SeaWorld attendance is down. Is Blackfish to blame?

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SeaWorld attendance is down. Is Blackfish to blame?
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Is it the Blackfish backlash? SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. just reported a 13 percent drop in attendance in the first quarter of 2014, falling to 3.05 million visitors January through March, from 3.5 million in the same quarter of 2013.

SeaWorld has been pushing back against claims made in the 2013 documentary film Blackfish that the company mistreats its killer whales. The Los Angeles Times could not reach the company for comment, but notes that during a conference call in March, SeaWorld officials rejected the notion that the movie had anything to do with declining attendance.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.