The business of running a haunted house

If you want a t-shirt that says “I p*ssed my pants at BloodManor,” you have a few more nights to get to lower Manhattan, where a 10,000-square-foot haunted house is getting by on just a few weeks of scares each year.

How? “The folks of New York have been providing us with a good client base for 21 years,” BloodManor’s owner and creator, Jim Lorenzo, told Morning Brew.

• He said the operation has drawn a bigger crowd almost every year since opening (except where pandemic restrictions interfered) and now scares 500 to 2,000 people per night.
• With tickets starting at $40, BloodManor could do more than $1 million in sales this year over 21 nights of business between late September and early November.

Reaping the scares of its labors: After two prior iterations, Lorenzo moved the haunt in 2017 to its current spot—which he rents year-round—and did a $1 million renovation that covered:

• New staircases, bathrooms, ventilation, and about 25,000 sheets of Sheetrock.
• About 1,500 canisters of spackle and paint, “every drop” of which was sprayed with a fire retardant costing ~$75 per bottle, he said.

Other costs include: Permits, props, LED lights, sound equipment, and a collection of 35 animatronic monsters worth up to $20,000 each. Plus, there’s a year-round staff of six to eight people who help Lorenzo plan the haunt, a few dozen seasonal actors, and a makeup crew specializing in zombie cosmetics (take a peek).

Expanding: BloodManor set up a second haunted house this year at the Stamford Town Center in Connecticut, which Lorenzo hopes will benefit mall business.