Thank you for visiting the Haunted House Association, serving the haunted house industry and its members. Listed below you will find fast facts about the haunted house industry that you may need for featured articles about our industry. If you have additional questions please contact our media representative at darkrides@sbcglobal.net.
Number of Haunted Attractions in America:We estimate there are over 2,000 haunted attractions charging admission fees to their events. We additionally estimate that there are over 300 amusement facilities producing some sort of Halloween or haunted house event such as an amusement park or family fun center. Lastly there are over 1,000 charity attractions produced by a local charity group that open for one day on Halloween or one or two weekends in October. You can locate most of the attractions in America at www.HauntedHouseOnline.com or www.HauntWorld.com or www.HauntedHouse.com
HALLOWEEN ATTRACTIONS: What is a Halloween Attraction? There is a difference between a Halloween Attraction and a haunted house. A Halloween Attraction is everything from a cornmaze, to a massive pumpkin patch to a haunted hayride. One of the biggest industries going today is the Halloween Attraction industry where farmers convert large area’s to corn mazes, hayrides, and pumpkin patches which include all sorts of other attractions such as dino digs, pony rides, pick your own pumpkin, face painting, Halloween stores, food and more. We estimate the Halloween Attraction industry to be in equal size to the Haunted Attraction industry grossing between 400 and 500 million dollars with over 1,500 events nationwide. Between the Halloween Attraction industry and the Haunted Attraction industry they combine to gross over ONE BILLION dollars in annual revenue and keep many farmers from losing their farms. We now prefer to have both industries fall under the category of HALLOWEEN ATTRACTION INDUSTRY, which by our definition is an attraction themed around Halloween or falls within October which by charges admission.
Attendance Figures: The typical haunted attraction averages around 8,000 paid guests. This figure grossly depends on the market and the size of the attraction. About 80% of the professional attractions in America have attendance of less than 10,000 paid guests or more than 7,500 paid guests. Less than 3% of haunted attractions have attendance figures of over 35,000 paid guests. Some attractions’ mega haunted events attract over 40,000 to 80,000 guests but those numbers are around 1 or 2% of all attractions in America. About 10% of all attractions in America average between 12,000 and 20,000 paid guests. A major amusement park such as Universal Studios or Knott’s Scary Farm attracts over 300,000 paid guests in October alone. On a busy night the mega attractions can push through over 4,000 guests in one night while a mega amusement park like Universal might do over 35,000.
Average Costs: Back in the early 90’s the average ticket price for a haunted house ranged between $4 and $6. By the mid 90’s to late 90’s the average ticket price had soared to around $13. Most attractions chose $13 because of its themed number. Today some haunted houses charge as much as $25 while most average around $15 per event. Major amusement park haunts charge as much as $65 for entry into their events. Over 80% of haunted attractions in America charge less than $15 per person, while only 3% charge more than $20 per ticket. Roughly 60% of haunted attractions charge less than $13 per person
Major Media: The haunted house industry has been featured prominently on the national media scene. Back in the mid 90’s Tiny Tim married on the Tonight Show at a major haunt in Boston called Spookyworld. Over the past few years the haunted house industry has become as good as or better than most Hollywood horror movies and due to this fact the media’s attention has increased. Within the past few years many major media outlets such as USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, AOL.com, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, NFL Films, and many more have featured MAJOR stories about the haunted house industry. In 2006, YAHOO.com listed sites such as www.HauntWorld.com as the best places to find haunted houses. The story was produced due to the overwhelming popularity of searching for them on Yahoo’s search engine. The Travel Channel produced a major television show about haunted attractions which aired several times in 2006. The National Geographic Channel produced a documentary for 2007 entitled “Celebrating Halloween” which featured The Darkness, St. Louis, Missouri. Additionally in 2006 America’s TWO biggest morning shows did major pieces on the haunted attraction industry; Good Morning America ran a 5 minute piece on the industry as did the Today Show.
This past year even ‘GIRLS NEXT DOOR’ got into the act by following around one of the girls through theannualtradeshow for the haunted and Halloween industry located in Chicago: TransWorld Halloween, Party and Haunted Attraction Show. This show aired in May of 2007. In October 2008 Yahoo reported one of the top ten most searched things to do was visit a haunted house.
Haunted houses are now the most popular way to celebrate Halloween in America and the media have followed. Below you can watch the YouTube segment for Good Morning America’s segment on the haunted house industry. Additionally you’ll find a link to the USA Today story on the industry.
Haunted Houses have also appeared on major networks like Travel Channel, National Geographic Channel and History Channel. Below watch one of our industries haunts as they appeared on Modern Marvels.
Industry Financials:The haunted house industry generates between 400 and 500 million dollars in ticket sales. This figure would include most major theme parks that operate a haunted event. The haunted attraction industry would generate roughly 300 million dollars in revenue and the amusement park industry another 150 to 200 million dollars. The industry of haunted houses supports hundreds of other businesses across America such as VENDORS that supply haunted house effects, props, costumes, masks, animations and more. Additionally, haunted houses spend tens of millions of dollars on building supplies, advertisement, insurance and much more. We estimate that the haunted house industry solely drives the popularity of Halloween and Halloween retail through the spending of roughly 85 million dollars on advertisement of events.
Haunted Attraction and Halloween Tradeshows: The Halloween Attraction has its very own tradeshow and other events all throughout the nation each year. During the major show www.HauntShow.com over 100,000 square feet of haunted house animations, props, special effects, to lighting companies, website designers, graphic illustrators, to companies that make masks, make up, to even high end flame effects and more converge to St. Louis, Missouri home of the show where hundreds of haunt owners and major theme parks buy products to make their events bigger and better. There are over 100 companies that make their sole living selling equipment to Halloween Attractions WORLD WIDE. View the video below to learn more.
Frightening Facts About Halloween:
Halloween is the second largest commercial holiday in the United States.
Approximately one hundred countries celebrate Halloween.
Over seven billion dollars is spent yearly on candy, costumes and activities in the United States alone.
Approximately 90% of all households with children will participate in a Halloween activity. The most common demographics for this season are teens and young adults ages 18-34.
Research shows that people enjoy being scared while in a safe environment such as attending a movie, on a thrill ride or at a haunted house, and they are willing to pay for the experience.
Haunted House Safety: Haunted houses and attractions are EXTREMELY safe due to tough safety and fire codes they must all now live by. Most haunted houses that are inside a building are required to have a sprinkler system, early warning smoke or heat detectors which will alert the fire department, emergency lights, fire proofing of all materials inside the attractions, industrial electric applications, easy access doors throughout the attraction, panic hardware exit doors, multiple fire extinguishers, panic systems, and much more. Most haunts now must also be ADA compliant and have no trap doors or items on the floor that could cause trips and falls. Our association takes safety as a serious concern and creates and publishes many safety articles. The TransWorld Haunted House Show produces seminars for safety, and Hauntworld Magazine produced an entire magazine devoted to safety in a haunted house. The industry as a whole takes safety seriously and works together to solve common problems. Listed on this site are a handful of safety articles in our safety section. Please be our guest and read them.
Charity: Over 80% of all haunted attractions across America are operated by a charity or help to benefit a charity of some kind. The haunted house industry helps to raise tens of millions of dollars for charities nationwide. Many fire departments or church groups produce haunted attractions nationwide. Haunts have worked with major charities from the Boys and Girls Club to the Children’s Miracle Network, and everything in between.
Corporate America: Corporate America has embraced the haunted house industry with sponsorships in the tens of millions of dollars. Most major haunted events have major sponsorship deals with Pepsi, energy drink companies, the fast food industry, cellular phone companies, Halloween retail outlets to even The Truth (against smoking). A major haunted attraction could attract $10,000 to $100,000 in sponsorships from major corporations who want to display their brand, product or service to the haunted attraction demographic of 18-34 year olds. Haunted houses have become a very inexpensive way for corporate America to reach the 18-34 demographic, due to the popularity of our industry. Sponsorships for haunted events are on the rise, climbing an estimated 8% per year. The high increase is due to the sponsor world recently discovering the haunted industry within the past five years. Some major attractions have even formed national groups like www.AmericaHaunts.com to attract even bigger sponsors .
Haunted Industry:The haunted house industry, much like other industries, has its own tradeshows, experts, consultants, suppliers, magazines, associations, education seminars, gatherings and events. Haunted attraction owners spend annually over 50 million dollars with specific haunted house vendors for supplies like fog machines, scary animatronic monsters, lighting equipment, masks and costumes to assist them in scaring America. There are some major vendors in the industry who have even supplied haunted houses in the Playboy Mansion, Universal Studios, Six Flags and Madison Square Garden. The biggest growth for the vendors to the haunted industry is now overseas, where haunted houses are opening at a record pace. People just love to be scared; it’s not just an American thing anymore. Haunted houses are an American product that is now being exported WORLD WIDE! We estimate that over 25 million dollars worth of haunted house equipment, services and supplies were shipped to other countries, mostly in Asia and Europe. Some haunted house vendors have now started supplying Hollywood movies such as ExMortis.com who did all of the effects for Rob Zombie’s movies: Halloween, Devil’s Rejects, and House of a 1000 Corpses. Ghost Ride Productions recently sold props to Warner Brothers for a Batman movie, and to Universal Studios films. Patrick Magee (Magee FX) did all the special effects on a Lions Gate film entitled ‘Dark Ride’. The list goes on…
Listed below are some of the major vendors in our industry.
Haunted Resources
Note: Much of the data provided above was supplied to the Haunted Attraction Association by Hauntworld.com. Hauntworld.com is the largest website on the net for providing haunted house information.
Note: Much of the data provided above was supplied to the Haunted Attraction Association by Hauntworld.com. Hauntworld.com is the largest website on the net for providing haunted house information.
