Disney's Hollywood Studios Archives

August 16, 2024August 27, 2024

Universal’s Momentum Stalls, EPCOT Rebuilds, and Other Surprising Findings from 2023 Theme Park Attendance

It’s one of the most anticipated data drops in all of theme park nerd-dom… Every year, the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) partners with a consulting firm called AECOM to compile an annual report on the ups and downs of theme parks, waterparks, museums, and other “thematic” experiences from the year prior. (If you haven’t yet, check out our coverage of the significant takeaways from the 2022 Report here.)

This year’s result – the 2023 Global Attractions Attendance Report – is a fascinating document that theme park fans should dive into in depth. It’s filled with the highs and lows, global contexts, and stories that permeated theme park news in the year prior. But most importantly… it also contains a ranking and roll-up of the year’s theme park attendance.

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May 7, 2024July 9, 2024

Galaxy’s Edge Is Getting a Tune-Up… Here’s How Disney is Slowly Transforming Its Billion Dollar Star Wars Land

When Disney officially announced that it was moving forward with the long-anticipated creation of a fully immersive Star Wars land in 2015, it felt like the company might’ve finally found its “Potter Swatter.”

Though Disney had certainly played around with the “Living Land” formula invented by Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter in 2010, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge would be the genre’s height: a land so immersive, so authentic, and so committed to thrusting guests into the Star Wars universe that it would make Hogsmeade look like a county fair.

At a reported cost of around a billion dollars each, the two copies of Galaxy’s Edge (at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios) were indeed on a scale never seen before. All-encompassing. “In-universe.” No music. No meet-and-greets. Literally part of the heavily-studied, academic, official Star Wars canon, with its events tethered to a single day on the centuries-spanning timeline. The problem is… well… it didn’t necessarily land.

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February 4, 2024June 14, 2024

Park Paths: The Histories and Personalities of Disney & Universal Theme Parks As Seen from a New Perspective

“Here you leave today and enter the worlds of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” Since 1955, those words have welcomed guests into Disneyland, and their spirit pervades Disney theme parks across the globe. Filled with artistry, history, and memories, each of them is, in some ways, alive, with its own unique personality.

At Park Lore, I’ve been working on a very, very niche personal art project that I’m excited to finally share: a look at the histories and personalities of the theme parks we love… as told by their pathways. Made possible by the support of Park Lore members, each of the hand-drawn illustrations you’ll find below is part mathematical model, part artistic abstraction; colorful lines that would be meaningless to most, but that can be mapped with memories for some! I sure hope they connect with you and inspire you to see each park’s story in a new light…

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November 30, 2023November 30, 2023

The 25 Most Incredible Theme Park Animatronics on Earth

It wasn’t too long ago that a theme park attraction was lifeless without Audio-Animatronics. In fact, the number and complexity of these robotic animated figures was often proportional to a ride’s budget and success! Put simply: if you wanted to blow audiences away, animatronics figures were the way to do it.

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July 19, 2023December 3, 2024

By The Numbers: The Definitive Ride-Count Countdown of Disney & Universal’s Parks’ Lineups

Theme parks are living creatures. Sure, they grow and change and “will never be complete…” But even more, they’re made of complex systems and elements all working together so effortlessly, you may not even realize they’re working at all. Berms act as skin, insulating parks from the sights of the outside world; intuitive layouts are a skeleton, giving the park structure; pathways act as veins and arteries, pulsing guests instead of blood; restrooms are… Well…

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November 11, 2022January 24, 2023

Lights, Camera, Action!: A Blue Sky, Armchair Imagineered Redesign of Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park

What is Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and what should it be?

That question has hung over decades of Disney Imagineers like a dark cloud. It makes sense… after all, you have to remember that when Walt Disney World’s third gate (then called the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park) opened in 1989, its purpose was twofold: externally, to whisk guests away into the real, behind-the-scenes filmmaking of Walt Disney Pictures, and internally, to scare competitors at Universal Studios out of their plans to build a version of their world famous Studio Tour in Orlando. Long story short: neither endeavor was successful.

As a result, Disney spent decades laboring over the park, stuffing it with one-off E-Tickets to draw in guests. The park’s “studio backlot” theme was a scapegoat of sorts, allowing designers to abandon the standards they’d set at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT and instead mash piecemeal IPs into beige studio soundstages, focusing on promotion over permanence. Even by the early 2000s, the park’s “studio” style had soured. In an era defined by immersive, timeless projects like Islands of Adventure and Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios looked like a cop-out.

In the mid-2010s, Disney began polling guests on potential new names for the park, at last signaling that it might turn away from its “backlot” origins… “Disney Cinemagine Kingdom.” “Disney XL Park.” “Disney Beyond Park.” “Disney Kaleidoscope Park.” None stuck. That’s probably because – especially with immersive, cinematic lands like Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge topping the bill – it was obvious that Disney’s Hollywood Studios wasn’t a Hollywood Studio… but… what was it?

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July 21, 2022May 8, 2024

Pixie Dust and Priorities: The Strategic Focus We’d Pick for Each of Disney’s Theme Parks Going Forward

Disney Parks really are magical, happy places. But ask any fan and they’ll tell you – they’re far from perfect.

Don’t take it from us – Walt agreed! The idea that “Disneyland will never be complete” or the power of “moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things…” It all comes down to the idea that there are always ways to “plus” the parks we love.

Today, we wanted to highlight the one big way we think Disney could bring each of its six U.S. theme parks to the next level. We’re not saying these “fixes” would be easy, but in terms of the path to improve each park, these feel like must-haves. What do you think? What other big, strategic changes would make your favorite theme park a better place to be?

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.

This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.

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June 2, 2022July 25, 2024

Secrets of the Resistance: Inside the Imagineering Tricks That Bring Disney’s Greatest Modern Dark Ride to Life

There’s never been an attraction anywhere on Earth quite like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – nothing as massively scaled; nothing as committed to immersion; nothing as filled with inexplicable, impossible, and ingenious Imagineering moments. More than an E-Ticket, this next-generation experience is one-of-a-kind… and yet, it’s made possible entirely by the Imagineering landmarks that have come before.

Today, we’ll set off into Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance to explore nine of this ride’s most surprising moments and inexplicable surprises. So be warned: if you haven’t experienced this 21st century masterpiece – or if you don’t want its jaw-dropping effects spoiled by learning their inner workings – maybe instead make your way to another in-depth feature.

For those who are ready to set off from Batuu and take on the might of the First Order, hold on tight. To uncover the Secrets of the Resistance, we’ll walk through the Rise experience from beginning to end, describe how its greatest tricks work, and explore the Imagineering “ingredients” – the prototypes and precedents – that add up to make this once-in-a-lifetime ride possible.

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May 19, 2022November 23, 2024

ONE & ONLY: Illustrating the Ride Layouts of Disney Imagineering’s One-of-a-Kind “Bucket List” Landmarks

In case this is your first visit to Park Lore, let me catch you up! For over a decade, I’ve been writing, assembling, and adding to an all-in-one-place collection of the stories behind the rides we love. From closed, classic Lost Legends to never-built Possibilitylands; the lessons learned from Declassified Disasters to the wonders that await inside Modern Marvels, this interconnected, in-depth collection is all about seeing the parks we love differently – all supported by Members instead of ads and clickbait!

Earlier this year, I launched a new initiative to “paint the picture” of theme park attractions… literally. So far, I’ve hand-illustrated about 100 ride layouts representing attractions across six countries! My first batch – THEN & NOW – explored how attraction designers re-use the same physical spaces to develop entirely unique experiences; then, the HERE & THERE collection saw how the same ride can be “translated” differently to new parks, new spaces, and even new cultures.

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April 12, 2022November 21, 2024

HERE & THERE: Illustrating and Comparing Disney Theme Parks’ Ride Layouts From Around the Globe

By now you might’ve noticed that Park Lore is all about seeing theme parks differently. In over a hundred in-depth stories, we’ve covered the tales of Lost Legends, Modern Marvels, Declassified Disasters, and never-built Possibilitylands from across the world and industry. In other words, I love an 8,000 word deep dive into the making of an Imagineering classic… but sometimes the best way to understand an attraction is to see how it all fits together.

Earlier this year, I published THEN & NOW – a collection of 50 hand-illustrated ride layouts to compare the before-and-after of Disney and Universal’s most legendary closed attractions and their modern-day replacements. You made my year by sharing those layouts, asking to use them in your own projects, and even becoming supporting Members at Park Lore for $2 a month or more to help sustain this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity theme park storytelling project.

Because of the support of Park Lore Members, I’m able to introduce my next batch of ride layouts that I hope can “paint the picture” of another subset of Disney Parks attractions – the ones shared between HERE & THERE. The sets of rides below reveal just how much rides can evolve as they travel around the world, adapting to new spaces, new parks, new budgets, and even new cultures.

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