Six Flags Fright Fest 2024 (Magic Mountain)

[queenmetroid]

I genuinely feel for the creative / production teams handed such a challenging task. We'll see what they end up scraping together for opening night, but I hope that lessons are learned from this as we head into 2025.

Edit to add: They've got until Sept. 7. Tickets for opening night go for $99 if you don't have a season pass. If you do have a season pass, the haunted attraction pass is going for $50. View attachment 22804

Knott's Scary Farm inexplicably opens 12 days later (Sept. 19) and charges $60 for admission. I have no idea what Six Flags is thinking here.

What really boggles me is this is just such a massive unforced error. Those licenses are such a slam dunk; they can easily charge that price for all of them IF they had 11 really solid (not even top tier) mazes based on those licensed properties that were done ON TIME. I'd even say the asking price is a great deal and certainly could rival with anything HHN has done recently in the IP department.

They also would have a really decent opportunity here to soak up some of the traffic before Knott's opens, or even contend with the undisputed heavyweight HHN with those names. Imagine if they spend a ton of money on really high quality mazes (which could be amortized over a few years), and really knocked it out of the park in terms of experience. Add in some advertising and influencer coverage, and you might just have the next big Halloween thing from out of nowhere. Is it a huge capital investment? Sure. Would that be risky? Absolutely. But the park is hard to get to and you need a draw. It is so weird to spend all that money on increasingly expensive and difficult to obtain IPs just to waste the opportunity on a beta test that people may not return to.

We literally WANT Six Flags to succeed but they really like to get in their own way. As you said, I feel for the creative team.

 

[Wishmaster]

So who exactly is at fault for this?

 

[queenmetroid]

Knee jerk response? Cedar Fair.
Thoughtful response? You don't get licenses overnight and usually the creative heads or showrunners do some sort of sign off on plans*, so this has likely been in the works for a long time. However, since last year had pretty much the same issue, it's very likely wrought by poor management at Six Flags, no Cedar Fair involvement required.

What is strange to me is so far that multiple studios seem to have the attitude that, "Yeah, advertising houses at an event when they won't be available for half the run or be half-assed at is great PR for our brand!" No blame on the creative people, but surely someone in management has heard that Netflix *really* dislikes bad haunted houses. HHN got their wrist slapped for less.

*I could always be wrong and someone signed off on it last minute. The way WB is run these days, I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[Wesker69]

However, since last year had pretty much the same issue, it's very likely wrought by poor management at Six Flags

Yea. When I worked at Six Flags I got "scolded" by our department manager for questioning the lazy "Holiday in the Park" decorating. The event had already started & they were putting up garland & whatnot 2-3 weeks later. Literally simple things that could've & should've been done overnight beforehand (NOT during operating hours)

She didn't like my "negative attitude" towards their "product". Yes, she actually referred to HITP as a product. Which shows you how much "guest satisfaction" experience she doesn't have.

So it doesn't surprise me that years later, Six Flags is still struggling with time management & priorities. I just expect the worst, hope for the best.