Over the course of more than 60 years, Universal Studios Hollywood has taken guests deep into the heart of the movie-making experience. The journey has been both innovative and bold, requiring creative teams to constantly adapt and reinvent how they bring that magic to life. From Jay Stein’s creative and financial leadership, to Ron Bension’s fast-track expansion in Hollywood, to Tom Williams’ role in bringing The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to parks around the globe, and now Mark Woodbury’s present-day vision – Universal has pushed itself to the forefront of technological innovation in themed entertainment, a space once dominated by the “mouse.”
As fans know, Universal Studios Hollywood is the park that started it all for what is now known as Universal Destinations and Experiences. Continuing to set the standard in 2026, the park is preparing to debut a brand-new, innovative outdoor coaster: Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift.
Over the last five decades, the studio-turned-theme park has introduced a series of major attractions and events that align with a unique pattern – milestone additions arriving every ten years. Beginning in 1976 and continuing each decade since, these experiences have not only driven significant attendance spikes but have also stood the test of time, creating generations of fans.
After the unprecedented success of the original summer blockbuster Jaws in 1975, Jay Stein directed Terry Winnick to create a Jaws experience for guests visiting the studio. And in the early days, Universal’s creative team was not afforded the luxury of years to develop an attraction. Terry was given just nine months to design, build, and open a new tour animation so that in the summer of 1976, the Tour could debut its new addition. And most remarkable is that Terry designed the Jaws attraction while in the hospital recovering from surgery. Universal was able to transform the former area known as Singapore Lake into Amity Island.
The original version of the attraction featured Bruce the shark coming up behind an unsuspecting fisherman in his boat, fishing in the middle of the lake. A fin suddenly appeared and swam towards the fisherman, dragging his boat underwater. As the tram moved forward along the dock, the shark took the “bait” that was attached to a barrel in the lake, which caused the dock to tilt, and the shark would rise alongside the tram, scaring guests.
Over the span of fifty years, there have been a few revisions to Jaws. In 2001, the attraction received its most dramatic change when “George” the fisherman was removed for a police diver, the fire effect that was installed for the original version was greatly enhanced, and the name of the attraction was upgraded to “Jaws on Fire”. The name did not last very long and was changed back to just “Jaws”. According to thestudiotour.com, the tilting effect was removed back in 2010.
One of the many advantages Universal has is the availability of millions of actual movie props they can add to their attractions. With Jaws, which included one of the most famous props (outside of the shark) in the Orca. Sadly, the Orca was removed in the mid 90s. However, fans of Jaws 2 can still spot the smaller boat “Tina’s Joy” to the right just before you enter the Amity area.
Between 1976 and 1986, Universal began the shift from solely focusing on the Studio Tour to creating more diversity in its offerings by expanding its show output, with the exception being 1983s Battle of Galactica.
The $6.5 million attraction on the Studio Tour made it one of the most expensive additions up to that time. The Kong animated figure weighed nearly 7 tons and stood three stories high. According to a press release in 1990, Universal claimed the attraction operated “every three minutes and during peak periods over 200 times per day.” The Super Tram during that time seated 175 guests. Which meant on peak days, 35,000 guests could experience this attraction.
The King Kong Encounter made such an incredible impact on guests that it became the inspiration for an even grander addition to the attractions at Universal Studios Florida. The upgrade was known as Kongfrontation. Sadly, in 2008, a fire swept through the Metropolitan Sets at Universal Studios Hollywood, destroying most of the area, including the King Kong Encounter. A new version of Kong in King Kong 360-3D would open in 2010.
Jurassic Park River Adventure opened on June 21, 1996, and that summer saw Universal Studios Hollywood record it’s highest attendance, including the largest single day record of 42,871 on July 5th. It’s a record that remained for 20 years (more on that in a moment). Jurassic Park River Adventure was one of the few rides that was approved during the production of the film.
Due to the incredible success of the Hollywood ride, three more versions have been built across the Universal parks. Jurassic Park River Adventure was part of the grand opening line-up of both Islands of Adventure (1999) and Universal Studios Japan (2001). A modified version of Jurassic Park Rapid Adventure opened at Universal Studios Singapore in 2010.
While Hollywood did introduce the now-defunct Fast & Furious Extreme Close-Up to the Studio Tour in 2006, it was the fall addition to the theme park that created an entirely new fan base with the reintroduction of Halloween Horror Nights. The very first version of “Halloween Horror Nights” debuted in 1986. However, after one year, the Halloween event was cancelled and brought back in 1992. Still, the event could not find its footing and was cancelled again. The event came back in 1997 and ran until 2000. It wasn’t until 2006 that Universal gave HHN another go, and this time with two individuals in John Murdy and Chris Williams at the helm.
The 2006 event featured two mazes (now called “Houses”) and the infamous Terror Tram, along with several shows. That year’s event took place over the course of seven nights and became a huge success. The event has now become one of the park’s most important events during the year.
Over the last 20 years, guests have been getting scared by the best scare actors in the business, and according to John Murdy, he’s always looking at new ways to scare his guests. “Since a lot of guests come to HHN year after year, they’ve learned the way the park is laid out and what to expect. So, in some ways they’re harder to scare. They know where a scarezone typically is and where they can “lower their guard.” So last year, we changed things up in a major way with our roaming Art the Clown program. We intentionally targeted areas where our guests have been “trained” to not expect a scare, like inside the Universal Studio store. That brought a whole new energy to the event.”
Whether it be Universal Creative or the creative teams with Horror Nights and Fan Fest Nights, they thrive on the responsibility and pressure in making sure the vision of the filmmakers and the passion of the fans stay true to the material as Murdy says, “Yes, the first thing is to totally immerse ourselves in the property or subject we’re dealing with…to become experts on it. That really speaks to the amount of research we put into every house we take on. We pay attention to all the details, no matter how small, that makes that property or subject unique and then try to bring that to life. If its a film, we don’t merely watch the film. We research the filmmaker or, if possible, try and speak with them. We want to know their motivations so we can be as authentic to their vision as possible.”
With Southern California being the horror capital of the world when it comes to themed entertainment, Universal’s competition goes beyond just the traditional players; immersive haunts have grown and become major players in the market, so it has become imperative that Murdy and his team deliver year in and year out.
“When we set out to bring HHN back to Hollywood over 20 years ago, we had a vision for what the event should be, and that hasn’t really changed over time. We set out to create “Living Horror Movies,” to make fans of these properties feel like they were “living” their favorite horror film. Like they got up out of their seat in the movie theatre and stepped through the screen. The event has obviously evolved since the early days with the inclusion of TV shows, video games, music artists, etc but the approach hasn’t changed. We really focus on producing a “movie quality” event. That extends to everything we create, from the sets to the make-up to the audio design, etc. I think that quality is what put us on the map and continues to set us apart from the competition,” says Murdy.
With the overwhelming success of Halloween Horror Nights, now almost 20 years later, Universal debuted a brand-new after-hours event called Fan Fest Nights. The new event debuted to critical acclaim, offering guests the opportunity to be part of their favorite fandoms and participate in some of the most iconic moments in cinematic, television, and gaming history.
Starting with the premise of what Horror Nights does so well by putting the guests in classic horror moments, Fan Fest Nights takes it a step further and encourages fans to play a crucial role in each experience, according to Senior Director, Entertainment Production, Universal Studios Hollywood, Stephen Siercks. “It came from seeing how much fans love going deep into these worlds.. Not just watching them, but living them. We want guests to leave feeling like they didn’t just attend an event, they were part of the story with other fans who love it just as much. This is the foundation that created Fan Fest Nights and is going strong as we build upon it this year – That Fan First and Authentic approach runs through every moment, and is at the core of our storytelling.”
Back to the Future: Destination Hill Valley stole the show in its opening year. For the first time in the theme park’s history, guests were able to set foot on the original filming location, which created viral moments where fans were able to live out their fantasy of playing a role in the iconic film. For guests, it was exciting and thrilling, but creating such an ambitious experience brought its own challenges for Stephen and his team: “Respecting what fans already love while still surprising them. You have to be authentic to these iconic franchises, but also brave enough to reimagine them for a live, physical space. I’m so proud of how our teams developed brand new styles of experiences to do just that- From our ‘pulsed, story based’ attractions to elevating character meet and greets to a whole new level. And we’re just getting started.” According to Siercks
As anyone who spends months and sometimes years developing these experiences, the real payoff for the creative teams is seeing the fruits of their labor, “Seeing fans light up when they realized how far we went, whether pointing out details, bringing friends back through, and experiencing it all together with other fandom communities. That shared experience is the whole point, and we can’t wait to invite guests back again this year.” Says Siercks
The grand opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in April 2016 was the culmination of a multi-year “Epic Transformation” of the Hollywood park. The large crowds descended upon the park during the holiday season of that same year. The week between Christmas and New Year’s brought record crowds to the park and a one-day attendance record with over 48,000 guests.
This was the largest addition in park history at that time, and from that point on, Hollywood never looked back, and attendance has been steadily on the rise.
As of this writing, the new attraction has yet to open (and no date has been announced), but the excitement surrounding the new coaster has been the talk of the town. Hollywood’s Universal Creative team designed a coaster offering guests stunning views of the San Fernando Valley.
The new coaster launches from atop the Upper Lot of Universal, the highest point of the theme park, and from there, guests are launched on a journey to the Lower Lot before skyrocketing back to the Upper Lot at 72 mph (a record for Universal Destinations and Experiences), but not before flying over the iconic StarWay. It’s a ride like no other coaster experience. For many a coaster in that location was thought to be impossible, but making the ‘Impossible’ possible is what Universal Creative does best.
Over the past sixty years, Universal has been investing in new adventures and upgrades, and ’10-year anniversaries’ seem to prove that out. From Jaws to Hollywood Drift, the dynamic of Universal Studios Hollywood continues to explore new frontiers in theme park adventures that have proved to be a BIG win for fans. Here’s to the next group of 10-year anniversaries!
