Six Flags

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, or simply Six Flags, is an American amusement park corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It was formed on July 2, 2024, following a merger between longtime rivals Cedar Fair and the former Six Flags company. The combined company owns and operates 51 properties throughout North America, including amusement parks, water parks, and resorts.

Six Flags
Six Flags Theme Parks originated in 1957 with the creation of The Great Southwest Corporation by Angus G. Wynne and other investors, who would go on to open the chain's original park, Six Flags Over Texas, in August 1961. After the Pennsylvania Railroad gained a controlling stake in the company's shares, a handful of new park were constructed and multiple independent parks purchased over the following two decades. Following the acquisition of Marriott Corporation's Great America theme park in 1984, Six Flags acquired the rights to feature Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes animated characters at their properties; Time Warner subsequently purchased much of the company and was its sole owner from 1993 to 1995. Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc. was later bought out by Premier Parks – an Oklahoma-based real estate firm and theme park chain – on April 1, 1998, for $1.86 billion. Premier began to apply the Six Flags name to several of their existing properties in North America and Europe, eventually fully assuming the brand name in 2000.

Throughout the 2000's, Six Flags began to suffer from growing debt and organizational bloat, eventually first resorting to selling off its European parks in 2004. Some of the company's largest investors grew frustrated with Six Flags and demanded change; Daniel Snyder's Red Zone, LLC successfully gained control of Six Flags' board of directors in 2005 by means of a proxy battle. New management continued to sell off various American amusement park locations throughout 2006-2007, although their cash flow continued to decrease, falling $120 million annually under Red Zone's board. Weighed down by the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the New York Stock Exchange's decision to delist their stock, Six Flags filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009 but continued to operate the parks as normal. Six Flags re-emerged as Six Flags Entertainment Corp. on May 3, 2010, moving head offices from New York City to Grand Prairie, Texas and allowing lenders to control 92% of the company in exchange for canceling $1.13 billion in debt.

Jim Reid-Anderson was instated as chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) on August 13, 2010 and succeeded by Mike Spanos in late 2019. New initiatives were launched to build Six Flags theme parks in global markets; the previously cancelled Six Flags Dubai was revived in 2014 before being called off again in 2018. Six Flags Zhejiang and Six Flags Chongqing both began construction in China before a declining real estate and the collapse of its local investment firm in 2020 forced both projects to be sold on to other developers. The COVID-19 pandemic also hindered Six Flags' operations during 2020, forcing many parks to remain closed for the year. Mike Spanos stepped down in 2021, allowing chairman Selim Bassoul to assume the role of CEO. Seeking reinvention, Bassoul announced a new strategy favoring guest experience over capital investments; this meant raising prices in order to lower daily park crowds, thus improving the park experience for higher-paying guests. The initiative and various comments made by Bassoul proved controversial with shareholders, and was abandoned in November 2022 after park attendance plummeted by 33%.

Merger
Previous unsuccessful attempts had been made to assimilate Cedar Fair in the decade leading up to the merger. One such deal with Apollo Global Management fell apart in April 2010 October 2, 2019, Reuters reported that Six Flags had first approached Cedar Fair with a cash-and-stock acquisition offer, although the proposal was quickly rebuffed. In February 2022, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (now United Parks & Resorts) made an unsolicited all-cash bid to buy Cedar Fair for $3.4 billion; the offer was rejected two weeks later.

Properties
Year acquired lists the year the property was acquired by the property's previous respective owner among the current company's two predecessors.

Former and abandoned properties
These properties are listed in alphabetical order by the final name of the park while under Six Flags (or Cedar Fair) control.

Europe
These parks were all sold to StarParks in 2004, unless noted.