How Much?

[shiekra38]

Ok, so I was laying in bed last night and I was thinking to myself...With all of the set design, lighting design, marketing, staff, etc...How much does HHN cost Universal every year? How wide is the profit margin? What is the average cost of a typical haunted house?

Any answers to these questions would be much appreciated...I'm simply just curious to be honest

 

[JoeCamel]

Plenty but they bank plenty more...

Just think what 600K+ people spend to hunch in conga lines all night. Astronomical figures and what it costs to put it on? Same deal. Plenty of margin to plan for next year.

 

[Mad Dog]

The fact that HHN greatly assisted Universal's survival during the lean weak ownership years indicates profits are substantial.

 

[Legacy]

The money Universal puts into the event is astronomical, especially compared to other haunts. It's really impossible to say the cost of individual houses because so much of the costs are contracted, but we can parse out the estimated costs for SCAREACTORS.

A normal house has 10 scenes with 2 scares, so we'll estimate 20 performers for 2 casts for 8 houses (320 people). The mega house has about 15 scenes, so we'll estimate 2, 30 person casts for 60.

That's an estimated 380 people scaring in houses.

The streets vary a lot more, so we'll guesstimate 15 a cast that's not NY (4 zones + horde) and 30 for NY. Double that because there's 2 casts, and we're estimating 210 in the streets.

So, a safe estimate is 590 scareactors for houses and streets. They'll work about 8 hours (varies peak to non-peak) a night, so each night is an estimated 4,720 manhours a night.

Now, chainsaws, stilts, and barkers get paid more than regular scareactors, but for the sake of easy math, everyone is getting paid the same. This year, it's $10.05 (it's jumped a lot since I last scared).

Estimated costs for scareactors each night of the event-

$47,436

There are 34 event nights this year, plus Preview and 2 nights of rehearsal for 37 total nights.

Estimated costs for scareactors for the entire run -

$1,755,132


Now, that's JUST scareactors. That doesn't include Ops, Management, or Techs. It also doesn't include the shows. Basically, Universal spends more in one night on people than local haunts will invest over years.

 

[JoeCamel]

The money Universal puts into the event is astronomical, especially compared to other haunts. It's really impossible to say the cost of individual houses because so much of the costs are contracted, but we can parse out the estimated costs for SCAREACTORS.

A normal house has 10 scenes with 2 scares, so we'll estimate 20 performers for 2 casts for 8 houses (320 people). The mega house has about 15 scenes, so we'll estimate 2, 30 person casts for 60.

That's an estimated 380 people scaring in houses.

The streets vary a lot more, so we'll guesstimate 15 a cast that's not NY (4 zones + horde) and 30 for NY. Double that because there's 2 casts, and we're estimating 210 in the streets.

So, a safe estimate is 590 scareactors for houses and streets. They'll work about 8 hours (varies peak to non-peak) a night, so each night is an estimated 4,720 manhours a night.

Now, chainsaws, stilts, and barkers get paid more than regular scareactors, but for the sake of easy math, everyone is getting paid the same. This year, it's $10.05 (it's jumped a lot since I last scared).

Estimated costs for scareactors each night of the event-

$47,436

There are 34 event nights this year, plus Preview and 2 nights of rehearsal for 37 total nights.

Estimated costs for scareactors for the entire run -

$1,755,132


Now, that's JUST scareactors. That doesn't include Ops, Management, or Techs. It also doesn't include the shows. Basically, Universal spends more in one night on people than local haunts will invest over years.

Lots of add ons to those costs, vendors, security etc, etc. many costs to this but it pays so it keeps building year after year. Winning formula