Six Flags Entertainment Corporation Common Stock New (FUN) Q4 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, everyone. My name is Ellie, and I will be your conference operator today. providing an update on select balance sheet items as well as early performance indicators for the season ahead. For the fourth quarter, we are in the middle of our guidance range, delivering adjusted EBITDA of $165 million on attendance of 9.3 million guests and revenues of $650 million. Two dynamics impacted the quarter. First, results for the quarter were up against a record performance in October of 2024, which we discussed on our last earnings call. Secondly, operating days and the winter holiday calendar mattered a lot. We operated 779 days in the fourth quarter of 2025 versus 878 days last year. As was expected, and as we discussed last quarter, a significant portion of the decline in operating days reflects our decision not to operate winter holiday events at four parks, a decision that was made earlier in the year. In hindsight, that decision did not optimize profits at every part the way we needed it to. Those events can be meaningful demand drivers, and removing them created a self-inflicted headwind in terms of both attendance and operating leverage. We're taking that learning directly into our planning for 2026, and we will rethink the winter holiday strategy with a tighter returns-driven approach, market by market, rather than applying a broad brush. And while weather created variability in the quarter with 15 park closure days versus three last year, the more significant impact on demand was our decision to eliminate the winter holiday events, which created an attendance headwind of approximately 425,000 visits. At the same time during the quarter, spending by guests visiting our parks was strong. Per capita spending was up year over year, supported by higher guest s...