エピソード

  • Disney’s Midjourney Lawsuit: Can Copyright Contain AI?

    Disney’s Midjourney Lawsuit: Can Copyright Contain AI?
    2025/06/16
    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.

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    31 分
  • Five TRENDS You Can’t Ignore: Mergers, Velvet Ropes, and the Rise of Festival-First Parks

    Five TRENDS You Can’t Ignore: Mergers, Velvet Ropes, and the Rise of Festival-First Parks
    2025/06/09
    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.
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    31 分
  • Family Culture or Central Control? Herschend’s Acquisition & Six Flags’ Silo Smash

    Family Culture or Central Control? Herschend’s Acquisition & Six Flags’ Silo Smash
    2025/06/02
    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.
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    31 分
  • Six Flags Presses “Reset”

    Six Flags Presses “Reset”
    2025/05/26
    "The Great Reset," Six Flags' new strategic plan, aims to reach 58 million in annual attendance and $3.8 billion in revenue by 2028. The 88-slide presentation boils down to one thing: a better product makes more money. The plan gives concrete examples of what industry professionals have known for decades—improving the guest experience means guests will want to come back and spend more, convert to annual passes, bring their friends, and grow market penetration. And Six Flags has laid out an excellent plan, complete with benchmarks, examples, and research. But - can the newly merged mega-chain deliver? It sounds simple, but executing doesn't always work out. Plus: why Falcon’s Beyond buying Oceaneering tips the turnkey arms race, and what IAAPA’s board thinks about staffing, storms, and tariffs. Tune in—then catch the gloves-off debate in Green Tagged Unhinged on Patreon.
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    33 分
  • Magic, Money, and the Middle East: Disney’s Record Quarter

    Magic, Money, and the Middle East: Disney’s Record Quarter
    2025/05/19
    Disney’s stock jumped 7 % after a blockbuster Q2— streaming gained a million subs, Thunderbolts opened #1 worldwide, domestic park profit climbed 13 %, and Bob Iger unveiled the first “authentically Disney, distinctly Emirati” Disney park on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island. Philip and Scott unpack why Disney is leaning into the parks (finally), Disney's new quality-over-quantity pledge, and debate whether the glowing numbers are a trailing indicator before tariffs, weather, and China headwinds bite; and examine how licensing to Miral lets Disney tap 500 million potential guests without spending a dime of cap-ex. Plus, Scott shares on-the-ground LGBTQ insights from living in the UAE—and what other operators can learn from Disney’s risk calculus. Hear the Six Flags and United Parks earnings showdown (and Chicago’s new Harry Potter retail-tainment) in this week’s Unhinged on Patreon.
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    35 分
  • Pruning Parks, Powering Up Hotels: Six Flags Shutters as DC Invades Gaylord

    Pruning Parks, Powering Up Hotels: Six Flags Shutters as DC Invades Gaylord
    2025/05/11
    Six Flags/Cedar Fair’s first post-merger casualty is Six Flags America, erasing 70 full-time and 700 seasonal jobs and $3.5 million in local tax revenue—freeing capital for “marquee” investments elsewhere. At the same time, Marriott’s Gaylord resorts are turning their glass atriums into mini-comic-cons with a DC-branded summer slate, headlined by a 17,500-sq-ft lantern trail of 24-ft heroes, to lure families who might skip a theme-park trip. Philip and Scott ask whether strategic portfolio pruning and shoulder-season IP pivots are the new survival play as rising rates have already killed Sacramento’s planned $300 million Elk Grove zoo. Listen for the implications—and catch the gloves-off bonus chat on Patreon.
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    34 分
  • Can Universal Turn Spring Into “Second Halloween”? Inside Fan Fest Nights

    Can Universal Turn Spring Into “Second Halloween”? Inside Fan Fest Nights
    2025/05/05
    Universal Studios Hollywood is stress-testing a brand-new revenue season with Fan Fest Nights—12 evenings of Comic-Con-meets-HHN running April 25-May 18th from 7 p.m.–2 a.m. Tickets range from $74-$84, and the event is anchored by a 45-minute Back to the Future immersive experience on the actual Courthouse Square backlot. By leaning into nostalgia, the Universal team has created a masterfully written, one-of-a-kind immersive theatre experience for BTTF. The reception has been overwhelmingly positive, proving that Fan Fest’s format has legs; the question for 2026 is whether Universal will rebalance resources toward the bigger, younger fandoms that clearly showed up this year, and whether they have permanently hamstrung this event. Listen to our bonus episodes on Patreon.
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    32 分
  • Comcast's Cash Machine: Can Epic Universe Replace Dying Cable?

    Comcast's Cash Machine: Can Epic Universe Replace Dying Cable?
    2025/04/29
    Cord-cutting continues to threaten Comcast, but it sees hope in its theme parks. As 200,000 broadband subscribers abandon Comcast in a single quarter, the company is aggressively pivoting toward theme parks despite them representing just 6.3% of current revenue. With $5 billion in free cash flow, Universal is simultaneously launching Epic Universe while developing Horror Unleashed in Vegas and planning new attractions in Texas and the UK—a diversification strategy that Disney, constrained by debt and market scrutiny, cannot match. Can the theme parks and media divisions grow fast enough, or is management selling an optimistically stable storyline? We explore how Universal aims to deliver Disney-level quality at broader accessibility and whether it can weather potential tourism challenges. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon
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    30 分