Losses continue at Six Flags theme parks in 2025
Six Flags theme parks reported a 13% drop in attendance in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, due to cancelation of holiday events at several parks and a smaller seasonal pass base. Factoring in the lower number of operating days in the quarter in 2025 compared to 2024, attendance was down just 2% on a daily basis.
Higher prices contributed to an 8% increase in per capita guest spending. That was not enough to avoid a 5% drop in revenue, to $650 million. Overall, Six Flags suffered another quarterly loss of $92 million, though that was down from a $264 million for the fourth quarter of 2024.
For the year, Six Flags theme parks welcomed 47.4 million guests in 2025, with per capita spending of $61.90. Revenue was $3.1 billion, up from $2.7 billion in 2024. Net loss was $1.5 billion, up from $207 million in 2024. The company carried $5.1 billion in debt at the end of 2025.
"While 2025 results fell short of our expectations, the work completed over the past year has strengthened the foundation of our enterprise," new Six Flags President and CEO John Reilly said. "In 2026, we will continue to invest heavily in an exciting slate of family-oriented attractions, food and beverage facility upgrades, and record-breaking roller coasters. At the same time, we are refining our approach to revenue management and marketing, and we are implementing clearer lines of accountability across the organization."
“We are equally focused on strengthening our balance sheet," Reilly said. "The successful refinancing of our 2027 notes in early January was the first significant step in that direction and as performance improves our intent remains clear – use the cash-generating strength of our business combined with a disciplined capital allocation approach to pay down debt and reduce leverage as quickly as possible. Reducing leverage and restoring financial flexibility are essential to creating sustainable shareholder value."
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“use the cash-generating strength of our business combined with a disciplined capital allocation approach to pay down debt”. Seems an odd and unlikely statement when you are actually accruing more debt with a net loss of 1.5 billion for the year.
@Russell The additional revenue is out-of-park revenue which is primarily from sponsorships. I think it also includes revenue from licensing of the Six Flags brand in Saudi Arabia and some hotel revenue from non-park going guests.
Interesting response to a question about the Enchanted Parks thing: "We don't have anything to share today on that front." So... not a denial of that speculation?
These results are absolutely devasting two full operating seasons post-merger. Traditionally management teams are given three years before Wall Street starts judging a turnaround effort, but with both the chairman and CEO already gone (though that is probably a good thing), and almost all of the capex that everyone was expecting in 2026 pushed back to 2027, I don't see any evidence that 2026 is going to be any better. To add insult to injury they did that crazy sale last fall and it didn't move the needle at all. At this point the plan seems to be "survive until 2027 and hopefully a few big new attractions, as well as the sale of a bunch of smaller parks, drive enough revenue to pay the bills and save the company."
To Russel's point I bought three season passes last fall for a grand total of $180 ($60 each). With these same passes I plan on spending 9 days total at SF parks...which means I will have spent $20 total per visit for three people...that's $6.67 per person per visit. I absolutely have not and will not spend any other money at SF parks during these visits. I realize they have a lot of upsells and I have no idea how those do, but basically several of my family trips this year are being subsidized by SF investors that are losing money.
Wait, did they not blame the weather?
Some of this was inevitable given the position of the company, but I also feel poor decisions resulted in a decent amount being self-inflicted. Unfortunately, I'm not expecting a massive improvement for 2026 given the super low prices on admission and a majority of their capital projects getting pushed back. I recently heard someone describe the current state of things internally as the previous leaders running the ship into an iceberg than handing it off to a new captain to save, so I suspect the chances of the chain surviving what's to come intact are not looking great. Hopefully whatever happens will result in the breakup of one big chain into two or three smaller park chains that can each thrive on their own rather than the closure of half the locations, but given the current economic conditions I would expect any park whose individual numbers are trending downward to be at risk.
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"For the year, Six Flags theme parks welcomed 47.4 million guests in 2025, with per capita spending of $61.90"
I don't know how they're calculating their revenue number, but based on those data, I get total revenue of $2.934 billion, not $3.1 billion (that's more than a simple rounding error). Also, someone needs to highlight that per cap number, which is obscenely low. I know SF is known for cheap season passes and poor quality food, but to barely scrape $60 out of a guest's pocket per visit is flat out pathetic in today's market.
Even though SF provided some normalized 4Q attendance numbers based on the reduced operational schedule, it's telling that the chain still dropped 2%. A lot of this is precisely because the chain dropped Halloween and winter/holiday events and at parks that did have those events, they were significantly pared down from prior years. SF needs to understand the value of the changing seasons, especially if they're putting so much effort into promoting and selling Season Passes. They have GOT to get those guests to come back to the park throughout the year in the hopes that they will spend money, or the chain will continue to decline. I guess it should be promising that SF has sent out surveys recently regarding winter events with an eye towards restoring them to some of the parks. While I do think it costs the parks more money to operate outside of the prime summer season, these events not only provide steady revenue throughout the year, but give guests a reason to purchase a season pass and to spend money in the parks during these seasonal events that have variable offerings (merch and food). Even if the parks operate at a loss during these events, they help to offset annual losses by increasing per cap spending and helps to create a more loyal fanbase. Cedar Fair understood this as they were expanding operational calendars pretty dramatically prior to the merger. SF was following a similar path, but it was clear that they were looking at calendar expansion within a vacuum (profit/loss of each individual day/week/month/season) and not as a wholistic approach to foster loyalty and repeat visits.