Six Flags just canceled its Christmas and Halloween events at multiple parks—including Holiday in the Park at Great Adventure and Over Georgia, and Fright Fest at Six Flags America, which will now close permanently on Nov. 2. Michigan’s Adventure also dropped its Tricks and Treats event and will end its season on Sept. 1. The company says it’s “focusing on the core season,” but Philip and Scott aren’t buying it.
This week, the hosts break down what these cancellations mean for perceived value, season pass retention, and long-term brand equity—especially as Six Flags launches a new “Most Valuable Pass” offering access to all parks through 2026 for as little as $75. With year-round operations shrinking and aggressive discounting ramping up, is this a smart reset or a warning sign? And what happens when short-term savings override the emotional core of seasonal guest behavior? Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

What makes an IP popular today? It’s not just the box office or streaming stats—it’s the fans who show up, dress up, and wait five hours for a free experience. At San Diego Comic-Con, Percy Jackson, Alien, and K-pop Demon Hunters proved that passion, not just numbers, powers IP. Philip and Scott break down why pop-ups are becoming the new focus groups, how activations create the data stories that boards and licensors want, and what theme park professionals can learn from the way studios test, validate, and launch IP in the wild. If you're pitching an IP partnership or designing a seasonal overlay, this episode is your blueprint. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

As record heat continues to disrupt attendance, attractions in Asia are innovating to keep guests cool. Tokyo Disneyland is extending evening hours and spraying down guests in its summer parade, while Universal Studios Japan is giving out salt candy and shifting its operating schedule later. Water parks in Korea are going further—launching crossovers with popular brands like One Piece, Air Conditioned Ferris Wheels, K-pop concerts, bubble zones, and discounted villas to become full-blown vacation destinations. This week, we discuss what makes these weather-ready strategies work—and why U.S. parks still struggle to shift hours, provide basic guest comfort, or invest in low-cost cooling measures. Plus: is the traditional queue-and-ride theme park model becoming obsolete as water parks pivot toward shaded, all-day “paradise” environments? And will Six Flags’ likely Q2 miss—already blamed on heat—finally force a mindset change? Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

Asia was expected to become the new theme park capital of the world—then the pandemic hit.  IAAPA Asia drew 7,000+ attendees to Shanghai, but is that enough to signal Asia’s tourism comeback? Philip reports from the show floor, including takeaways from Disney executive Jill Estorino’s keynote, where she credited young adult women with shaping the guest culture at Shanghai Disneyland—impacting everything from merchandise and mobile content creation to how F&B is presented across the park. Meanwhile, Legoland Shanghai, including its eight themed lands, 85 million bricks, and resort-wide creative choices, has set a new quality bar for IP-driven family parks in the region. With the Chinese park market projected to nearly double by 2028, we ask: Is the APAC surge real—and what lessons should operators everywhere take from Shanghai’s blend of detail, service, and social-savvy design? Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

Hallmark is back with its Kansas City “Christmas Experience,” aiming to top last year’s 100,000-guest debut by doubling down on comfort-food tradition—workshops, red-carpet movie premieres, and even themed Marriott suites. Philip and Scott unpack how leaning into safe, repeatable rituals can turn a pop-up into a pilgrimage. Next, Meow Wolf launches Phenomenomaly, a summer-long loop of live dance, puppetry, and guest interaction inside its Las Vegas and Denver exhibitions—proof that adding performers keeps ticket-buyers coming back for a second trip, rather than treating the art as a one-and-done selfie stop. Finally, Chicago’s big museums roll out a multisensory slate—projection-mapped Himalayan “ghosts,” a Monet-Hokusai mash-up, Mars-rover missions, and 21-plus stargazing nights—showing how after-hours programming can drive per-cap growth without requiring permanent capital expenditures. Takeaway: Whether it’s Christmas nostalgia, locally led art, or adult evening events, operators have fresh levers to boost replayability and spend beyond peak season. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

Universal is doubling down on pop-culture firepower with the enormously popular gaming IPs of Fallout and Five Nights at Freddy’s confirmed for this year's Halloween Horror Nights. They're also charging superfans $350 for “Premium Scream Night,” a ticketed dress rehearsal.  With massive IPs and superfans willing to pay premium prices just to attend a dress rehearsal, how can smaller attractions compete? Thirteenth Floor and Winchester Mystery House might have an answer with "Festival Fright Nights." The event will transform the labyrinthine Winchester Mystery House into a Halloween event with three haunted houses and entertainment. The key is the immersive storyline, which sets the event in 1924 and utilizes the mansion's backdrop and history, showing that smaller venues can out-maneuver giant budgets by weaponizing authenticity and location. Philip and Scott unpack what these parallel strategies signal about Halloween’s next arms race—premium previews, IP one-upmanship, and how regional haunts can lean into their unique assets instead of chasing billion-dollar licenses. Catch the gloves-off follow-up in Green Tagged Unhinged on Patreon.

The Louvre’s staff closed the world’s most-visited museum with a snap strike, blaming “untenable” crowding and a 20 % cut in state funding even as attendance soars. Philip and Scott pull three operating fixes every attraction can steal now—hard capacity caps, timed-entry tech, and reinvesting in on-site teams before adding the next wing—because a six-year master plan won’t save a gallery that melts down tomorrow. Across the Atlantic, Netflix unveiled its first Netflix House venues—permanent ticketed centers built around Wednesday, One Piece, Stranger Things, and Squid Game. The hosts explain why Netflix needs brick-and-mortar revenue as YouTube does to streaming what streaming once did to cable, and what that means for parks that suddenly share a lane with a $200 billion content giant. Bottom line: cultural icons must treat capacity as an asset while digital titans rush to monetize IP in the real world—collision is coming. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

Disney and Universal just opened Hollywood’s first heavyweight copyright war against Midjourney, arguing the AI was trained on “countless stolen works.” Philip and Scott debate the case and what it means if your park’s creative team. Then Disney drops a fresh study valuing its U.S. parks at nearly $67 billion and 400,000 jobs, a powerful flex to hedge against future political turmoil. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon. 

Six Flags and Cedar Fair’s $8 billion mash-up, Herschend’s shopping spree, and Falcon’s Beyond devouring Oceaneering are just the opening salvo in a consolidation wave now squeezing most regional parks into four corporate camps. But deal-making is only the first of five seismic shifts Philip and Scott unpack this week. They probe why per-guest spending keeps climbing even as attendance flattens, how velvet-rope up-charges like Disneyland’s $400 Premier Pass and Six Flags’ $162-a-month Flash Pass are normalizing class tiers, and why every operator—from Universal’s Fan Fest Nights to SeaWorld’s Coasters After Dark—now treats shoulder-season festivals as its loyalty engine. The hosts also tackle staffing’s post-pandemic “cool-down” and ask whether AI-driven scheduling and on-site dorms finally solve the labor puzzle. Think you’ve already future-proofed your park? These five trends say otherwise. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

Herschend finalized its acquisition of Palace Entertainment’s 24 U.S. attractions with a $1.1 billion leveraged loan—and vows 2025 will be a “listening year” before sprinkling Dollywood-style cinnamon bread and “Heartspitality” across Kennywood, Lake Compounce, and 47 other properties. Meanwhile, Six Flags fired every park president overnight, favoring a regional management model instead of a local one. We unpack whether family culture can outshine heavy debt, how a headless org might finally smash Six Flags’ notorious silos, and why both moves reshape the post-merger map where just four companies now control most regional parks. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.