Six Flags Entertainment Corporation has announced a major loss in the most recent quarter, as it revises its outlook for the rest of the year.
The company, which operates 27 amusement parks and 15 water parks, recently merged with competitor Cedar Fair, and state that despite a net loss of $100m in the most recent quarter, that its “realization of merger-related cost synergies remains on-track“. The firm saw park attendance fall 9%, compared to the same quarter last year.
The company is looking optimistically to Q3, reporting that July demand accelerated as weather normalized and visitation urgency intensified. It is targeting year-over-year cost reductions of $90 million for the second half of 2025.
Six Flags CEO Richard Zimmerman said: “The start of the 2025 season, including our second quarter results reported today, fell significantly short of our expectations, a disappointing outcome given the solid progress we achieved post-merger with smart, early-stage initiatives coupled with a very compelling capital program designed to kickstart the 2025 season and perpetuate the momentum we had created over the second half of 2024,”
“The decrease in attendance in the quarter reflects a drop in single-day ticket sales, fewer sales of season passes and memberships, and lower renewal rates on season passes. Our sales cycle was negatively impacted by exogenous events such as poor weather and a challenged consumer across most of our North American markets. On the cost front, even a pull forward of marketing and maintenance expenses into the second quarter failed to produce a meaningful change in near-term demand as we sought to offset the impact of macro challenges we were facing in real time.
“We believe the early-season headwinds were transient and, therefore, will lean into the strength and resiliency of our business model over the second half,” continued Zimmerman.
“That includes being focused on our priorities of growing Adjusted EBITDA, reducing net leverage, and successfully completing our integration efforts.”
Expected demand increases
Zimmerman has however highlighted recent improvements in performance as the company kicked off the third quarter. “As weather normalized in July demand for our parks has measurably improved, which we believe underscores the long-term effectiveness of our 2025 capital program and other strategic initiatives. Over the past four weeks, combined attendance was up more than 300,000 visits or 4% on a year-over-year basis, highlighted by an increase of more than 290,000 visits or 5% at our 15 largest locations.
“In addition to improving attendance trends, the recent launch of our 2026 season pass sales program has produced solid early results reflective of pent-up consumer demand. These strong performance metrics are consistent with our expectations that as weather normalizes and visitation urgency increases in the second half of the year, demand will continue to accelerate.”
As part of recent announcements, Zimmerman is also set to leave as CEO and president of Six Flags.
Photos: Six Flags
