Six Flags Entertainment Corporation — sometimes written as Six Flags Entertainment Corp, Six Flags Corporation, or just 6 Flags Entertainment — is the publicly traded company (NYSE: FUN) that owns and operates the Six Flags chain of amusement and water parks across North America. The current version of the company was formed on July 1, 2024, when the original Six Flags Entertainment Corporation merged with Cedar Fair, the operator of Cedar Point and Knott’s Berry Farm, in an $8 billion deal structured as a merger of equals.
That covers the basics, but the full picture involves a decades-long corporate name history, a newly reshuffled leadership team, and an international expansion that’s already underway. Here’s a complete rundown of the company, its ownership, and how it got its name.
Quick Answer
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is a publicly traded amusement park operator (NYSE: FUN) formed on July 1, 2024 through the merger of Cedar Fair and the previous Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. It isn’t owned by any single person, family, or parent company — it’s owned by its shareholders, the majority of whom are large institutional investors such as Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street. The company directly operates 34 parks across North America, plus two more parks in Qiddiya, Saudi Arabia that it runs under a management services agreement with the Saudi developer Qiddiya Investment Company.
What Is Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, Exactly?
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is the legal and corporate name of the company; “Six Flags Entertainment Corp,” “Six Flags Corporation,” and “6 Flags Entertainment” are all informal shorthand for the same entity, not separate businesses. It’s headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a relocation to Arlington, Texas underway, and its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FUN — a holdover from Cedar Fair’s original ticker, kept in the merger because Cedar Fair was the larger of the two companies by market value.
The company doesn’t only run parks under the Six Flags name. Its portfolio includes Cedar Fair legacy brands like Cedar Point, Knott’s Berry Farm, Kings Island, and Carowinds, each operating under its own name beneath the single corporate parent.
Who Owns Six Flags Entertainment Corporation?
There’s no single owner. Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is publicly traded, so it’s owned collectively by whoever holds its stock — anyone can buy shares through a brokerage. When the merger closed in July 2024, ownership of the combined company was split roughly 51.2% to former Cedar Fair unitholders and 48.8% to former Six Flags shareholders, a ratio that reflected each company’s relative value going into the deal.
Today, the largest shareholders are institutional investors rather than individuals — asset managers such as Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street hold sizable stakes on behalf of index funds, pension funds, and other clients, which is typical for a large-cap NYSE-listed company. Board members and executives also hold shares, but insider ownership is small relative to institutional holdings. Current, exact ownership breakdowns are always available in the company’s SEC filings through its investor relations site.
Six Flags, Inc. — The Company’s Name Through the Years
People searching for “Six Flags Inc” are often looking for the company’s older corporate identity. The business that eventually became today’s Six Flags Entertainment Corporation started in 1971 as Tierco Group, a real estate company, before pivoting to theme parks and renaming itself Premier Parks in 1994. In mid-2000, after Premier Parks had acquired the original Six Flags chain, the company changed its name to Six Flags, Inc., adopting the more recognizable park brand as its own corporate identity.
Six Flags, Inc. kept that name until it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring in 2010, when it renamed itself Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. That name survived the 2024 Cedar Fair merger and is the one the combined company uses today, so “Six Flags Inc” now refers to a predecessor entity rather than the current legal name — though the two are directly connected through more than 50 years of company history.
The Cedar Fair-Six Flags Merger
The merger united Cedar Fair — the operator behind Cedar Point and Knott’s Berry Farm — with the legacy Six Flags chain that traced its roots to the 1961 opening of Six Flags Over Texas. It was pitched to shareholders and regulators as a way to diversify the combined park portfolio across regions, share operating expertise, and fund larger capital investments in rides and attractions than either company could manage on its own.
Since the deal closed, the company has gone through significant leadership change: John Reilly was named president and CEO in December 2025, and Richard Haddrill — a veteran gaming and leisure-industry executive who previously led Bally Technologies — became executive chairman of the board in March 2026. In August 2026, Six Flags also announced it would relocate its corporate headquarters from Charlotte, North Carolina to Arlington, Texas, moving into offices at Choctaw Stadium, with the transition expected to be complete by March 2027.
A Coast-to-Coast Park Portfolio, Now Going Global
Six Flags’ North American footprint spans coastal, Midwest, and Sun Belt markets, with flagship parks like Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Great Adventure, and Cedar Point sitting alongside smaller regional parks and standalone water parks. Each park kept its pre-merger name and ride lineup, so longtime visitors to any individual park generally see the same attractions and layout they knew before the corporate consolidation, even though the parent company’s strategy and marketing now operate under one unified banner.
In late 2025 and early 2026, Six Flags took its brand overseas for the first time through a partnership in Qiddiya, Saudi Arabia. Six Flags Qiddiya City opened on December 31, 2025, featuring Falcons Flight, billed as the world’s tallest, fastest, and longest roller coaster, followed by the Aquarabia Qiddiya City water park on April 23, 2026, which became the largest water park in the Middle East. Six Flags doesn’t own these two parks — they belong to Qiddiya Investment Company, the Saudi developer behind the giga-project — but Six Flags serves as their official operator under a management services agreement, running day-to-day operations under its own brand rather than simply licensing its name to an independent operator.
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation FAQs
Is Six Flags Entertainment Corp the same company as Six Flags, Inc.?
They’re connected but not identical. Six Flags, Inc. was the company’s legal name from 2000 to 2010, before it emerged from bankruptcy restructuring and renamed itself Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. Today’s Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is a further step in that lineage, formed by the 2024 merger with Cedar Fair.
Who owns Six Flags Entertainment Corporation?
No single person or company owns it — Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker FUN, and its shares are held by a mix of institutional investors (such as Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street), index funds, and individual shareholders. Following the 2024 merger, ownership was split roughly 51.2% to former Cedar Fair unitholders and 48.8% to former Six Flags shareholders.
When was the current Six Flags Entertainment Corporation formed?
It was formed on July 1, 2024, through the merger of Cedar Fair and the former Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, an $8 billion deal that combined two of North America’s largest regional amusement park chains.
What does the ticker symbol FUN stand for?
It isn’t an acronym — FUN is simply Cedar Fair’s original NYSE ticker symbol. When Cedar Fair and Six Flags merged in 2024, the combined company kept the Six Flags name for its brand but retained the FUN ticker for its stock.
How many parks does Six Flags Entertainment Corporation operate?
As of 2026, the company directly operates 34 properties across North America, made up of 20 amusement parks and 14 water parks, plus nine on-site resorts. It also operates two parks in Qiddiya, Saudi Arabia — Six Flags Qiddiya City and the Aquarabia Qiddiya City water park — as their official operator under a management services agreement with Qiddiya Investment Company.
Where is Six Flags Entertainment Corporation headquartered?
The company is currently headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with administrative operations in Sandusky, Ohio. In August 2026 it announced plans to relocate its corporate headquarters to Arlington, Texas, moving into offices at Choctaw Stadium by around March 2027.
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