October, when Six Flags’ parks run Fright Fest, Halloween Haunt and Knott’s Scary Farm, came in softer than planned, the company said Nov. 5, blaming bad weather on several of the biggest early weekends and the Goliath death at Six Flags Over Georgia, with the ride closures that followed. It now expects fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $140 million to $150 million, down from $167 million a year earlier.
Counting every park from last year, third-quarter revenue fell 11%, mostly because the chain is smaller. Six Flags sold or closed eight parks this year, and at the 34 parks it still runs, attendance held flat at 18.2 million and revenue rose 1.4%. On this week’s Green Tagged, my co-host Scott Swenson and I read the quarter as better than it looks. The pass strategy is working, and the debt is still the problem.
October Attendance Fell 9%
October attendance fell 9%, and CFO Ash Walia split the drop about in half on the earnings call: weather on the biggest early-October weekends, and the Goliath incident with the precautionary ride closures that followed. In the last week of October, attendance grew year over year at the parks that weren’t directly hit.
“To be clear, we see this shortfall as temporary in nature,” Walia said. “It reflects events specific to this October, not a change in the underlying demand for our parks or in the long-term earning power of the business.”
October normally brings in 60% to 65% of Six Flags’ fourth-quarter revenue, which is why one bad month moves the whole quarter. “Progress rarely shows up in a straight line, and the start of the fourth quarter tested us,” CEO John Reilly said. I expected worse after Goliath became a national story.
Passes and the Regional Network
Passholders and members made up about 61% of third-quarter attendance, and the active base reached 7.1 million on Sept. 27, up 7.1%. About 3 points of attendance moved from single-day tickets to passes and memberships, and Reilly said he’ll accept a lower spend per visit in exchange for more visits.
“Cross-park visits are running about 5x last year’s level. That is the network working, and we are just getting started,” Reilly said. He singled out Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain, which share one regional pass.
Pass sales slowed in October too, Reilly said, and Six Flags expects to enter 2027 with about 3.7 million active passholders and members, flat to up low single digits.
Holiday in the Park Came First
Six Flags announced its holiday season on Nov. 4, the day before earnings, and the lineup follows the same plan. Holiday in the Park returns to Six Flags Great Adventure and Six Flags Over Georgia, which both skipped it in 2025, as reimagined events with three new holiday lands each. Magic Mountain’s Holiday in the Park adds seven new live shows, and Knott’s Merry Farm adds a new ice show, Snoopy’s Christmas Follies, in the Walter Knott Theater. New entertainment at two parks on the same Southern California pass gives a pass holder two reasons to visit and a reason to upgrade.
Black Friday offers run through Nov. 30: “buy a day” and get the 2027 spring and summer season included at participating parks, and a free bring-a-friend ticket with each new or renewing season pass and each new membership. The fourth quarter has about 60 more operating days than last year, driven mainly by the return of Holiday in the Park.
Goliath and the Safety Review
Reilly opened the call with condolences, and Six Flags says it has launched a review of ride safety across its parks, supported by independent engineering and inspection specialists. “Confidence isn’t restored with a statement. It is earned through action, and our leadership team is committed to earning it,” Reilly said. Goliath remains closed at Six Flags Over Georgia, which reopened for Fright Fest on Oct. 16.
Debt and Park Sales
“We carry more debt than we want and bringing it down is a priority. Optimizing the portfolio is how we will get there,” Reilly said. In August, no sales were underway. Now “those discussions are underway,” though Reilly gave no park count. Net leverage was 5.8 times at Sept. 27, against a target of about 4 times, and California’s Great America will close after its 2027 Farewell Season ends Sept. 6, 2027.
Six Flags also cut 2026 capital spending to $350 million to $375 million, from $400 million to $425 million. The release says the reduction comes from the timing of large new ride projects, not from maintenance.
How Six Flags Compares
United Parks’ third-quarter attendance fell 4.7%, and Universal’s parks revenue fell 4.4% in Comcast’s third quarter, so flat same-park attendance at Six Flags holds up well. Scott’s point on the show was that a long-term plan only works if a company sticks to it through a bad month, and so far Six Flags has.
Reilly also said Halloween has room to grow: “Even in Halloween, we can open earlier, we can stay open later, we can move into September.” Halloween can run three months, from August through October, while Christmas gets about two, so Halloween is where I’d expect the calendars to keep stretching. My story on the second-quarter call has the Halloween plan Six Flags laid out in August.
Holiday in the Park and Six Flags’ other holiday events run on select dates through Jan. 3, 2027. Dates and tickets are at sixflags.com.
