The economics of haunted houses

 [[{“value”:”Running a haunted house can be a risky—if not scary—business. The barrier to entry is high, the overhead costs can be massive, and the attractions have just one very vulnerable month to earn their money. Like many other small businesses, 60% of them don’t make it past their third year, according to haunted-house review company
The post The economics of haunted houses appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.”}]] 

Running a haunted house can be a risky—if not scary—business. The barrier to entry is high, the overhead costs can be massive, and the attractions have just one very vulnerable month to earn their money. Like many other small businesses, 60% of them don’t make it past their third year, according to haunted-house review company and directory Scare Factor. Most operators have to keep their day jobs or do side hustles to make ends meet.

“The most successful haunts, the ones that last more than three years, are full-on destinations rather than a 20-minute attraction,” says Scare Factor co-owner Nora Proffet. “Haunters are competing with all other forms of entertainment, and visitors want to spend the whole evening having fun.”

In the past few years, that has meant adding food trucks, ax throwing, bars and escape rooms, Proffet says. Many attractions also create special events—whether scary or not—for Christmas and Valentine’s Day.

Over the past nine years, LaFlamboy—who has been a part of more than a dozen haunted attractions, most not as successful as HellsGate—has added numerous flourishes to lure people to his haunted attraction. Customers can now visit a midway with bonfires, food concessions, two bars, a free photo booth, an escape room, a gift shop and giant movie screen, and roaming actors—playing various creatures—to take selfies.

And:

A National Retail Federation survey showed that approximately 18% of U.S. adults visited a haunted attraction last year, or about 46.5 million people. The Halloween and Costume Association says that haunted houses are a $500 million industry.

That money is split among a relatively small number of attractions. According to Scare Factor, the U.S. is home to 2,100 for-profit haunted attractions—that is around double the number in the 1990s—plus an estimated 1,000 not-for-profit ones, which include pop-ups in cornfields.

Here is more from Heidi Mitchell at the WSJ, via Patrick Moloney.

The post The economics of haunted houses appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

 Economics, Uncategorized 


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