What does it cost to start a pro haunt?

[xxxdirk]

Webby,

You said IF the city allows you to reopen. Want to elaborate for those of us thinking about buying a place?
Ron

[xxxdirk]

For whatever it is worth, I think this is a very legit question and there are many different takes on it.

As far as starting big, I do believe that there are many haunts that try this and then go out of business very fast. Many people see the long lines at a haunt, think to themselves that it is a cash cow, take out huge loans or cash out their IRAs and find out it is not as easy as it looks. Personally, I started very small, tried to keep my price reasonable, tried to put on as good of a show as I could and learned as I went. There is no way I could have put on this years haunt 4 years ago. I have learned so much over the past 4 yrs and hopefully my 5th year will be better than this year and eventually I will reach that superstar level. If you were to ask most of the successful haunt owners, most of them started as home haunters, or as very small haunts and continued to grow slowly......

[xxxdirk]

For whatever it is worth, I think this is a very legit question and there are many different takes on it.

Of course if you are charging $3.00 for a haunt that takes 3 min to go through, have 2 actors, no sets, plastic walls, hopefully most people SHOULD realize that they get what they pay for. They realize that the big haunt down the road takes 18 min to go though and has very cool sets and great actors but costs $$20. However, ask yourself, would you rather pay $3 to go to a so so movie, or $10 to go see the big blockbuster....

As far as starting big, I do believe that there are many haunts that try this and then go out of business very fast. Many people see the long lines at a haunt, think to themselves that it is a cash cow, take out huge loans or cash out their IRAs and find out it is not as easy as it looks. Personally, I started very small, tried to keep my price reasonable, tried to put on as good of a show as I could and learned as I went. There is no way I could have put on this years haunt 4 years ago. I have learned so much over the past 4 yrs and hopefully my 5th year will be better than this year and eventually I will reach that superstar level. If you were to ask most of the successful haunt owners, most of them started as home haunters, or as very small haunts and continued to grow slowly......

[icarian]

I too would have to agree with the start small concept.... though starting too small can hurt your business reputation as well.

webby put things into a nice light when she said that you need to be a miser the first 5 years. do things on the cheap. and though its a sad recommendation, watch trading spaces and other design shows that show you ways to dress a room (though not scarily) on the cheap.. take hints from wherever you can find them. There are ways to scare people effectively with a low budget, the trick is making things seem to be expensive and elaborate.

look into the theming of your haunt, are there other, cheaper, options for wall panels? look at the layout of your haunt and see how efficiently your actors can multi task, giving the illusion of a large cast.

basically the point of this thread has pretty much come down to the fact that there really isn't an answer to how much you should look at spending. Do plenty of research and DON'T RUSH THINGS! As with most any business, large amounts of money are turned into fire starter if you don't take your time and think things through as much as possible. A professional haunt is not something that can be hastily put up on the cheap.

on top of researching the haunt industry, i would recommend reading up on other entertainment topics. Disney Imagineering is a good subject, and having a couple stagecraft books lying around is ALWAYS helpful. (especially for lighting and scenic painting!... on the cheap!) Its amazing what you can learn about scenic painting by simply becoming involved in a community theater.... utilize concepts and put your own twist on them... and i say community theater because they're usually on an extremely restricted budget, and a good community theater director knows how to stretch a small budget into GRAND things!

[HauntedWebby]

Webby,

You said IF the city allows you to reopen. Want to elaborate for those of us thinking about buying a place?
Ron

Haunted Houses and Spook Alleies have been banned in Ogden city since 2003.

We skirt the fine line of being Interactive Theater in the style of a haunted house. http://www.lazarusmaze.com/about.html Some officals don't see the difference.

This year the city censored 11 of our rooms. Basically walked in on opening weekend and said cut these or you can't open. No real explinatioin. They did hint that we didn't have the correct types of fire escapes for handicap persons.

We are in the process of being annoxed into a different city because the neighboring city loves us and the other 4 haunted attractions because it raises their tourism.

[Mr. Haunt]

Webby,

I am sorry that the city has done that to you. Not fare at all. They must not understand the business and the Holiday. I would have to say MOVE if you can!

As for the rest of you, I like getting into these heated topics. I think it would be a BIG BAD IDEA to go the big time your first year open. TO MUCH AT RISK!

I plan on doing something smaller, cheaper, but still be at a level to keep people happy. I know that there will be critics, but tough love for them.




Brian

[xxxdirk]

well good luck Webby. You have put too much $ and work intop your place to have to deal with that BS. Hope I can meet you in Vegas

[Mephisto the Great]

The idea of having to spend $150K+ for a first year haunt may be true under certain kinds of circumstances, but it is possible to start a haunt for far, far less and, with some finesse, build a popular product. I've managed to build two haunts that both started with a budget of under $20K. My first professional haunt in 1998 cost us $6K.

How can it be done? For me, it meant having a haunt outdoors. The event I was hired to help produce in 2004 was an outdoor trail that led to an indoor pavilion, and it saw about 2,000 guests over four nights. This season the haunt has expanded to over a mile in length and saw nearly 11,000 customers, earning the non-profit group that owns it over $100K in revenue. It has grown by at least 10-20% every season.

The secret? Start the first year off right. Act professionally, even with a small cast and a small set-up. Don't overcharge. A strong theme with a strong website, strong collateral, strong visuals and a kick-arse scare reputation can make it or break it. I've seen shows that spend $100K/year on their budget that completely suck, while I've been to small shows that rocked my world because they acted like Disney from MOMENT ONE. It's really about confidence and acting profesionally.

I still remember my haunted forest "Dark Hollow" in 2002 had a big problem where only seven (yes, SEVEN) actors managed to make it and they worked the show harder than anyone I've ever seen. We had people coming back through, swearing there were 20+ people, simply because the actors had been trained to put their heart and soul into making the best show possible.

So that's my $0.02. You can start off small and build up strong if you plan, plan, plan and don't start off looking cheap. Volunteers will often bend over backwards to work for you...IF you create a product that they believe in.

Good luck!

P.S. Consider why you want to haunt as well. If you do it because you love it, (and not so much as a business venture), a small haunt can often provide the thrill and satisfaction you crave and save you breaking your wallet. Something to think about. Are you prepared to work very hard for long hours doing a lot of mundane, back breaking work to make this happen? Sometimes finding your joy in this business doesn't happen until the last few days in a season, simply because those who have a small budget often have to supply "sweat equity" to make up the difference. You MUST treat it as a small business, not a hobby, and that means sacrifices across the board.

[Jim Warfield]

Read what Mephisto just posted AGAIN, all true!
He gives true advice and real concepts of work creating worth which equals success.
This haunt business is not like walking down the street and finding a $20.oo bill laying on the sidewalk, unless you have to bend over twenty times to pick it up, THEN it's more like this business!
(Watch your backside when in the scooping manover!)

[screamshow]

$150,000?

$200,000?!

In my opinion this is exactly the wrong mindset to have and is probably the reason so many haunts have trouble.

[neffuri27]

Scream Farm Haunted House

Hello there,
we were able to convert an old barn and a few outbuildings and buy a FrightProps Bunker elevator and scarefactory giant animatronics like Grim Thrasher, DemonKnight, Hanging Thrashing Skeleton and Mango Through the Door as well
as built tons of other props and a few animatronics ourselves and a ticket booth,
little shop of horrors and concession stand with equipment for around $45,000
with lots of volunteer effort and a great back story and some unique scares
we had an excellent fun season last year and were able to donate a nice
amount of money to St. Jude. It was a dream come true for us and although
it was lots of work, a TREMENDOUS amount of work and sacrifice. We could
not open this year because of a family tragedy with my sick hubby we will be
open and bigger next year. We now have nonprofit status but I am up in
the air over whether we even want to pursue things in that vein, we may
disolve that and be strictly for proft and then give money to charity that we choose
to give.
I just wanted to throw my two cents worth in there, we have had a movie
filmed at our haunt in July entitled SCREAM FARM in honor of our haunt and
we were featured in SIRENS OF CINEMA MAGAZINE Issue 8. So we must
be doing something right.giggles

Blessings and keep haunting!

Kimberly Cole Zemke

[Jim Warfield]

Kimberly, Good to hear that you got your place open, not good to hear about a spouse having dire problems....
Hang in there and the best of luck with everything.

[HauntedWebby]

I guess it depends on what the other haunts in your area are like. I'm against 60K and 80K sq ft haunts with million dollar budgets. They do a great job and have built up to that level of a couple decades.

For me to be one of the elite haunts I have to expand fast, which takes money.

In my area there is no way a $6K haunt would make it ... even 15 room haunts don't make it past their first year generally.

[Jim Warfield]

Maybe the mentality has temporarilly reversed from a few years ago?
Bigger did not mean better, it just meant bigger, more crowding, more bodies all trying to walk down a hallway, more missed scares,alot of just empty space ,then the biggest folded it's tent and did not come back.
People were finding small haunts where the customer was seen, not overlooked in the mass and crush of seething humanity. Scares happened.
Fun was found........not on a conveyor belt.

[HauntedWebby]

That is how our big haunts feel to me. A conga-line tour. They do well and try to interact with people, but with that many people it's hard.

That is why we've never advertised. We like being smaller with a big feel. But the feel cost us $$$.