September may have just begun, but Halloween has already arrived. The late-October holiday known for costumes and lots of candy has become an increasingly lucrative occasion for businesses like theme parks and retailers. “[Halloween] has become this time of the year that’s grown in explosive ways,” said Edithann Ramey, chief marketing officer at Six Flags. “It’s become a billion-dollar industry in the last five years.” With 45 percent of consumers saying they’ll start Halloween shopping before October this year, businesses are getting a head start to prepare for the rush.
The early Halloween trend is most noticeable at theme parks, where attendance has been going down significantly following a bump after the pandemic. To make the most of customer demand for spooky season, theme parks are opening Halloween-themed attractions weeks earlier than in years past. For example, Disney World in Orlando launched the family-friendly event Mickey’s Not So Scary Party early last month while Universal Studios started this year’s Halloween Horror Nights on August 30th. Theme parks are also opening new attractions based off of scary and supernatural movies and TV shows. Six Flags, the largest amusement park operator in the U.S., based this year’s Fright Fest on the 20th anniversary of the Saw horror movie franchise. Meanwhile, Universal Studios added a Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire haunted house to its lineup of attractions.
Retailers are also selling Halloween-themed items earlier to keep up with the holiday boom. This summer, Home Depot held a “halfway to Halloween” sale in July — six months before October 31 — and quickly sold out of several popular items, including the viral 12-foot tall skeleton named Skelly. Target and Lowe’s started selling Halloween collections in late August, and the popular costume and decoration retailer Spirit Halloween will soon open more than 1,500 seasonal stores across the country. So far, it seems like the investment in Halloween is paying off: consumers in the U.S. spent more than $12 billion last year on Halloween compared to about $10 billion in 2022.
Questions:
- Why are theme parks and retailers getting an early start on Halloween this year?
- How do seasonal events like Halloween benefit businesses like theme parks and retail stores?
Sources: Anna Betts, “Halloween Creeps Into U.S. Stores and Theme Parks Scarily Early To Boost Sales,” The Guardian, Aug. 29, 2024. Danielle Broadway, “Hauntingly High Demand for Halloween Spookiness at U.S. Theme Parks,” Reuters, Aug. 29, 2024.