance the books, but is not a viable strategy to maintain customer loyalty. It seems that the merger has engrained a sense of content within the chain as Six Flags not longer needs to compete to generate revenue.
That last point from management in my article suggests to me that park closures/sales are now on the table.
man, hard to believe that a massive corporate merger may not benefit customers!
So what parks would be on the chopping block outside of the already announced closure of CGA?
My take, money will continue to flow to Cedar Point, other upper tier parks will share major investment on a rotating bases and some park are going to get Geauga Laked.
I am very glad to see that Six Flags America will be closing down.
Me and friends use to be season pass holders way way way back.
I did not like the way that they were running the park.
I was waiting in line to ride Superman Ride Of Steel. And the train was filled with only Fast Pass riders. But they didn't open up the air gates to let others go into am empty row.After I rode it I went to Guess Relations and told them about it.I said that is not a good way of running a ride.And also there has been lots and lots of line jumpers.I can't stand for line jumpers.Now we have Season Pass for Kings Dominion.They know how to run a park compare to SFA. Me and my friends will never ever go back to SFA.
I am very glad to see that Six Flags America will be closing down.
Me and friends use to be season pass holders way way way back.
I did not like the way that they were running the park.
I was waiting in line to ride Superman Ride Of Steel. And the train was filled with only Fast Pass riders. But they didn't open up the air gates to let others go into am empty row.After I rode it I went to Guess Relations and told them about it.I said that is not a good way of running a ride.And also there has been lots and lots of line jumpers.I can't stand for line jumpers.Now we have Season Pass for Kings Dominion.They know how to run a park compare to SFA. Me and my friends will never ever go back to SFA.
I am very glad to see that Six Flags America will be closing down.
Me and friends use to be season pass holders way way way back.
I did not like the way that they were running the park.
I was waiting in line to ride Superman Ride Of Steel. And the train was filled with only Fast Pass riders. But they didn't open up the air gates to let others go into am empty row.After I rode it I went to Guess Relations and told them about it.I said that is not a good way of running a ride.And also there has been lots and lots of line jumpers.I can't stand for line jumpers.Now we have Season Pass for Kings Dominion.They know how to run a park compare to SFA. Me and my friends will never ever go back to SFA.
I am very glad to see that Six Flags America will be closing down.
Me and friends use to be season pass holders way way way back.
I did not like the way that they were running the park.
I was waiting in line to ride Superman Ride Of Steel. And the train was filled with only Fast Pass riders. But they didn't open up the air gates to let others go into am empty row.After I rode it I went to Guess Relations and told them about it.I said that is not a good way of running a ride.And also there has been lots and lots of line jumpers.I can't stand for line jumpers.Now we have Season Pass for Kings Dominion.They know how to run a park compare to SFA. Me and my friends will never ever go back to SFA.
I am very glad to see that Six Flags America will be closing down.
Me and friends use to be season pass holders way way way back.
I did not like the way that they were running the park.
I was waiting in line to ride Superman Ride Of Steel. And the train was filled with only Fast Pass riders. But they didn't open up the air gates to let others go into am empty row.After I rode it I went to Guess Relations and told them about it.I said that is not a good way of running a ride.And also there has been lots and lots of line jumpers.I can't stand for line jumpers.Now we have Season Pass for Kings Dominion.They know how to run a park compare to SFA. Me and my friends will never ever go back to SFA.
I am very glad to see that Six Flags America will be closing down.
Me and friends use to be season pass holders way way way back.
I did not like the way that they were running the park.
I was waiting in line to ride Superman Ride Of Steel. And the train was filled with only Fast Pass riders. But they didn't open up the air gates to let others go into am empty row.After I rode it I went to Guess Relations and told them about it.I said that is not a good way of running a ride.And also there has been lots and lots of line jumpers.I can't stand for line jumpers.Now we have Season Pass for Kings Dominion.They know how to run a park compare to SFA. Me and my friends will never ever go back to SFA.
I am very glad to see that Six Flags America will be closing down.
Me and friends use to be season pass holders way way way back.
I did not like the way that they were running the park.
I was waiting in line to ride Superman Ride Of Steel. And the train was filled with only Fast Pass riders. But they didn't open up the air gates to let others go into am empty row.After I rode it I went to Guess Relations and told them about it.I said that is not a good way of running a ride.And also there has been lots and lots of line jumpers.I can't stand for line jumpers.Now we have Season Pass for Kings Dominion.They know how to run a park compare to SFA. Me and my friends will never ever go back to SFA.
I am very glad to see that Six Flags America will be closing down.
Me and friends use to be season pass holders way way way back.
I did not like the way that they were running the park.
I was waiting in line to ride Superman Ride Of Steel. And the train was filled with only Fast Pass riders. But they didn't open up the air gates to let others go into am empty row.After I rode it I went to Guess Relations and told them about it.I said that is not a good way of running a ride.And also there has been lots and lots of line jumpers.I can't stand for line jumpers.Now we have Season Pass for Kings Dominion.They know how to run a park compare to SFA. Me and my friends will never ever go back to SFA.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
Holy Corporate Word Salad Batman!