Halloween Horror Nights 26 Discussion

[mmc]

I hope we get an announcement this week. For the past two weeks, all I have seen on my Facebook time hop is announcements from the past couple of years and it is making me ever so impatient. 

[Oysterhead00]

On 7/23/2016 at 11:10 PM, Grindhousehero13 said:

I'm so sorry for you guys , that show sucked and had nothing to do with Halloween or horror. Even worse was the crowd it dragged in. I mean I'm 26 and have nothing against teenagers, far from a crotchety old man but when the theater it's in chooses to bump club music outside and you're trying to make to the next maze and there is a mob of teenagers and early twenties kids doing the nae nae and dancing off blocking traffic really ruins the experience 

 

Do we know if this rumor is true?  Only because I looked up the original post and they said it was from someone in the group.  I know NOTHING about it/them, but sounded like they were a touring group type thing and we have the (I think official) auditions for dancers for a second show at Orlando.  Doesn't seem to line up to me.

 

Of course, I LOVED the Death Drums that most people hated...so I'd probably like this.  Ha ha ha.  (Of course, my age is an early twenties kid plus a late teenager combined)

Edited July 25, 2016 by Oysterhead00
Translating my gibberish to English

[faceleg]

44 minutes ago, Oysterhead00 said:

 

Do we know if this rumor is true?  Only because I looked up the original post and they said it was from someone in the group.  I know NOTHING about it/them, but sounded like they were a touring group type thing and we have the (I think official) auditions for dancers for a second show at Orlando.  Doesn't seem to line up to me.

 

Of course, I LOVED the Death Drums that most people hated...so I'd probably like this.  Ha ha ha.  (Of course, my age is an early twenties kid plus a late teenager combined)

 

I tried to find a site to see if there was any tour schedule to try and corroborate but they only site I could find was for their Vegas show.  

[Badge]

2 hours ago, faceleg said:

 

I tried to find a site to see if there was any tour schedule to try and corroborate but they only site I could find was for their Vegas show.  

 

As far as I know, I think they are a single group and don't have multiple "groups" performing under the same name like Blue Man group for instance. In fact, I did some more digging trying to figure out last years schedule. Turns out, their show at the Luxor ended sometime in Sept before HHN hollywood. Then, they had a new show open at MGM in November. So, during their downtime while they switched venues, they performed in Hollywood...a fairly short drive from Vegas compared to driving to Orlando. They easily could have driven back and forth, driving out Thursday morning and returning home late Sunday night. The current show in Vegas has show tickets on sale for shows during ALL of HHN. I HIGHLY doubt we will be seeing them. Most likely the person that started this "rumor" on a different forum was just trying to mess with everybody.

[Grindhousehero13]

8 hours ago, Oysterhead00 said:

 

Do we know if this rumor is true?  Only because I looked up the original post and they said it was from someone in the group.  I know NOTHING about it/them, but sounded like they were a touring group type thing and we have the (I think official) auditions for dancers for a second show at Orlando.  Doesn't seem to line up to me.

 

Of course, I LOVED the Death Drums that most people hated...so I'd probably like this.  Ha ha ha.  (Of course, my age is an early twenties kid plus a late teenager combined)

Nothing like death drums lol.

 

well we had a rumor back when saying they were booked somewhere else durning HHN season  so it is possible that this is just trolling considering how much forums hated compared to the GP casual plus I don't think Mike would do that to you guys. 

 

 

[Cooger and Dark]

17 hours ago, mmc said:

I hope we get an announcement this week. For the past two weeks, all I have seen on my Facebook time hop is announcements from the past couple of years and it is making me ever so impatient.

 

I have a friend working Midsummer Night's Scream this coming weekend who was told that the producers of American Horror Story asked to have their panel moved from Sunday to Saturday. This MIGHT be significant as Saturday is the day HHN is doing a panel. The fact that the American Horror Story panel is all about make-up that was done for AHS: Hotel makes it seem like this would be a good time to have Murdy drop by and say, "We have been working with these guys to get the creatures just right."

 

Of course, this is all just speculation, but my friend keeps getting winks and nudges when they ask about it...

[Badge]

43 minutes ago, Cooger and Dark said:

 

I have a friend working Midsummer Night's Scream this coming weekend who was told that the producers of American Horror Story asked to have their panel moved from Sunday to Saturday. This MIGHT be significant as Saturday is the day HHN is doing a panel. The fact that the American Horror Story panel is all about make-up that was done for AHS: Hotel makes it seem like this would be a good time to have Murdy drop by and say, "We have been working with these guys to get the creatures just right."

 

Of course, this is all just speculation, but my friend keeps getting winks and nudges when they ask about it...

 

I just don't know about AHS coming to Hollywood. If it is the "mega" house in Orlando, its going to be totally different in Hollywood then. Murdy has already confirmed that there will be no SS houses this year (besides TWDA, which is open year round). I can't see them sticking AHS in a tent.

 

If anything, the event this weekend also has a panel discussing Krampus. I see that being the more likely of the two announcements for Hollywood.

[TheUsherette]

I think we can count on some sort of announcement at Midsummer. It's been a pretty long time since they revealed anything, especially considering how close to the event we are. Whether it be Krampus or American Horror Story or something else, I can't say, but I think those are two safe bets.

[Pandry]

Greetings all. This will be my only off topic post as I'm in the process of catching up. I really do miss all of you.  I've literally stayed in the dark, all year, only hearing house announcements when official from UNI. My goal was to wait until August but here I am.  So different from the past, for me. I'd be die hard following this site from the end of each HHN year. I had fun at the 25th anniversary, but something changed - the paradigm.  Where I could not wait for the event and lived to hear leaked houses and zones...this year I've totally stayed away. Hadn't really cared about the lineup.

Why, you might ask?  I just don't know.  The 25th was fun but left a bad taste in my mouth.  I just can't place it or verbalize it.  Some cool IPs thus far for 26.  But TWD back again...enough! Then starting a trend of recycling houses every other year a la AWIL and now Halloween, I just don't know.  Combine that with the huge increase in ticket cost and I think I've finally reached the boiling point.  I think this will be my last year and I've been going yearly since 2004.  The price to value ratio has reached the tipping point.  I truly hope this year proves me wrong.

However, as I'm so smitten with Chance and she's our Icon, well....that sort of sold me for at least one more year.

[ForeverEvil1]

1 hour ago, Pandry said:

 Then starting a trend of recycling houses every other year a la AWIL and now Halloween, I just don't know.  

 

Halloween is actually based on the sequel. So besides one scene and the Myers costumes I presume, not exactly recycled. Walking Dead is actually the total recycle house this year, if you haven't heard the concept is just a "best of" of past TWD houses. 

 

And there is that "Requel" which we still have not had announced. Though there appears to be confidence in what it is.

[Pandry]

4 minutes ago, ForeverEvil1 said:

if you haven't heard the concept is just a "best of" of past TWD houses. 

 

And there is that "Requel" which we still have not had announced. Though there appears to be confidence in what it is.

I've heard the best of TWD and it's even lamer.  That's saying last season had nothing house worthy so we'll do a best of because we sold our soul to the devil and they keep making us do this house,

 

I know Halloween is Aiello's passion so I'm counting on that to live up to 24 which was amazing.  I don't mind reusing houses, it's been done time and time again - but I personally prefer having many years in between.  I loved AWIL in 23 but not last year.

 

No idea what even remotely Requel is. First time clocking in on HNN since HHN 25 ended. Here's hoping it's not AVP Requiem.

[ForeverEvil1]

7 minutes ago, Pandry said:

 

 

No idea what even remotely Requel is. First time clocking in on HNN since HHN 25 ended. Here's hoping it's not AVP Requiem.

Actually, it's an original. Which makes it better than any IP redo IMO.

[Badge]

My biggest thought about the whole repeating of house concepts/IP's is that at least we are not like 99% of the other haunt events around the US that repeat 60-80% of the house/event every year. Howl-o-scream, fright fest at Six Flags, Knott's scary farms, local haunts, etc ALL have multiple repeats...sometimes even 75% of the their houses are repeats! The biggest reason is of course cost. As the event gets bigger and bigger, the houses get bigger and bigger which has an increased cost. To me, the only real repeat house is TWD. Halloween is a totally new house but just sharing the same IP which is totally cool with me. Heck, even "requel" whatever it turns out to be will be a new house. Sure the theme/story might be a repeat, but if it is truely a 10+ year old house returning, they had to build everything from scratch again. 

 

The one thing I like a lot of people forget is the shear amount of money this event costs to put on. A quick breakdown of the cost to staff a SINGLE house for the whole event is madness. While I am not sure about the hourly wage of a scareactor, lets go with $13 an hour for some quick math. 

 

A house with 2 casts of 15 actors working 8 hour shifts for 30 nights costs roughly $94,000! That's a single house NOT counting the other staff that are in nearly every room watching the line. Take that number and multiple it by 9 houses, and your at $846,000 which is totally off because some houses have a lot more actors than just 15 per cast. I can see them easily hitting $1 million dollars just in the scareactors in the houses. Add another million for the street's. Another million or two for the army of secruity, bar staff, and line management teams. Probably close to another million to put on Bill and Ted since those actors make more money and the cast is fairly large (this is including everything that goes into it, not just a million for the cast). Then who knows how much to actual build the houses, design and upkeep the costumes, do the makeup nightly and all the hiring staff having to go through thousands of applications and auditions and the cost of background checks for everybody. Not to mention paying an entire design team year around to design the event. All said and done, after EVERYTHING HHN related is finished for the year, I can see them easily spending 30-40 million to put on the event. Of course they make the money back and then some. However, that large of an investment in an event that is only generating money 30 nights out of the whole year demands a big return. This is why other events repeat things to cut costs.

 

With Universal, they repeat one thing without any changes, and people start freaking out. Sure, TWD  is repeated often, but the whole house is brand new which requires a design team to create from scratch. This year, our repeat is TWD...kinda. It still required a team of designers to design the new layout unlike AWIL's return. Heck, even when AWIL returned, they invested a TON in brand new puppets which cost some serious cash for that much fur work. 

 

I look at it this way. My $289 ROF+Express ticket is covering the wage cost of a SINGLE scareactor in a house for only three nights. This year, I am lucky enough to attend for 8 nights but even when I could only attend 2 or 3 nights, the amount of fun I had FAR outweighed the cost to attend an event that only comes around once a year and will never return the same again. To keep costs down, I don't go crazy on the drinks because the beer is where they are getting you. You can still have a ton of fun without dropping $30-40 a night on beer. 

 

Ok, rant over...

[N i c k]

Now you have me curious as to what sort of cost goes into a year of HHN. 30-40 million seems high to me, but I really have no idea.

[Oysterhead00]

1 hour ago, N i c k said:

Now you have me curious as to what sort of cost goes into a year of HHN. 30-40 million seems high to me, but I really have no idea.

 

I remember seeing something on Modern Marvels or Build it Bigger or Secrets of XYZ on Discovery that the Magic Kingdom spends over $4 MILLION per day on employee wages alone (and this wasn't in HD so it has to be at least 5+ years old).  That doesn't include any power bills, fuel, communications, production costs, equipment, etc, etc, etc. 

Granted, HHN is infinitely smaller...but 30-40M for the whole event seems really low to me given all that it entails.

[PeoriaBJJ]

Id love to know what its cost per night... I bet its crazy. But for what we are paying for tickets Im sure they are still making bank.

[Badge]

1 hour ago, Oysterhead00 said:

 

I remember seeing something on Modern Marvels or Build it Bigger or Secrets of XYZ on Discovery that the Magic Kingdom spends over $4 MILLION per day on employee wages alone (and this wasn't in HD so it has to be at least 5+ years old).  That doesn't include any power bills, fuel, communications, production costs, equipment, etc, etc, etc. 

Granted, HHN is infinitely smaller...but 30-40M for the whole event seems really low to me given all that it entails.

 

The more I think about it, I think your right. I think 30-40M is low. I didn't take into account the cost of designing and producing merch, marketing, on top of the normal daily operations that are still going on and who knows how much they spend to have the small army of Orlando police officers at the event. 

 

Think about it like this, nearly the entire park is running at full staff from 6:30-2am NOT counting anything HHN related. Nearly every ride, store and restaurant is running. Then you add on the cost of the staff to run the 10+ food/drink tents, the army of extra security, 5-6 scarezones worth of actors, 9 houses worth of actors, 1-2 shows worth of tech staff and performers, and a bunch of costume and makeup team members. It really is crazy when you think about how many employees it takes to keep HHN running nightly. I'm sure there are a ton of different departments I am not even thinking about. It's possible to come up with rough figures, but until you know just how many employees they have and their hourly wage/salary you can never really know. 

 

Still, they are turning a decent profit but I don't think it's as much as people think.

 

 

On a side note, it's happening people! First HHN related street construction went up overnight! The massive stage that Jack used last year is back up again in the same location. Sure, Rock the Universe uses it too but it's location is the same like it was last year and not on an angle like has been in the past when only built for Rock the Universe. 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2016 by Badge

[Oysterhead00]

It really would be fascinating to see...but it's all the little things you don't see or think of.  All the scareactors and most concession workers are unskilled labor.  Not an insult at all, but they hold open auditions for the scareactors and the people in the concession industry probably aren't making a whole lot either. 

 

But every shift change is led by someone, some type of management/supervisor/etc that they had to invest in training and they'd have to get paid a more significant wage.

 

There is surely a fire marshall on duty.

 

There's the trained fire crew.

 

There are pyrotechnics at Bill and Ted and possibly another show that have to be done/overseen/loaded by a licensed pyrotechnition. 

 

The amount of electricians on call for the houses has to be pretty extensive.

 

There have to be licensed rigging experts for anybody doing any special entrances or anything.

 

Sign linguists for the shows.

 

Pretty sure anybody on stilts is a "performer".

 

I don't know if SAG rules and wage scales apply since this isn't a movie/TV show, but Jack & Chance actors are surely in the union so that could be a chunk of change.

 

Operations managers and supervisors for regular park stuff up the wazoo.

 

Ride maintenance staff on duty.

 

First Aid and medical on duty.  There are a row of ambulances back by the tents that are busy all night long.

 

The amount of people cleaning up litter, emptying garbages, cleaning rest rooms, cleaning up puke from the drunks, cleaning up at the end of the night.

 

Rooms full of people running real time analytics on the park, monitoring cameras, dispatching people, etc.  Whatever kind of "command center" they have.

 

And of course, all the makeup specialists, costume designers, tailors, etc that have to be on staff every night.

 

Etc, etc, etc.  The list goes on and on.  And if the Maintenance, Concession, etc staffs are regular park staff working extra hours, then Overtime would come into play....plus their base pay would most likely be higher to begin with versus added seasonal help.

 

Then, there's the big ticket items like insurance.  I'm sure regular park insurance for regular daily operations doesn't cover a night operation, with obstructions/hazards on the street, scares that could result in cardiac arrest, copious amounts of drinking encouraged by the event, foggy streets obstructing your view, etc, etc, etc.  That has to be a pretty penny!

 

Also, curious about the liquor licensing.  I know for most places,  it's based on maximum occupancy of a building.  Not sure how that works for themeparks.  Not to mention that at night, you have access to many areas off limits during the day adding more square footage and I would assume a higher premium?  Added beer stands and especially liquor stands, not sure how that works.  Might be included in the theme park classification, might be an added charge for event time.

 

All this is off the top of my head, no research at all, I could easily be wrong about a Fire Marshall on Duty or any of the Insurance/Alcohol stuff I'm making up, etc.

 

But it's interesting to just think through what a huge operation it is...and lumping together all these specialists thinking their total salary is the same as the "unskilled labor" of the scareactors is a gross underestimation. 

 

 

 

 

[Jediwhit82]

That's encouraging. Leads me to believe we will get another Carnage style show.

[Badge]

Well, Hollywood got TWO announcements today. Freddy vs Jason and Texas Chainsaw. Do we know how many more houses Hollywood is getting? They are at 4 right now. Hopefully the next two are shared IP's in which case that should mean we are getting Krampus. Still waiting for that one for Orlando the most.

[ForeverEvil1]

1 minute ago, Badge said:

Well, Hollywood got TWO announcements today. Freddy vs Jason and Texas Chainsaw. Do we know how many more houses Hollywood is getting? They are at 4 right now. Hopefully the next two are shared IP's in which case that should mean we are getting Krampus. Still waiting for that one for Orlando the most.

From what I've heard others say, two more maze announcements and their Terror Tram. 

[Badge]

2 minutes ago, ForeverEvil1 said:

From what I've heard others say, two more maze announcements and their Terror Tram. 

 

So, hopefully a duel AHS and Krampus announcement then.

[ForeverEvil1]

3 minutes ago, Badge said:

 

So, hopefully a duel AHS and Krampus announcement then.

Possible. I believe the Tram will be their ScareLA announcement this year with how everything has gone.

 

Also I somewhat am under the opinion that Hollywood may have lost The Conjuring IP and replaced it with TCM

[Badge]

4 minutes ago, ForeverEvil1 said:

Possible. I believe the Tram will be their ScareLA announcement this year with how everything has gone.

 

Also I somewhat am under the opinion that Hollywood may have lost The Conjuring IP and replaced it with TCM

 

Most likely which would explain why they didn't announce TCM at the same time as Orlando.

[hunnylvr]

19 hours ago, Badge said:

My biggest thought about the whole repeating of house concepts/IP's is that at least we are not like 99% of the other haunt events around the US that repeat 60-80% of the house/event every year. Howl-o-scream, fright fest at Six Flags, Knott's scary farms, local haunts, etc ALL have multiple repeats...sometimes even 75% of the their houses are repeats! The biggest reason is of course cost. As the event gets bigger and bigger, the houses get bigger and bigger which has an increased cost. To me, the only real repeat house is TWD. Halloween is a totally new house but just sharing the same IP which is totally cool with me. Heck, even "requel" whatever it turns out to be will be a new house. Sure the theme/story might be a repeat, but if it is truely a 10+ year old house returning, they had to build everything from scratch again. 

 

The one thing I like a lot of people forget is the shear amount of money this event costs to put on. A quick breakdown of the cost to staff a SINGLE house for the whole event is madness. While I am not sure about the hourly wage of a scareactor, lets go with $13 an hour for some quick math. 

 

A house with 2 casts of 15 actors working 8 hour shifts for 30 nights costs roughly $94,000! That's a single house NOT counting the other staff that are in nearly every room watching the line. Take that number and multiple it by 9 houses, and your at $846,000 which is totally off because some houses have a lot more actors than just 15 per cast. I can see them easily hitting $1 million dollars just in the scareactors in the houses. Add another million for the street's. Another million or two for the army of secruity, bar staff, and line management teams. Probably close to another million to put on Bill and Ted since those actors make more money and the cast is fairly large (this is including everything that goes into it, not just a million for the cast). Then who knows how much to actual build the houses, design and upkeep the costumes, do the makeup nightly and all the hiring staff having to go through thousands of applications and auditions and the cost of background checks for everybody. Not to mention paying an entire design team year around to design the event. All said and done, after EVERYTHING HHN related is finished for the year, I can see them easily spending 30-40 million to put on the event. Of course they make the money back and then some. However, that large of an investment in an event that is only generating money 30 nights out of the whole year demands a big return. This is why other events repeat things to cut costs.

 

With Universal, they repeat one thing without any changes, and people start freaking out. Sure, TWD  is repeated often, but the whole house is brand new which requires a design team to create from scratch. This year, our repeat is TWD...kinda. It still required a team of designers to design the new layout unlike AWIL's return. Heck, even when AWIL returned, they invested a TON in brand new puppets which cost some serious cash for that much fur work. 

 

I look at it this way. My $289 ROF+Express ticket is covering the wage cost of a SINGLE scareactor in a house for only three nights. This year, I am lucky enough to attend for 8 nights but even when I could only attend 2 or 3 nights, the amount of fun I had FAR outweighed the cost to attend an event that only comes around once a year and will never return the same again. To keep costs down, I don't go crazy on the drinks because the beer is where they are getting you. You can still have a ton of fun without dropping $30-40 a night on beer. 

 

Ok, rant over...

 

I adore this post.  I feel the same way.  There are some really good local haunts in the Chicago area that we make sure to hit up every year.  Even though we enjoy them, much of what is in these haunts are recycled from previous years.  Cost is a HUGE factor.   I know the guy who runs one of the biggest houses in the area (Statesville Haunted Prison), and I know he drops a lot of money trying to add new things each year and changing SOME rooms.  But no one has a Universal budget.  While I LOVE the Halloween season in general (we pretty much start celebrating after Labor Day), it's Halloween Horror Nights that I anxiously wait for.  It's the only event for which I keep a countdown app on my phone.  As much as I loathe TWD, I don't even care about that coming back anymore.  It's like the annoying sibling at Christmas - you just learn to ignore.   It is what it is.  I can choose to skip it.  I still have 8 other houses and awesome scare zones to see!  There is no other haunt that gives me the same feeling - the immersion in all of it , the jaw-dropping talent of the people who create the event, the care and passion that is put into it.  It's beautiful, and I love it.  I realize I am lucky that I can afford to do this event, and I don't mean to sound like a pompous ass when I say the money doesn't matter to me.  But it really doesn't.  If I had to, I'd cut out a ton of stuff to make sure I made this event every year.  Nothing can ever be perfect, but HHN sure comes close.