Zombie Paintball?

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

Honestly, without the people who sell the systems chiming in, is Zombie Paintball a fad, or here to stay? I find a hard time justifying the tens of thousands spent on a system for a small haunt to barely break even let alone make a "killing" pardon the pun.

I find the whole thing to appear to be a fad, and just like vampires and lycans were big in the early to late 2000's, zombies will be around until the next big thing hits, and spending 20 thousand dollars on a kit or a trailer seems to be a rip to me, no?

Also, does anyone have issues with their actors staying to actually work for the paintball setup? For every 100 actors I've seen, maybe 10 are worth their weight, and even less I'm sure would be willing to take (even a low pressure) paintball hundreds of times every wagon load?

Input appreciated.

Keegan

[Deathwing]

If you do zombies do it this year then sell the fad is going to drop off soon. Once the mainstream gets into something it soon becomes not cool anymore and after World War Z runs through on top of the Walking Dead fandom it's at the tipping point. But of course you could shoot anything not just zombies so keep that in mind.


Jake

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

DW, I agree about it's adaptability, but then we lead into actors. As well as this economy? If, say, we sold a 75 paintball trip for 10 bucks, think anyone would bite? This economy sucks, and I've even skipped seeing movies and in the last few years only go to two haunts for learning instead of 10 hour road trips to visit other haunts...

Idk, just seems like a big deal for haunts doing 40k people, but a smaller haunt wouldn't benefit as much as it would by investing into more lighting, sound, animatronics and startle animations, etc?

Thanks for your post!

[Deathwing]

I would say to do like you said invest in making your show the best it can be by improving the lighting, sounds, decor and better actors. Besides, I would think it would be challenging to keep actors willing to get shot at all night.

Jake

[Allen H]

I did monster paintball in 2003-2004 at a small to medium sized show. We were in virgin territory then so we made a ton of mistakes and had logistical issues. Armor was a big issue for us.
I thing Greg and his crew have solved many of the issues that I encountered years ago. If you have the money to market it, there is nothing bigger right now than guns- that is the wave to be ridden as opposed to Zombies. That is my two cents.
Allen H

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

Allen,

Sue said you may have had issues with keeping actors as well...?

I understand that guns are a big thing right now, it's just that for Greg's system at $30,000 for two trailers I'd need 2000 people paying 15 a head to break even. In today's economy, will people (in my area) pay that for only 75 balls and 8-10 minutes of shooting? Idk. I suppose this is a crapshoot.... And at what expense for advertising? Greg does 23 Lamar billboards in a 75 mile radius, so obviously he has the funding to promote, but my budget I'm working with is very tight for adverts. It almost seems counter productive to spend that much money on a system that I can't even promote effectively, no?

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

And as always, thanks for responses to this point.

[Tater]

Hey Buddy

I know a farm up here that did it and they were sold out for the season after 2 weeks. They were running it Day and night..Day time had targets, nighttime had the real zombies. Said they had Grandmothers, Moms, Dads, Teenagers and Young kids lining up just to shoot some paintballs.

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

Yes, but how much did they advertise? This is my point, you could have the best haunted house in the planet, and if you don't advertise it all goes by the wayside.

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

Tater I'm more looking for the people who can give me numbers, stats, how much they advertised, etc rather than "one up here sold out"