Halloween Horror Nights 29 General Discussion

[OrlLover]

Nobody knows, they don't release that for obvious reasons. But I believe the estimated cost they spend construction each house is from $500K up to $1M each. They hire like 1,600 season employees for the event. They have to secure the rights for IPs. They have to file tons of permits. They have to manufactor all the costumes and masks. Buy all the blink cups. Produce all the merchandise. They hire additional security. They have to have teams on hand to repair houses including electricians and plumbers. They have to pay performers for the shows and build the stages. They pay for the commercial and advertising. All the stuff you think of as standard park ops are an added show as it's later - you can't ask the guys at the security booths to tack 8 hours onto their shift each day so they have to bring people to cover all that stuff. Etc, etc, etc, etc. It all adds to a figure that is probably larger than you think, probably paid for by 5 different departments.

But then you figure, each person in the park every night probably paid an average of like $80 for that night (taking into account how many have multi-day passes, how many are one and done with Publix tickets, how many walk ups pay full price at the gate, how many pay for express, etc)

Wow thanks for wealth of info.

$15-20 mill? @Legacy knows more obviously.

Smaller than what I imagined but obviously the budget is only so big.

 

[Neo]

Wow thanks for wealth of info.

Smaller than what I imagined but obviously the budget is only so big.

Take everything I said with a HUGE grain of salt as the house estimates are from a few different sources (hence the range) and the number of seasonal employees numbers I've seen thrown around vary from 1,400 - 1,800 so I went with the middle number. I have no idea what anything truly is, but working at a large company and involved with events side of thing, I'm somewhat familiar with budgeting corporate events and then just extrapolated to something like HHN to point out a small list of the costs you wouldn't think of right off the top of your head. It's not just building the houses and zones and then opening the doors on opening night

 

[Parkscope Joe]

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┻┳| •.•) the event map is out
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https://orlando.halloweenhorrornights.com/webdata/hhn/files/images/event-map-download.pdf

 

[hhnlover]

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┻┳| •.•) the event map is out
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https://orlando.halloweenhorrornights.com/webdata/hhn/files/images/event-map-download.pdf

Event maps live
Halloween Horror Nights

Who wore it better?

 

[Pedro Navarro]

I am really hoping that messenger thing works for Graveyard Games, I cannot wait to learn the backstory of that house.

 

[RevFreako]

Who wore it better?

This is gonna be a weird dance battle

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Who wore it better?

HOW DID I MISS THAT?!?

Thanks, sorry I didn’t see it online till today.

 

[NathanC]

Nobody knows, they don't release that for obvious reasons. But I believe the estimated cost they spend construction each house is from $500K up to $1M each. They hire like 1,600 season employees for the event. They have to secure the rights for IPs. They have to file tons of permits. They have to manufactor all the costumes and masks. Buy all the blink cups. Produce all the merchandise. They hire additional security. They have to have teams on hand to repair houses including electricians and plumbers. They have to pay performers for the shows and build the stages. They pay for the commercial and advertising. All the stuff you think of as standard park ops are an added show as it's later - you can't ask the guys at the security booths to tack 8 hours onto their shift each day so they have to bring people to cover all that stuff. Etc, etc, etc, etc. It all adds to a figure that is probably larger than you think, probably paid for by 5 different departments.

But then you figure, each person in the park every night probably paid an average of like $80 for that night (taking into account how many have multi-day passes, how many are one and done with Publix tickets, how many walk ups pay full price at the gate, how many pay for express, etc)

Last year I found out that many of the vendors near the maze lines are all contracted from outside also.

 

[DannyPowers]

Last year I found out that many of the vendors near the maze lines are all contracted from outside also.

That's fairly standard practice for theme parks. I used to work at Six Flags in Ohio when it was still a thing and, nearly all of our food/drink offerings that weren't in a permanent structure were operated by a third party.

 

[NathanC]

That's fairly standard practice for theme parks. I used to work at Six Flags in Ohio when it was still a thing and, nearly all of our food/drink offerings that weren't in a permanent structure were operated by a third party.

That was only the second time I had gone to such an event, I barely know better now lol. I just assumed before that they brought all their part-timers on for big events.

 

[Legacy]

$15-20 mill? @Legacy knows more obviously.

That feels about right. I think closer to $20m

I typically calculate around $800,000 for each house, and $75,000 for street = about $8.4m. That cost includes construction, purchased props, freelance design work, costumes etc. I treat it as a "total cost" estimate.

Roughly 40 performers each, plus 5 support positions, at a rough average of $11/hr. Average 28 hrs a week over 7 weeks. That's about $6.5 m.

So, you're at $15m just in the event itself.

It's safe to add another $2-3m in merchandise/food & beverage. Another $1m in marketing. $100,000 for shows. $100,000 for additional security.

In general, I'd ball park the HHN budget around $18-$19m.

THEN we get into routine park operations, which likely adds another approx $2m-$3m A NIGHT, which is the forgotten number, since the park is still a park during HHN. That adds an additional $60m-$70m to the overall cost of the event.

So, I'd wager Universal spends $90-$100m a year on HHN in Orlando.


In Hollywood, they spend $50. $48 of those dollars is spent on flying Murdy in from Ireland.

 

[jrn14]

The SHADE....

but they are turning a very large profit right?

 

[UniversalRBLX]

The SHADE....

but they are turning a very large profit right?

Very much so. Doing simple math, its insane.

 

[Neo]

The SHADE....

but they are turning a very large profit right?

Oh, they're making a fortune. If they weren't, you'd have zero IP houses and half of the houses would be the same each year. The entertainment would be cheapened way down to something they didn't have to pay specialized entertainers for. Scary music in the streets would be generic royalty free stuff they didn't have to pay for. They'd turn off the rides (think of the power, employee, etc costs to run them). And they'd slash the budgets on the houses so they would be more like Hollywood. In other words, it would be more like your run of the mill local haunted attraction.

Universal isn't a charity, they aren't making this amazing production out of the goodness of their hearts. They're getting the Return on Investment numbers they need to keep justifying it and you'd better believe that everything they step up and add on over previous years is done with the expectation that it will increase profits.

 

[SeventyOne]

https://orlando.halloweenhorrornights.com/webdata/hhn/files/images/event-map-download.pdf

Uhm, no Lombards pop-up bar. No Chez Alcatraz.

I'd say they left drink stands off but there's Bone Chillin' and Fountain of Fair Fortune.

 

[DannyPowers]

Uhm, no Lombards pop-up bar. No Chez Alcatraz.

I'd say they left drink stands off but there's Bone Chillin' and Fountain of Fair Fortune.

I think they left some of the smaller stands off for clarity's sake. Hoppin' Pot isn't listed either, and that location has been open, and fairly busy the last few years.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Uhm, no Lombards pop-up bar. No Chez Alcatraz.

I'd say they left drink stands off but there's Bone Chillin' and Fountain of Fair Fortune.

Moe’s and Duff Brewery arent on there but are always open.

 

[Brian G.]

Just give me my Dufftober!

 

[Legacy]

Extremely rough estimates here, as I'm eyeballing average expenditures by guests. But based on an average nightly attendance of 28k (where 15% are passholders of some kind), and some additional spending estimates, they'll earn $160+ million over 38 days.

Every additional 1k people a night increases the gross by $50k for the night.

 

[rageofthegods]

Extremely rough estimates here, as I'm eyeballing average expenditures by guests. But based on an average nightly attendance of 28k (where 15% are passholders of some kind), and some additional spending estimates, they'll earn $160+ million over 38 days.

Ever additional 1k people a night increases the gross by $50k for the night.

Fascinating. Any clue on what Hollywood's finances look like?