Wizard World Gets Positive Results, Still Sticking Around

Since I talked about how badly Wizard World lost money in 2017, I figured it was only fair to mention this as well.

Wizard World, “the nation’s largest producer of pop-culture events”, has announced its financial results for first quarter 2018, and they are positive! That’s a pleasant change from losing money. They attribute the turn-around to higher income, “creating greater entertainment value”, and “operating expenses reduced considerably.”

During the first three months of 2018, they held three shows — New Orleans, St. Louis, and Cleveland. This resulted in income of $283,276, compared to last year’s first quarter loss of $1,282,078. After interest expense, their net income was $114,383.

Operating expenses were down 49% compared to last year, $821,556 instead of $1,663,824. However, they still have just under $2.8 million in assets to cover liabilities of a little over $6 million. So they aren’t out of the woods.

I’d be curious to know how they held those expenses down. Were the guests less well-known (and thus less expensive)? Fewer of them? Fewer staff members? Did everything still run smoothly? The next quarter (April – June) includes shows in Portland (already held in April), Philadelphia (starting tomorrow), and in June, Des Moines and Columbus.

Also, apropos of nothing, I notice we haven’t had any more entries in the Hall of Legends recently.