One year ago today, the dates for HHN27 were announced. Here we are on the same day and we’re still unsure what date HHN28 will begin, though we have ideas….
Last Year’s Timeline
Before uncovering the most educated guess on the event dates for this year’s Horror Nights, let’s take a look at the timeline for last year’s announcements.
- February 23: Dates officially announced. 34 nights of terror at Universal Studios Florida
- March 29: First house announcement; American Horror Story
- May 19: The Shining house announced
- June 7: Tickets officially available for purchase
- July 27: Ash vs. Evil Dead house announced
- August 15: Bill and Ted announced to be the last year of the long running show
- August 16: The Games of Jigsaw house announced
- August 17: Scare zones and shows revealed
- August 24: Commercial directed by Eli Roth released
- August 29: Horrors of Blumhouse announced
- August 31: All original concept houses announced
As you can see, they really held back last year until August, with a whopping 6 house reveals. This made a lot of die hard fans very anxious as well as generated lots of hype and speculation. Going by this timeline, that would mean that the dates could be announced quite soon.
Going back a ways though, we see a trend of the event dates being announced later and later. The 24th year of the event, we saw an unmatched, next day date announcement that came in the form of a thank you to guests and media for the immense success of HHN24. The end of the video was interrupted by jack the clown and ended with the dates of the 2015 event. It effectively teased Jack the Clown as well as announced the dates. Although the video was publically released on HHN’s official Facebook and other avenues on November 1st, the same night as the final night of the event, the video was sent to certain media companies (ex. Inside the Magic and Theme Park Review) on a flash drive EVEN EARLIER on Halloween 2014.
Ever since Horror Nights 25, event dates have been announced later and later. Will this trend continue and we won’t learn of this year’s dates for perhaps another month or so? This, unfortunately, is in UO’s hands.
HHN28’s Likeliest Dates
Going to a calendar, we can see that Friday, September 14th is the most likely opening date for Horror Nights 28. The going trend of the event is a mid September opening; 27 began on Sept. 15, 26 began on Sept. 16, 25 on Sept. 18, etc.
Our predictions for the 2018 HHN event dates
Our predictions call for 34 possible nights of the event, with the first Wednesday being October 3rd. There could be more than 34 nights during the run of HHN28, however, because there are some dates in question. We are unsure of the possibility of any of the following dates being event nights as well; October 29, 30, and November 1st and 4th.
Last year’s Halloween fell on a Tuesday, and the Monday before it saw Horror Nights open. This year, Halloween lands on a Wednesday, leaving Monday and Tuesday possible haunt nights for Universal Orlando. November 1st and 4th are question marks as well, being that the last weekend is always a bit off. For the past two years, the last weekend did not contain a Thursday or a Sunday, but we have seen events get extended in the past to meet demands or weather closures.
We are keeping our fingers crossed and our eyes open for the official unveiling of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights event dates, and we’ll get them to your own eyeballs the second they’re out!
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