Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division. Based on a concept by Marty Sklar, Randy Bright, and Michael Eisner, the park opened on May 1, 1989, as the Disney–MGM Studios Theme Park, and was the third of four theme parks built at Walt Disney World. Spanning, the park is themed to an idealized version of Hollywood, California, and is dedicated to the imagined worlds from film, television, music, and theatre, drawing inspiration from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Disney's Hollywood Studios was initially developed as both a theme park inspired by show business and an operating production studio, with active film and television production services, an animation facility for Walt Disney Animation Studios, and a functioning backlot. Construction on the combined park and studio began in 1987, but was accelerated when the construction of the similarly themed Universal Studios Florida began a few miles away. To increase public interest and the variety of film representation within the park, Disney entered into a licensing agreement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, from which the park's original name was derived. The park's production facilities were removed throughout the 2000s, and many of the park's soundstages were retrofitted for newer attractions and guest use. The park's current name took effect in 2008, with the removal of the MGM-branding throughout the park. In the 2010s, the park began to distance itself from the original studio backlot intention and entered a new direction of immersive theming and attraction development inspired by imagined worlds from Hollywood storytellers.
The park's original landmark was the Earffel Tower, a faux water tower topped with Mickey Mouse ears. In 2001, the Sorcerer's Hat—a stylized version of the magical hat from Disney Animation's 1940 film Fantasia—was erected in the park's central hub and served as the icon until its removal in January 2015. The Earffel Tower was also removed the following year. The Hollywood Tower Hotel has since been the official icon, with the park's replica of Grauman's Chinese Theatre serving as the visual centerpiece. In 2024, the park hosted 10.3 million guests, ranking it the ninth most-visited theme park in the world.
Dedication
History
A team of Walt Disney Imagineers led by Marty Sklar and Randy Bright had been given the assignment to create two new pavilions for Epcot's Future World section. The brainstorming sessions led to Wonders of Life and Great Movie Ride pavilions. The latter was to look like a soundstage backdrop, with a movie theater-style entrance in the middle and would have sat between the Land and Journey Into Imagination pavilions. When newly appointed CEO Michael Eisner saw the plans for the pavilion, he requested that, instead of placing the ride in an already existing park, it should be the anchor for a new park themed with Hollywood, entertainment, and show business.In 1985, Disney and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entered into a licensing contract that gave Disney worldwide rights to use the MGM brand and logo for what would become Disney–MGM Studios, which included working production facilities for films and television shows, a backlot, and a satellite animation studio for Walt Disney Feature Animation, which began operation prior to the park's debut. In 1988, MGM/UA responded by filing a lawsuit that claimed Disney violated the agreement by operating a working movie and television studio at the resort. On May 1, 1989, the theme park opened adjacent to the production facilities, with MGM's only affiliation being the original licensing agreement that allowed Disney to use MGM's name and lion logo in marketing, and separate contracts that allowed specific MGM films to be used in the Great Movie Ride. On opening day, the only two operating attractions were the Studio Backlot Tour and the Great Movie Ride. Several months after park opening, the "Streetmosphere" improvisational troupe was added to the park. The Streetmosphere performers, now named the Citizens of Hollywood, are the longest-running attraction at the park.
Disney later filed a countersuit, claiming that MGM/UA and MGM Grand, Inc. had conspired to violate Disney's worldwide rights to the MGM name in the theme park business and that MGM/UA would harm Disney's reputation by building its own theme park at the MGM Grand hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. On October 23, 1992, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe ruled that Disney had the right to continue using the Disney-MGM Studios name on film product produced at the Florida facility, and that MGM Grand had the right to build a Las Vegas theme park using the MGM name and logo as long as it did not share the same studio backlot theme as Disney's property. The MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park opened in 1993 at the Las Vegas site and closed permanently in 2000. Disney was contractually prohibited from using the Disney-MGM Studios name in certain marketing contexts; in those instances, the park was called either The Disney Studios or Disney Studios Florida.
In the 1990s, as the park's popularity and attendance grew, the park saw its first expansion in 1994, with the addition of Sunset Boulevard and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction. The backlot's New York streets were opened to guest access to relieve traffic and renamed as Streets of America. During that same decade, Walt Disney Feature Animation's on-site satellite studio assisted in the production of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, with Mulan and Lilo & Stitch being completed entirely at the park's studio. The Sunset Boulevard area would receive an expansion in the late 1990s, starting with the installation of Fantasmic!, a nighttime show that opened in 1998, six years after the debut of its predecessor at Disneyland. The next year in 1999, an indoor launched looping roller coaster themed to Aerosmith called Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, officially opened to the public. In 2001, the Sorcerer's Hat—a stylized version of the magical hat from Fantasia—was erected in front of the park's Chinese Theater and began to serve as the park's icon from then onwards, displacing the Earffel Tower in that role. In 2004, Disney shuttered the Florida animation unit. The previous summer, the backlot's Residential Street was demolished to accommodate the new location for Lights, Motors, Action!: Extreme Stunt Show, an American adaptation of Moteurs... Action!: Stunt Show Spectacular at Walt Disney Studios Park. The stunt show would open along with Soarin' at Epcot in 2005 to coincide the Happiest Celebration on Earth festival. In 2007, Disney announced that Disney-MGM Studios would be rebranded as Disney's Hollywood Studios, effective January 7, 2008. That same year, the former Stage 1 soundstage became home to Toy Story Mania! and the surrounding area was rethemed as Pixar Place.
In the 2010s, Disney began phasing out the park's "studio-like" attractions that headlined the park during its early years of operation. This included the closure of the park's Studio Backlot Tour, American Idol Experience, and the Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow attractions in 2014. The following year, the Sorcerer's Hat was removed and the original sightlines from Hollywood Boulevard to the park's Chinese Theatre were restored. In March 2015, during an annual shareholders meeting, Disney CEO Bob Iger hinted at another possible name change for the park due to the changes coming in the near future. However, the company denied the rumors of a name change in February 2018. The park continued to close more studio-themed attraction; in April 2016, the majority of Streets of America—including the backlot street facades, the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, the Earffel Tower, and the remaining backstage areas—was closed and demolished in preparation for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land. In 2017, the Great Movie Ride closed as the final remaining opening-day attraction and was replaced by Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway in 2020.
The park was closed from March 16 to July 15, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida. In 2025, Muppet*Vision 3D and the surrounding Muppet-themed courtyard was closed. The area is expected to be re-themed to Pixar's Monsters, Inc. franchise, including Disney's first suspended roller coaster.