DHS Monster Inc Land Coming to Disney's Hollywood Studios

[Casper Gutman]

I think a lot of the contention over the Muppets replacement springs from the fact that it's the secondary attraction in a "new" land but is also a replacement for a beloved attraction. Even many posters who expect everything that has been announced to be built in some form acknowledge that the final product will likely be "value engineered" and will see significant cuts. I don't think anyone would be particularly surprised, for instance, if the second Cars attraction in MK got the chop. On THOSE terms, the Monsters show seems like the sort of thing that's disappeared into the vapor so many times before. The fact that the theater will remain standing and not be replaced by the headliner, however, makes it seem like something meaningful HAS to go into that space. Of course, a cynic would say that if Disney was planning to close Muppets and leave the theater vacant as part of the Monsters overlay, they would absolutely have to pay lip service to a direct replacement even if they had no firm plans to build one simply as a matter of PR. Put it this way - do Disney execs think that they get a significantly greater attendance and merchandise boost from the door coaster and a new show then they get from the coaster alone?

Ultimately, something will likely go in the Muppets space. It might be a high-tech new extravaganza, it might be a quick-and-cheap costumed character show... and it might be a meet-and-greet. The last option just seems to make a huge amount of sense from the perspective of a Disney exec and would fit neatly into a well-established pattern.

 

[Agent H]

I think a lot of the contention over the Muppets replacement springs from the fact that it's the secondary attraction in a "new" land but is also a replacement for a beloved attraction. Even many posters who expect everything that has been announced to be built in some form acknowledge that the final product will likely be "value engineered" and will see significant cuts. I don't think anyone would be particularly surprised, for instance, if the second Cars attraction in MK got the chop. On THOSE terms, the Monsters show seems like the sort of thing that's disappeared into the vapor so many times before. The fact that the theater will remain standing and not be replaced by the headliner, however, makes it seem like something meaningful HAS to go into that space. Of course, a cynic would say that if Disney was planning to close Muppets and leave the theater vacant as part of the Monsters overlay, they would absolutely have to pay lip service to a direct replacement even if they had no firm plans to build one simply as a matter of PR. Put it this way - do Disney execs think that they get a significantly greater attendance and merchandise boost from the door coaster and a new show then they get from the coaster alone?

Ultimately, something will likely go in the Muppets space. It might be a high-tech new extravaganza, it might be a quick-and-cheap costumed character show... and it might be a meet-and-greet. The last option just seems to make a huge amount of sense from the perspective of a Disney exec and would fit neatly into a well-established pattern.

Best case scenario I think we get put that thing back where it came from or so help me the musical worst case scenario laugh floor moves from magic kingdom we do both agree that they won’t leave the theater empty here’s a question where do we think the meet and greets go?

 

[Jedi14]

Ultimately, something will likely go in the Muppets space. It might be a high-tech new extravaganza, it might be a quick-and-cheap costumed character show... and it might be a meet-and-greet. The last option just seems to make a huge amount of sense from the perspective of a Disney exec and would fit neatly into a well-established pattern.

They reiterated in the most recent blog post that there is a new theater show for the land.

 

[mattpeto]

Here’s your reality check. The world’s busiest theme park has abandoned retail, dining and attraction space.

Thread 'Magic Kingdom Had a Lot More Stuff!'

Jan 22, 2025

To easily highlight all the stores, restaurants, attractions and shows The Magic Kingdom used to have, I thought it would be easiest to go through old guidebooks (when they were books, not just fold out maps) land by land, to illustrate how minimized the park experience in comparison is today. And that's ignoring the changes in prices and booking policies...

Starting with Main Street:

You'll notice right away that Main Street had more attractions. The Walt Disney Story was a precursor to One Man's Dream...

• Animaniac93-98
• Replies: 89
• Forum: WDW Parks General Discussion

• 
• 

I still think you’re ignoring the obvious thing..

Could it be simply closing because it’s going to be a construction site work and it’s not safe? That seems more obvious to me honestly.

You can point to stores long gone from Main Street. I’m not really following why it’s relevant. Did they replace the area with something?

 

[FerretAfros]

They reiterated in the most recent blog post that there is a new theater show for the land.

That same blog post also dropped the “Mama” from the name of “Mama Melrose,” all while bending over backwards to use the verbose full name: “Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano.” They are so focused on the details that they frequently miss the bigger picture. They’re also in no position to question the validity of the long-term news they’re being told to publish.

I don’t doubt that, officially, they still intend to put something in that space. I do, however, doubt that they have a detailed plan for the space and that they’re ready to start construction on the replacement yet. We still haven’t gotten any indication whether this new show will be a film or live productions, which doesn’t inspire confidence that Disney knows either; these are major decisions that must be known prior to starting meaningful construction, not cursory details that can be changed mid-course. As a very relevant example, DCA tried using its Muppet theater for their Frozen sing-along, and it didn’t work well because the venue wasn’t well suited for the production (their version also suffered from a weaker, more serious script than the original WDW version).

The Parks Blog is tasked with promoting the company line and nothing else. They aren’t beholden to the SEC, and they don’t have to be 100% honest about the reality they’re presenting. While they can be a great resource for information about new merchandise or seasonal food and beverage offerings, their coverage of big construction announcements and changes that will meaningfully impact park operations for day guests is lackluster-at-best. Despite originally being created to counter fan sites and online rumor mills (like the one we’re on now), it quickly devolved into the always-perky easily-digested seasonal updates that are easily shared on social media for people visiting in a couple weeks, rather than meaty announcements of distant projects that could potentially cause people to delay their visits until construction finishes.

The Parks Blog can be useful for official opening and closing dates, confirmation that the official plan is still on track (until it quietly isn’t), and updates on the latest spirit jerseys. Anything else, like reductions of operating hours, the rationale for why changes were made, or things that were quietly canceled and never spoken of again, you’ll have to uncover on your own.

 

[ToTBellHop]

This company loves phased openings to spread out costs. It’s possible they now intend to open the front of the land before the back and viewed the opening of Mermaid and Villains as a good time to take everything offline with the new show and QSR opening in 2026 when they have little to market. There’s no reason they can’t finish and open the front of a new land first.

I’ll miss Muppets but 3D shows should never last 30 years, anyway. I’m glad they are finally giving these theaters attention. Now we need something worthwhile in Imagination or, at a minimum, different shorts.

 

[JD80]

Here’s your reality check. The world’s busiest theme park has abandoned retail, dining and attraction space.

Thread 'Magic Kingdom Had a Lot More Stuff!'

Jan 22, 2025

To easily highlight all the stores, restaurants, attractions and shows The Magic Kingdom used to have, I thought it would be easiest to go through old guidebooks (when they were books, not just fold out maps) land by land, to illustrate how minimized the park experience in comparison is today. And that's ignoring the changes in prices and booking policies...

Starting with Main Street:

You'll notice right away that Main Street had more attractions. The Walt Disney Story was a precursor to One Man's Dream...

• Animaniac93-98
• Replies: 89
• Forum: WDW Parks General Discussion

• 
• 

Sure, but your link doesn't correlate to this situation. If we were talking for pages on how disney is cheap because they are closing another coffee stand early you might have a point.

 

[JD80]

Ehh, I don't want to buy into the cynicism, but it honestly makes sense, the Villains show and Mermaid are both coming online at the same time. It's not a stretch to say that they are shuttering it early for no reason other than to save money. With that being said, we may start to see site work occur earlier than we originally thought.

I assume they are closing it down as other venues open up to maintain some current levels of capacity. This probably allows them to start working (albeit maybe slowly) on the whole area with worrying about guests in the area. It might be easier from a project deployment point of view just to close the whole area.

 

[GoofGoof]

That same blog post also dropped the “Mama” from the name of “Mama Melrose,” all while bending over backwards to use the verbose full name: “Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano.” They are so focused on the details that they frequently miss the bigger picture. They’re also in no position to question the validity of the long-term news they’re being told to publish.

I don’t doubt that, officially, they still intend to put something in that space. I do, however, doubt that they have a detailed plan for the space and that they’re ready to start construction on the replacement yet. We still haven’t gotten any indication whether this new show will be a film or live productions, which doesn’t inspire confidence that Disney knows either; these are major decisions that must be known prior to starting meaningful construction, not cursory details that can be changed mid-course. As a very relevant example, DCA tried using its Muppet theater for their Frozen sing-along, and it didn’t work well because the venue wasn’t well suited for the production (their version also suffered from a weaker, more serious script than the original WDW version).

The Parks Blog is tasked with promoting the company line and nothing else. They aren’t beholden to the SEC, and they don’t have to be 100% honest about the reality they’re presenting. While they can be a great resource for information about new merchandise or seasonal food and beverage offerings, their coverage of big construction announcements and changes that will meaningfully impact park operations for day guests is lackluster-at-best. Despite originally being created to counter fan sites and online rumor mills (like the one we’re on now), it quickly devolved into the always-perky easily-digested seasonal updates that are easily shared on social media for people visiting in a couple weeks, rather than meaty announcements of distant projects that could potentially cause people to delay their visits until construction finishes.

The Parks Blog can be useful for official opening and closing dates, confirmation that the official plan is still on track (until it quietly isn’t), and updates on the latest spirit jerseys. Anything else, like reductions of operating hours, the rationale for why changes were made, or things that were quietly canceled and never spoken of again, you’ll have to uncover on your own.

Yes, so to sum up, officially Disney is still planning to put a new theater show in the MV3D theater. The parks blog is giving us the official company line. It’s fair game for anyone to speculate that this will later get cancelled or scaled back, but there is no indication that today the plan is to leave the theater building vacant indefinitely as some here have implied. That could still happen but it’s speculation at this point. We will find out in the next 3 years

It’s also a fact that we know absolutely nothing about the Monsters show they are planning. As you say they could have no plan at all yet. They could also have a basic idea of what they plan to do or even a more fleshed put plan that just hasn’t leaked out yet. I tend to think it’s probably closer to the basic idea than a fleshed out plan. Insiders usually get the dirt so a detailed plan would have leaked by now. What we do know is there will be nothing done to the theater before June when MV3D closes. If the new theater show is another 3D movie they could start working on that sooner but we have no indication that has started.

 

[Gusey]

For all we know, they could be working on the theater facade once Muppet Vision 3D closes, then the interior later?

 

[Jrb1979]

Any of these things could be a possibility, I will believe it when I see it. I'm sure these new lands will get built but I'm very sceptical that everything they planned is being built.

Call it doom schlock @Chi84 all you want but their track record speaks for itself. For Monsters Inc I have a feeling all that's coming is the door coaster and a meet and greet. Very similar to Galaxies Edge, they blow the budget on the main attraction and end up cutting a lot of the filler stuff.

 

[mattpeto]

Any of these things could be a possibility, I will believe it when I see it. I'm sure these new lands will get built but I'm very sceptical that everything they planned is being built.

Call it doom schlock @Chi84 all you want but their track record speaks for itself. For Monsters Inc I have a feeling all that's coming is the door coaster and a meet and greet. Very similar to Galaxies Edge, they blow the budget on the main attraction and end up cutting a lot of the filler stuff.

I’m pretty confident the theater is coming and would be willing to wager it on a donation for charity. I’m really exhausted by people using the Main Street Theater and the COVID cuts as excuses that Disney don’t do what they will say.

I can’t speak of scaling down from the original art, I agree in some scenarios that will occur but honestly that’s pretty common with all projects.

 

[Jrb1979]

I’m pretty confident the theater is coming and would be willing to wager it on a donation for charity. I’m really exhausted by people using the Main Street Theater and the COVID cuts as excuses that Disney don’t do what they will say.

I can’t speak of scaling down from the original art, I agree in some scenarios that will occur but honestly that’s pretty common with all projects.

It's happened more than the Main Street Theatre and COVID. Galaxy's Edge had a lot cut from it, new Fantasyland as well.

 

[The Leader of the Club]

I think we need to at least wait until Destination D23 before we start glooming on the theater show. If we don’t get some news by then, I’ll start to get a little nervous.

Keep in mind that a new 3D show is supposed to open in DAK this year and the show its replacing hasn’t even announced a closing date yet.

Assuming the Muppets replacement is a similar scale 3D show, I wouldn’t be shocked to see it open in 2026. Disney currently doesn’t have anything slated to open next year, so even a small addition would be welcomed.

 

[GoofGoof]

Any of these things could be a possibility, I will believe it when I see it. I'm sure these new lands will get built but I'm very sceptical that everything they planned is being built.

Call it doom schlock @Chi84 all you want but their track record speaks for itself. For Monsters Inc I have a feeling all that's coming is the door coaster and a meet and greet. Very similar to Galaxies Edge, they blow the budget on the main attraction and end up cutting a lot of the filler stuff.

Galaxy’s Edge has 2 rides last time I checked, this land is just one new ride plus a repurposed theater that already exists. If they wanted to cut costs they’d cut the Door Coaster since that’s the most expensive part. Replace a show and 2 restaurants themed to Muppets with a show and 2 restaurants themed to Monsters. The theater show itself seems like it would one of the cheaper aspects for the land to complete since they already have the physical building and operationally a 3D movie is relatively cheap to operate compared to a more complicated ride. I’m pretty sure just about every project Disney has ever done has had things change from the first plans to the finished product. It’s not good or bad, just the way it is.

Right now there’s been no official word that a meet and greet area is even planned for Monsters. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t do one, but it still hasn’t been confirmed as part of the plan.

 

[GoofGoof]

I think we need to at least wait until Destination D23 before we start glooming on the theater show. If we don’t get some news by then, I’ll start to get a little nervous.

Keep in mind that a new 3D show is supposed to open in DAK this year and the show its replacing hasn’t even announced a closing date yet.

Assuming the Muppets replacement is a similar scale 3D show, I wouldn’t be shocked to see it open in 2026. Disney currently doesn’t have anything slated to open next year, so even a small addition would be welcomed.

Last I checked the Zootopia show in Tree of Life was slated to open in 2025 (I believe they said Winter 2025 which would at this point have to mean Nov/Dec not Jan/Feb and that lines up with the new movie too). All we have is a name and a poster. Zero concept art of the actual show, zero details on what the plot will be or what to expect except it’s an 4D movie expected to open in less than a year.

If you transpose that timeline to the Monsters show even if it somehow is planned to open some time in 2026 earlier than the rest of the land we should not expect much in terms of details even when it’s less than a year until opening. The only difference is Zootopia has been confirmed to be a 4D movie while Monsters is being called a theater show. Neither has any real details.

 

[PizzaPlanet]

I’d be surprised if they did a phased opening after what happened with Galaxy’s Edge. The missing headliner left people confused and underwhelmed

 

[MisterPenguin]

It's happened more than the Main Street Theatre and COVID. Galaxy's Edge had a lot cut from it, new Fantasyland as well.

SWL did indeed have a restaurant and some streetmosphere cut from it. If you're thinking of the mammoth ride, that was operationally dead in the water considering what would have been its abysmal capacity (let's create a giant ride vehicle that moves really slow!!).

The Main Street Theater was cut because of structural issues where it was supposed to go. It wasn't cut for budgetary reasons... as far as any insider has told us.

 

[mattpeto]

It's happened more than the Main Street Theatre and COVID. Galaxy's Edge had a lot cut from it, new Fantasyland as well.

I still think it’s an exaggerations that they cut projects completely is my point. New FL did happen. GE did get built. Some things will definitely get cut within the project.

 

[Agent H]

It's happened more than the Main Street Theatre and COVID. Galaxy's Edge had a lot cut from it, new Fantasyland as well.

What did new fantasyland have cut from it? Seems to me like there was a lot of swaps but no cuts as far as I know