April 8, 2026, 2:07 PM ·
Two more major transactions in the past year have jumbled the ownership of America’s regional amusement parks. So who owns which parks now?At the top of the industry – for the big, destination parks – things remain the same. The Walt Disney Company leads the industry in the United States and worldwide with six theme parks in the U.S.: four at Florida’s Walt Disney World and two at Disneyland in California. Rival Universal opened its third Universal Orlando park last year and will open a new Universal Kids Resort in Texas this year, joining its Universal Studios Hollywood in California. Here are the other companies operating theme and amusement parks in the United States. (We are not counting water parks here.) Follow the links below for our visitors guides to select parks.Six FlagsThe current Six Flags Entertainment Corporation formed in 2024, following the merger of Cedar Fair and the previous Six Flags company. The original Six Flags chain began with the opening of Six Flags Over Texas in 1961. The company then built two other theme parks – in Georgia and just outside St. Louis – before buying other regional parks around the country.In 1982, Bally bought Six Flags, which acquired the rights to Looney Tunes characters a year later when it bought what is now Six Flags Great America from Marriott after that company exited the theme park business. The other Marriott’s Great America park, in Santa Clara, California, went to Kings Entertainment Company, which was then bought by Paramount in 1992, who in 2006 sold its parks to Cedar Fair.Warner Bros. obtained control of Six Flags in 1993, but only held the company for two years before dumping 51% of the chain in a leveraged buyout. In 1998, Premier Parks Inc. bought Six Flags and renamed itself Six Flags. That company continued to expand, then ran into financial problems and started selling and closing parks. Six Flags Inc. filed for bankruptcy in 2009. The company reorganized and emerged from bankruptcy the next year.Cedar Fair started in 1983, following Cedar Point’s acquisition of Valleyfair in 1978. The company then acquired several other regional parks, including Knott’s Berry Farm in 1997, which brought the license to use the Peanuts cartoon characters. As I mentioned above, Cedar Fair obtained the Paramount Parks chain in 2006.In 2026, Six Flags announced that it would sell six of its U.S. parks to EPR Properties, which would contract with Enchanted Parks to manage them. Here are Six Flags’ current amusement parks:California’s Great America (Cedar Fair sold the land under the park in 2022 and the park is expected to close within the next few years.)CarowindsCedar PointDorney ParkFrontier City (Owned by EPR Properties and operated by Six Flags.)Kings DominionKings IslandKnott’s Berry FarmSix Flags Darien Lake (Owned by EPR Properties and operated by Six Flags.)Six Flags Discovery KingdomSix Flags Fiesta TexasSix Flags Great AdventureSix Flags Great AmericaSix Flags Magic MountainSix Flags New EnglandSix Flags Over Georgia (Six Flags will take full ownership from Six Flags Over Georgia Ltd in 2027.)Six Flags Over Texas. (Co-owned with Texas Limited Partnership.)In addition, Six Flags operates Canada’s Wonderland and Six Flags Mexico in North America, with La Ronde currently under Six Flags control, but about to be sold to EPR Properties. The company also licenses Six Flags Qiddiya City in Saudi Arabia.HerschendHerschend Family Entertainment Corporation got its start when the Herschend bought a 99-year lease on Marvel Cave in Branson, Missouri. The Herschends opened their Silver Dollar City theme park on the site in 1960. In 1976, the family bought the Goldrush theme park Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, renaming it Silver Dollar City Tennessee the next year. When Dolly Parton announced her intention to open a theme park in the community, Herschend sold her a percentage of that park, expanding it and renaming it Dollywood in 1986.In 2025, Herschend bought Palace Entertainment from Parques Reunidos, adding six more properties to the chain. Herschend that year also purchased the family-owned Silverwood theme park. Herschend remains privately-owned.AdventurelandDollywoodDutch WonderlandIdlewildKennywoodKentucky Kingdom (Owned by the Kentucky State Fair Board and operated by Herschend.)Lake CompounceSilver Dollar CitySilverwoodStory LandWild AdventuresEnchanted ParksEnchanted Parks is the new operator on the scene in 2026. Formed just last year, the company manages several regional amusement parks for EPR Properties, including six U.S. parks that the REIT bought from Six Flags earlier this year. Enchanted Parks is a spin-off of Innovative Attractions Management, which bought the U.S. location of Diggerland in 2025. DiggerlandMichigan’s AdventureSix Flags Great EscapeSix Flags St. LouisValleyfairWorlds of FunUnited ParksUnited Parks & Resorts is a 2024 rebranding of the former SeaWorld Entertainment company. The company’s history started with the opening of Busch Gardens next to the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Tampa, Florida in 1959. Anheuser-Busch opened a second Busch Gardens next to its Los Angeles-area brewery in Van Nuys in 1966, and another in Houston in 1971. A fourth opened in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1975. Busch Gardens Houston closed in 1973 and the LA park closed in 1979, while the other two Busch Gardens expanded from brewery tour add-ons into full theme parks.Anheuser-Busch formed the Busch Entertainment Corporation in 1979 to operate its two theme parks, opening its Sesame Place water park outside Philadelphia the next year. By the way, the “Busch Gardens” brand pre-dates the theme park business, as it was used first for the public gardens that opened in 1906 on the Busch family’s estate in Pasadena, California. Since I live in Pasadena, here is my look at what the original Busch Gardens looks like these days.The first SeaWorld park opened in San Diego in 1964, with the company going public four years later. SeaWorld opened a second park, in Aurora, Ohio, in 1970 and its third, in Orlando, in 1973. SeaWorld sold the Ohio park in 2001 to Six Flags, which combined it with the neighboring former Geauga Lake amusement park. Cedar Fair bought that property in 2004, closing the animal park. That whole complex is gone now, replaced by a mixed-use development.Textbook publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich bought SeaWorld in 1976, opening SeaWorld San Antonio in 1988. By the next year, though, HBJ wanted out and sold the parks to Busch Entertainment Corporation. When InBev bought Anheuser-Busch in 2008, the Belgian brewer sold Busch Entertainment Corporation to Blackstone Group, which rebranded the theme park operator as SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. Blackstone spun off the company with an IPO in 2013, renaming it SeaWorld Entertainment.The company also runs the Sesame Place parks in suburban Philadelphia and Sam Diego, though those are largely water parks. In addition, the company licenses SeaWorld Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.Merlin EntertainmentsThe other popular regional theme park operator in the United States is U.K.-based Merlin Entertainments. Merlin acquired the Legoland theme parks in 2005, including Legoland California, which opened in 1999. The Florida park followed in 2011, on the site of the former Cypress Gardens, which was owned for a bit by SeaWorld, during the HBJ era.Legoland CaliforniaLegoland FloridaLegoland New YorkPeppa Pig Theme Park DallasPeppa Pig Theme Park Florida (Located next to Legoland Florida)In addition to these U.S. theme parks, Merlin operates eight other Legoland theme parks around the world, as well as a Peppa Pig Park in Germany and five other theme parks in Europe, including Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventures and Thorpe Park in the U.K.Independent parksFinally, several popular parks around the country continue to operate independently. Hersheypark is America’s largest independently owned theme park, attracting three million visitors in 2024. It is owned by private company controlled by a trust set up by Milton Hershey. Other popular independent parks around the country include Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, Indiana Beach, Knoebels, Lagoon, Lost Island, Morey’s Piers, and Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, all of which are family-owned.(If you have any corrections or clarifications, please let me know in the comments, and I will update. This was a bit of an effort to put together. Thanks, Robert)For my weekly update of theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider’s weekend newsletter.
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