News Cedar Fair Merges with Six Flags

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Looks as if Six Flags is opting to hire an outside company for Entertainment hiring next season. There is a rumor that the Splash Water Parade is returning to more parks in 2026 and will have a touring cast (one cast for all parks who get this parade).

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mtorange said:
Looks as if Six Flags is opting to hire an outside company for Entertainment hiring next season. There is a rumor that the Splash Water Parade is returning to more parks in 2026 and will have a touring cast (one cast for all parks who get this parade).
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In defense of this decision, the Moonmaxx era of shows at KD was spectactular.
 
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Wasn’t an outside company being used for hiring as recently as this year? Maybe that was only for certain shows or certain parks? Maybe this is a more streamlined contract across the chain now?

Either way, I think this is a positive step and hopefully shows investments in live entertainment.
 
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MusicEnlightens said:
Wasn’t an outside company being used for hiring as recently as this year? Maybe that was only for certain shows or certain parks? Maybe this is a more streamlined contract across the chain now?

Either way, I think this is a positive step and hopefully shows investments in live entertainment.
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Windish Productions cast KD’s Haunt bandstand show along with most of Dorney Park’s entertainment. They are slated to cast more shows this year according to posts on their social media, but it is unclear where at just yet.

CSE is a new contract and it looks to be corporate hiring. Unknown if all parks will be required to use the pool this company builds up when hiring this year.

AmyUD06 said:
In defense of this decision, the Moonmaxx era of shows at KD was spectactular.
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Agreed! However, I fear that using a casting agency instead of in-park hiring leads to less locals being hired for shows. Places like Windish and CSE tend to only cast from select larger locations (NYC, LA, etc.) rather than locally. Moonmaxx was more of a local casting agency, so this wasn’t much of an issue with them.
 
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CoasterBroCam said:
Is it safe to assume that they won’t do another coaster purge this year? I feel like they would have announced it by now
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It was right about this time last year that several of the removals dropped so it's not necessarily a done thing but I doubt that it's likely at this point. I kinda take the early announcement on SFA as a sign that SF realized that the bad pr from last year was hurtful.
 
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Also keep in mind the season pass promotion is up on 01/04/26. And I agree that the bad pr is definitely of concern.
 
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What does everyone think the biggest pro to this merger was? For me I would say the introduction of more IP properties. The Conjuring Beyond Fear was the most amazing experience I have ever done! It was extremely well executed; and otherwise wouldn’t have happened if the merger didn’t happen.
 
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It's an almost mind-numbingly simple answer, but I'll give it anyway - essentially doubling the amount of parks willing to accept a season pass that I was buying anyway has been a major plus for me. For as much grief as the merger has caused (and the in-kind complaints I've made), without it, I don't think I would have experienced the amazing Knott's Berry Farm this year (I'd have gone for 2 days at SFMM instead), and my visit counter for Dorney would have been a lot lower (perhaps even as low as 0). Having that legacy CF access turned me into a full-on Ghost In The Machine truther.

I'm planning and looking forward to a long overdue KD trip next year.
 
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I think the biggest pro has been legacy Six Flags parks receiving new additions with the same attention to detail and quality as legacy Cedar Fair additions. We saw the first of this with the Georgia Goldrusher retheme, and we’re especially seeing it now with Tormenta/SFOTs new Spain area, as well as the new kids area at Magic Mountain.
 
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mtorange said:
Haunted mazes being open outside of Halloween season is becoming a trend at multiple Six Flags parks (SFOT and Carowinds so far).
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The question is, will they charge for them outside of Haunt/Fright Fest season?
 
I know this is off topic but with the whole Warner bros & paramount thing, maybe this add more things to six flags parks, maybe a return of hanna barbera & nickelodeon back to its kings parks?
 
I wouldn't hold my breath. The current contract is for Warner stuff online, and has a long time left on it. I don't see SFEC trying to renegotiate it in their current financial situation right now, and if Paramount somehow nullifies the existing contract and tries to, I see SFEC de-branding their rides before paying more for some sort of new license.
 
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Nickelodeon is like the easiest brand licensing to get for any theme park to the point that it's not a novelty anymore. SpongeBob alone right now spans Triple Five Group, Village Roadshow, Momentum Leisure, Pleasure Beach Blackpool, Universal, Parques Reunidos, and a bunch more.

Peanuts anchors half the parks right now and that deal keeps getting renewed every five years like clockwork, its extremely inoffensive and Cedar Fair/Six Flags has also historically been a good steward with the property (unlike another chain we can name with another kid's IP). Looney Tunes (the WB property at hand) is in a similar state at Six Flags right now and if anything they've doubled down on the brand (re: Six Flags Magic Mountain).

So no, unless the Paramount execs lose their marbles and target what's ultimately very small fish in the grand scheme of a Hollywood mega corporate, nothing changes. It would be bad for business on both ends, there's little reason for anything to change, and there's no animosity/friction on either end.

I wouldn't expect more new DC attractions in the coming years though. They won't lose the rights to that, but it's just not the trend with post-merger Six Flags and the Cedar fair execs, plus the DC areas don't need further build-up right now. Also the current state of DC on film/TV is a bit of a clusterfuck right now, James Gunn at the helm has NOT been the commercial win we might have expected five years ago. Nothing there is strong enough to tie into the theme parks right now (although SFGADV somehow procured The Penguin's Maserati for promo a couple years ago), he might actually jump ship after the Superman follow-up.
 
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I really don’t know that I expected the DCU to do any better than the DCEU. It is a HORRIBLY fragmented franchise in the shape it’s in, and surely that’s putting a lot of people off of it.

Creature Commandos is an animated spinoff of a movie that isn’t canon to the DCU. Peacemaker is a spinoff of that same movie, but season 1’s canon status is questionable at best, leaving season 2 as essentially a sequel to a spinoff of a non-canon movie. Superman, actually completely fine on its own. However, the current Batman series is also not canon to the DCEU and we will likely see two Batman movie series run alongside each other, confusing the hell out of people even further.

DC does not hold the power it once did as an IP, and I can’t imagine there are more than a handful of people who visit Six Flags parks specifically because they have a Joker or Superman themed ride. If there’s a way to get out of it without breaking the bank, I really don’t think it would be a bad idea.
 
Tim Burton's take on Batman was the zenith for cartoony live action IP integration into a theme park, Batman movies (including Joker) are now all about how gritty and realistic they can be - a little too close to home for the average guest. Otherwise, not being a huge traditional superhero comix fan, the only other franchise I'm all that familiar with besides the hero's name is Superman.

All that said, superheroes definitely have their place, but as part of a balanced set of themes and not the main draw by themselves.
 
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GASM said:
I really don’t know that I expected the DCU to do any better than the DCEU. It is a HORRIBLY fragmented franchise in the shape it’s in, and surely that’s putting a lot of people off of it.
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Sadly I've fallen into the YouTube grifters' talking points, but they're absolutely right. You build up a franchise with your big hitter heroes first, do a team-up, then introduce your periphery characters, and keep a consistent tone. Current DCU went with Creature Commando not being remembered by anyone and Peacemaker S2 (with extremely pornographic content for immaturity's sake and Nazi Universe) being directly connected (and explicitly promoted as "100% must watch canon" even) to the family-friendly theatrical Superman 2025. Your next films are Supergirl, Clayface, and Superman 2.

Commercially again it just hasn't done well, Superman was designed to make a billion and barely broke $600 million globally. That's not a bad haul at all, but the enormous budget makes it dubious that it even profited and that was SUPPOSED to be your most popular recognizable character (Batman notwithstanding). What chance does the rest of the franchise have if THAT is your high mark? Superman a year out of release has also not stuck well in popular culture.

Now to tie this back into the parks, yes the old Six Flags had a long history of loosely matching DC Film outputs. There's multiple Batman coasters that were themed after whatever film came out around that time, whether it was the Batclones matching up Tim Burton's flicks, SFGADV Chiller timed with Batman & Robin, and The Dark Knight coasters. Three Green Lantern coasters opened in 2011, even though that film was doodoo. The development of projects with Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Aquaman, and The Flash also prompted Six Flags to explore using those characters. They were even looking into building up a female heroine area at Six Flags St Louis when Walter Hamada took the reins at Warner for a bit and decided feminism was his strategy, on which both came up short on their respective fronts. Somehow I don't think the Six Flags execs are eagerly watching James Gunn right now.
 
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