Avatar Experience Replaces Monsters Inc. - Monsters Inc. Closing Early 2026 - Future Expansion Plans

[DodgerGirl]

I was discussing this topic with my father at breakfast and in Dad's words Dad thinks that Avatar doesn't fit in with DCA and he thinks that they should've done something better to replace the Monsters Inc. ride. Because how many people know about the Avatar movies? Probably few people who watched them. So what I think DCA is planning to do with the Avatar section is probably add a show ride and an area for meet and greets with Avatar characters. And it will probably as big as Star Wars Galaxy's Edge. I doubt that they will tear down the Hyperion Theater because they have lots of shows planned in the making and if they tear down Hyperion Theater where are the new shows gonna be at? Are they also planning to tear down the theater where Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It used to be too? Because that theater could've been used for character meet and greets too

 

[BrianL]

Edit: looks like Hyperion Theater is staying after all.

If they keep the theater, they better use it! They used to run such great shows in there.

 

[mdmost]

I didn't think the theater would go away. It doesn't make sense and is better kept for occasional use. They can easily have Avatar: the Musical before the new land opens. But as you know, musicals cost money for the talent alone. If you're going to spin California Adventure into the "adventure of movies and story making", you have to keep the Hyperion and old Hollywood portions on the main street. What also saves the Hyperion is it's in between two lands. It's not close enough to be a part of Avengers Campus and also not close enough to wrap into Avatar. There has to be a transition between old Hollywood and Avatar and that's the Hollywood Backlot area to the monorail which has plenty of room.

 

[BrianL]

I didn't think the theater would go away. It doesn't make sense and is better kept for occasional use. They can easily have Avatar: the Musical before the new land opens. But as you know, musicals cost money for the talent alone. If you're going to spin California Adventure into the "adventure of movies and story making", you have to keep the Hyperion and old Hollywood portions on the main street. What also saves the Hyperion is it's in between two lands. It's not close enough to be a part of Avengers Campus and also not close enough to wrap into Avatar. There has to be a transition between old Hollywood and Avatar and that's the Hollywood Backlot area to the monorail which has plenty of room.

I'd take an Avatar show in there - or a Marvel show. It seemed like Rogers: The Musical was pretty popular - just keep that. I just hate seeing that big theater sit unused all the time.

 

[LAS2AMS]

Scott Gustin and other connected Disney sources are saying Hyperion Theater is staying. OC Register and other connected sources are saying the theater has been emptied out/ gutted, which is a sign they plan to demolish it. So who knows.

As I mentioned in my previous posting, Disney hates demolishing existing structures. In fact, it’s being reported that they’re going to build the new Coco attraction without leveling hardly anything. But if they plan on building anything significant in Avatarland, the former Hollywood Backlot space + the tram loop isn’t that large… less than six acres. Demolishing Hyperion would be the only way to reasonably expand the parks’ boundaries (since they won’t need the multiple traffic lanes that exist adjacent to the facility today, as the busses are being moved elsewhere).

 

[BrianL]

Scott Gustin and other connected Disney sources are saying Hyperion Theater is staying. OC Register and other connected sources are saying the theater has been emptied out/ gutted, which is a sign they plan to demolish it. So who knows.

As I mentioned in my previous posting, Disney hates demolishing existing structures. In fact, it’s being reported that they’re going to build the new Coco attraction without leveling hardly anything. But if they plan on building anything significant in Avatarland, the former Hollywood Backlot space + the tram loop isn’t that large… less than six acres. Demolishing Hyperion would be the only way to reasonably expand the parks’ boundaries (since they won’t need the multiple traffic lanes that exist adjacent to the facility today, as the busses are being moved elsewhere).

Maybe they plan to repurpose the theater as part of the ride or queue. For Guardians at Epcot, they kept the entire World of Energy pavillion just for the queue/loading and added the coaster in a seperate, newly built building.

 

[brightlined]

The DLR Avatar attraction will be more like the Shanghai version of Pirates:

The reason I was hedging on that - they keep using the word "experience" - and the original use of that word carried the implication that it wasn't going to be a full-fledged thing. Probably a little bit of wariness on my part, too, that they kept re-announcing what the E-ticket Avengers Campus ride would be - I keep waiting for them to dial it down somehow. Hopefully, they'll go all-in on it.

Good points. But even if Disney hadn’t scaled back SWGE, I don’t think it’d be much more successful. IMP, Disney overestimated the appeal of a large, Star Wars dedicated land among a traditional Disney fan base… and Star Wars (but not Disney) fans aren’t going to pay a couple hundred bucks to get into the parks to see it.

Personally, I’ve never watched any of the Star Wars movies (people call me a liar when I tell them this) but know the basic plot for some of the films since they’re so embedded in pop culture. But even I’m stunned at how little foot traffic SWGE gets, especially in the evenings. Probably doesn’t help that ROTR closes early. A Frozen-themed land would’ve been oodles more successful.

The biggest mistake Disney made was that they thought they could re-invent Star Wars - ignore basically all of the existing lore and story - and went all-in on that decision. By the time they realized the mistake, they were well into construction. (ROTR is a masterpiece, but it's a masterpiece based on films that people don't care about.) It was essentially a Frozen land that didn't have Anna and Elsa in it at all.

I always applauded the big swing of creating a land where people could "live" Star Wars, but there's just nothing to do, especially with how large it is. Ride the two rides, do a little shopping, grab some food - you're basically done. The cantina is too small and too loud, Savi's is too expensive for most people - there needed to be meet and greets and something in the range of what carnival games would provide.

The foot traffic issue is a lot of a Rivers of America problem, too - there's no reason to go to the ROTR side unless you're riding ROTR. It's kind of like ToonTown - once you've done it, there's no reason to go back.

I still wish Disney would recognize the two sides of Star Wars. There's the serious side (read: GE), but there's also the fan side - the fun stuff, the humor, the bevy of artwork, etc. For example, I loved Donald Duck as Darth Maul. I keep wondering if they might have contractually ceded that side to Celebration - but the Star Wars Weekends they did at DHS in the early 10s were so much fun - and there was so much stuff. The food was great, the merch was great, the art was great - the Stormtrooper comedy show was great. (It was fun watching people meet Goofy dressed as Darth Vader.)

EDIT:

 

[disneychrista]

So if Disney is willing to demolish most of Hollywood Land for Avatar,

My understanding is that Hollywoodland is not going away in it's entirety, only the back lot portion is. The animation building, Philarmagic, the Hyperion Theater are not go away (yet).

 

[Kit Jackson]

I was discussing this topic with my father at breakfast and in Dad's words Dad thinks that Avatar doesn't fit in with DCA and he thinks that they should've done something better to replace the Monsters Inc. ride. Because how many people know about the Avatar movies? Probably few people who watched them.

The Avatar movies made absolute tons of money, so more than a few people watched them. However, they were instantly forgotten. As others have mentioned, the movies did not have a significant long term impact on popular culture. If you stopped a random person on the street and asked them to name 1-5 characters from the Avatar movies, I'm not sure how many people could do it. If you stopped a random person on the street and asked them to name 1-5 characters from Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord the Rings, or other sci-fi/fantasy franchise, you would probably have better luck.

 

[Blue32]

I think one argument that is made about the Avatar franchise... even though this is not a Disney IP, as long as Imagineering is given the budget and creative reigns to create something special, people will want to visit. The Avatar area in AK is incredibly popular. If they are able to create something similar in CA, I think people will love it.

I do wish this area was being built in the future expansion pad for the parks though and not Hollywood backlot. I am not sure how they are going to pull off the transition there. But they did it with SWGE in DL even though I was skeptical there as well.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I think one argument that is made about the Avatar franchise... even though this is not a Disney IP, as long as Imagineering is given the budget and creative reigns to create something special, people will want to visit. The Avatar area in AK is incredibly popular. If they are able to create something similar in CA, I think people will love it.

What's crazy is that Pandora in AK was actually budget cut from its initial scope and it still looks amazing. The only downfall is that Navi's ride length was cut in half which does kind of ruin the experience but only for that ride and not the land as a whole.

 

[BrianL]

What's crazy is that Pandora in AK was actually budget cut from its initial scope and it still looks amazing. The only downfall is that Navi's ride length was cut in half which does kind of ruin the experience but only for that ride and not the land as a whole.

I wouldn't even mind the length of NRJ if there were a little more in it. They need some animatronics of the animals and such. A little plus-up and it'd be a fine ride.

Does Disney ever build anything that isn't budget-cut mid way through?

 

[Smugpugmug]

Does Disney ever build anything that isn't budget-cut mid way through?

Truest statement in this entire thread ^

 

[Tinkaboo]

The Avatar movies made absolute tons of money, so more than a few people watched them. However, they were instantly forgotten. As others have mentioned, the movies did not have a significant long term impact on popular culture. If you stopped a random person on the street and asked them to name 1-5 characters from the Avatar movies, I'm not sure how many people could do it. If you stopped a random person on the street and asked them to name 1-5 characters from Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord the Rings, or other sci-fi/fantasy franchise, you would probably have better luck.

ABSOLUTELY TRUE!

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Avatar, as Star Wars and Indiana Jones do for DL, provides DCA something different for that one person in the family/travel group who isn't that into Disney and Pixar characters.

 

[brightlined]

What's crazy is that Pandora in AK was actually budget cut from its initial scope and it still looks amazing. The only downfall is that Navi's ride length was cut in half which does kind of ruin the experience but only for that ride and not the land as a whole.

Is there a source for that story? James Cameron is on record saying that he expected budget cuts, and was shocked that there weren't any. I've heard Joe Rodhe talking about the development of NRJ, and suggested that there was always a limited budget for it. (Jenny Nicholson suggested budget cuts as the reasons for its flaws, but I think she's the only person I've heard say that.)

Truthfully, I don't think the ride would be any better if it were longer. The big flaw with NRJ is that it doesn't have a storyline. It's like they expected the Shaman to be amazing enough on its own (and the preview presentation at Destination D in 2016 strongly suggested that they believed that) - that it didn't need a storyline like other rides of its type have. (I kinda wondered if Rodhe wanted it to be more meditative.)

 

[LAS2AMS]

The World of Avatar is one of the few projects ever completed by Disney that did not suffer budget cuts. The initial concept art matches the buildout; they had plenty of room to double or even triple the show building for NRJ but choose not to.

I’ve heard many rumors regarding budget cuts, I suspect this is just an assumption because, well, that’s what Disney normally does. Allegedly, James Cameron was skeptical of giving Disney rights because of their history… so this may have a lot to do with it. Also, initial rumors were that NRJ would be basically wants expected to be built out at DCA but that changed - maybe because of budget cuts (tech wasn’t fully developed) or maybe they just wanted a family friendly ride.

 

[neverlandsky]

Sad about Monsters closing. It's a cute ride that has a bit of original feeling of the DL fantasy storybook rides. Hoping for a future revamp. Doubt it since it's not in the popular wheelhouse. Excited for Coco. I just hope with Avatar they do it right. Avatar w/rides @ AK are showing their age and needs refurbishment.

 

[LAS2AMS]

Sad about Monsters closing. It's a cute ride that has a bit of original feeling of the DL fantasy storybook rides. Hoping for a future revamp. Doubt it since it's not in the popular wheelhouse. Excited for Coco. I just hope with Avatar they do it right. Avatar w/rides @ AK are showing their age and needs refurbishment.

They just turned 8yo . They’re among the newest attractions at WDW.

Unfortunately, while Disney could bring back an attraction like MuppetVisoon 3D for a limited run (minus the “live” characters), Monsters is done. It would cost as much to relocate that type of ride, than to build one with a new storyline. As I mentioned earlier, the Imagineers are very passionate about their work and as Monsters is mostly just a re-dressed SuperStar Limo, I doubt it was a favorite.

Disney has said they will improve sight lines at DCA. Status quo, you can easily see many of the high rise hotels and convention center (across Katella) from the park. I’m not sure how the Monsters Door Coaster is going to look/ work at DHS, but maybe they could duplicate it at Pixar Pier and dress up the show building to hide the Hilton?

 

[neverlandsky]

They just turned 8yo . They’re among the newest attractions at WDW.

Unfortunately, while Disney could bring back an attraction like MuppetVisoon 3D for a limited run (minus the “live” characters), Monsters is done. It would cost as much to relocate that type of ride, than to build one with a new storyline. As I mentioned earlier, the Imagineers are very passionate about their work and as Monsters is mostly just a re-dressed SuperStar Limo, I doubt it was a favorite.

Disney has said they will improve sight lines at DCA. Status quo, you can easily see many of the high rise hotels and convention center (across Katella) from the park. I’m not sure how the Monsters Door Coaster is going to look/ work at DHS, but maybe they could duplicate it at Pixar Pier and dress up the show building to hide the Hilton?

https://www.reddit.com/r/WaltDisneyWorld/comments/1l8v7rj/updated_monsters_inc_concept_art

Saw this earlier today with Monsters/DHS.