Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disney's Hollywood Studios
Location	Walt Disney World, Bay Lake, Florida, United States
Opened	May 1, 1989
Area	135 acres
Theme	Hollywood, cinema and television
Owner	The Walt Disney Company
Operator	Disney Experiences
Status	Operating

Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, United States. Opened on May 1, 1989, as Disney-MGM Studios, it is the third of the resort's four theme parks. The park celebrates the world of film and television — first as a working production studio with a theme park attached, and, as studio work moved elsewhere, increasingly as a collection of immersive lands drawn from Disney's film franchises.

The park's icon was for 26 years the Earffel Tower, a water tower wearing Mickey Mouse ears; after its removal in 2016 the park's visual centre became The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a 199-foot haunted hotel on Sunset Boulevard. The park's modern anchors are Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge (2019), a 14-acre land set on the planet Batuu, and Toy Story Land (2018).

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History

The park grew out of an EPCOT pavilion concept — a "Great Movie Ride" attraction in a show-business pavilion — that executives, led by Michael Eisner, expanded into a full park after Universal Studios announced its own Orlando studio park. A licensing deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave the park its original name, its lion logo, and the right to use clips from MGM's film library in The Great Movie Ride, which anchored the park on opening day.

On opening day the park was half studio: the Backstage Studio Tour took guests through working soundstages, residential street sets and the animation building, where Florida animators contributed to films including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. Animation production in Florida ended in 2004, and the studio tour closed in 2014; the park's identity shifted toward franchises. The MGM name and branding were dropped on January 7, 2008, when the park became Disney's Hollywood Studios.

A giant Sorcerer Mickey hat, installed for the 100 Years of Magic celebration in 2001, stood in front of the Chinese Theatre until its removal in 2015. The Great Movie Ride closed in 2017 and was replaced inside the same theatre by Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway (2020), the first ride-through attraction starring Mickey Mouse. Toy Story Land opened in June 2018, and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge — the largest single-themed land Disney had built — followed in August 2019, with Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and, that December, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, widely cited among the most ambitious rides ever built.

Areas

• Hollywood Boulevard — the entrance street, lined with 1930s Hollywood architecture and leading to the Chinese Theatre.
• Echo Lake — home to Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and the Frozen Sing-Along.
• Grand Avenue — a Los Angeles streetscape leading to Galaxy's Edge, containing Muppet*Vision 3D (closed 2025 for a Monsters, Inc. land announced to replace the area).
• Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge — the Black Spire Outpost on Batuu, with Rise of the Resistance and Smugglers Run.
• Toy Story Land — Andy's backyard at toy scale, with Slinky Dog Dash and Toy Story Mania!
• Animation Courtyard — shows and character experiences.
• Sunset Boulevard — The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, and the Beauty and the Beast stage show.

See also

• Walt Disney World
• EPCOT
• Disney's Animal Kingdom
• Studio Backlot Tour
• Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show
• The American Idol Experience
• Echo Lake (Disney's Hollywood Studios)
• Once Upon a Time (show)
• BaseLine Tap House