Walt Disney World continues demolition in the former Muppets Courtyard, which will be reimagined into a Monstropolis area at Hollywood Studios. Along with this, construction site prep has begun backstage on the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster that had been rumored for decades. Here are updates on the work, along with aerial photos documenting the progress.
Not a ton is visible from within the park. Construction walls are now up along the edge of Grand Avenue on the Muppets Courtyard side, with the main thorough leading to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge still open. If you stand back by BaseLine Tap House and the other facades, you can still get a glimpse of MuppetVision 3D, PizzeRizzo, and so forth.
I did this just last week, and at the time, I could also see Stage 1 Company Store. This long-shuttered MuppetVision 3D gift shop was originally going to be walled-off before MuppetVision closed, but the plan was revised to begin demolition once the walls went up around the entirety of Muppets Courtyard. Prior to that building coming down, Disney had been removing elements from Muppets Courtyard.
As it turns out, demolition of Stage 1 Company Store finally began this week…and ended this week. Demolition was first spotted two days ago, and the building is gone as of August 1, 2025. The whole demo took 3 days from start to finish.
Rather than this “explaining” why MuppetVision 3D had to close so early (so demolition could begin!), it only rekindles this question for us, as we’ll discuss in the commentary. After all, if this whole demo was only going to take 3 days…couldn’t those 3 days have been a full year or more in the future?
If you’re wondering what else will be demolished, that’s probably about it. All of the other buildings in Muppets Courtyard are being repurposed. The exterior of what was Mama Melrose is changing considerably to become Harryhausen’s, but we’re not sure “demolished” is the right word to describe what’ll happen there.
To illustrate the work, let’s take a look at eye in the sky photos from friend-of-the-site bioreconstruct, the go-to source for aerial theme park photography (a highly recommended follow who graciously provided the helicopter shots here)…
Our Commentary
My main thought when looking at these aerial photos is…okay, what now?!
What is going to happen to the former Muppets Courtyard over the next few years? All of the remaining buildings here will be preserved. The MuppetVision theater, PizzeRizzo, and Mama Melrose are all very clearly in the Monstropolis concept art. These will be reimagined, but the venues will all still serve the same purposes, just Monsters, Inc. restaurants and a show.
The only structure that was going to be demolished was the Stage 1 Company Store, and that’s now down. So, what else here is possibly going to take ~3 years to accomplish?!
Prior to the closing date being announced, we had hoped that MuppetVision 3D would remain open until sometime in 2026, if not even later than that. Perhaps even sometime into early 2027.
It seemed possible that Walt Disney World would pull from a similar playbook as is being used with Dinoland USA, where Dino-Rama just closed to be replaced by the Encanto Madrigal Casita dark ride–a new build–but where DINOSAUR and everything else that’s just being reimagined or repurposed won’t close until early 2026.
Except in the case of Monstropolis, the new build is occurring on the parking lot, so it doesn’t need to disrupt anything inside the park for a while. There’s a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done backstage. The construction of the roller coaster and gravity building around that, along with the queue and facade for the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster, all of which will take much longer than preparing the MuppetVision theater for a new show and refreshing restaurants.
There are a few plausible explanations as to why Muppets Courtyard closed this summer, as opposed to mid-2026 or early 2027.
The first is that Walt Disney World management feels that Disney’s Hollywood Studios doesn’t need the capacity offered by the restaurants and MuppetVision over the course of the next couple of years and is opting for the longer closure to save operating expenses. Whereas DINOSAUR and the remnants of Dinoland are integral to the already light lineup at Animal Kingdom, DHS has plenty of stage show.
This wouldn’t surprise me in the least. It’s probably no coincidence that Villains Unfairly Ever After and The Little Mermaid ~ A Musical Adventure both debuted shortly before MuppetVision closed. As evidenced by ADR demand, or the lack thereof, DHS also has excess dining capacity. Walt Disney World could’ve concluded that Disney’s Hollywood Studios didn’t need this many shows and restaurants, or wanted to offset the new operating expenses. (Never mind that all three of the stage show venues were in use simultaneously until mid-March 2020.)
It’s common practice for Walt Disney World to find ways to save on operating expenses at times when capital expenditures are increasing. On top of that, it’s unlikely that there will be any organic growth this year at Walt Disney World, so the company will resort to cost-cutting to achieve whatever targets it might have. As much as I love Disney Starlight Night Parade, it’s not too difficult to look at that and see this same mentality.
It’s a bit of an aside, but it’s always baffling to me that Disney is willing to spend like a drunken sailor when it comes to CapEx, but goes into full Scrooge Mode when it comes to OpEx. Yes, budget cuts do occur to projects in development, but Walt Disney World is generally spending a lot of money on those, and going over budget is more common than coming in under budget.
Yet, they absolutely pinch pennies on operations, and are downright allergic to spending on live entertainment. Circling back to Starlight, the cost of a dozen or so equity performers is chump change relative to the parade’s overall development costs. I can only assume the bonuses of local leadership depend upon these savings, and those bonuses are too important to pass up.
The second possibility is that the Monstropolis project is more involved than previously thought. That it’s not a simple repurposing of the existing restaurant, retail, and attraction spaces. This could be the case, but we highly doubt it.
There’s nothing in the newest Monstropolis concept art to suggest any major layout changes to Muppet Courtyard/Grand Avenue. The concept art strongly suggests we’re getting one-for-one replacements of these restaurants and a new show in the MuppetVision theater. It does not seem like they are not being fundamentally transformed.
I fully expect the table service Mama Melrose to become the table service Harryhausen’s. It’s likely that PizzeRizzo is going to reimagined into a counter service restaurant with an identical footprint in a manner similar to the conversion of Pizza Planet into PizzeRizzo. The name PizzeRoz’s has been thrown out, and although that’s in jest, it’s probably not far off. This will probably be the third generation of Almost Pizza served in this space.
We already know that the MuppetVision Theater will be home to a new show. This is probably the most significant overhaul, but even so, it’s not going to be more involved than transforming Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure or building the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster from the ground up.
A final possibility is that Disney has opted to fast-track Monstropolis, or at least the front portion of it, and it has leapfrogged Tropical Americas. Or that both will debut in 2027, but with Monstropolis in the first half of the year and Tropical Americas in the second half.
Disney fast-tracking projects would defy recent trends, but it certainly is possible, especially if the company anticipates construction costs rising. So there might be motivation to frontload some of this work, as opposed to backloading everything. This coupled with the operational cost-savings of shuttering Grand Avenue venues during a timeframe they won’t be “needed” is one plausible explanation.
Nevertheless, the entirety of Monstropolis opening in 2026 is virtually impossible. The roller coaster is the anchor of this land, and its construction will be far and away the most time consuming component. And yet, the closure of Muppets Courtyard happened before ground broke on the Door Coaster. The new courtyard opening then is plausible, but I’m still not sure why Walt Disney World would do that.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios is poised to have a pretty big slate for 2026. The park has the Walt Disney Studios Lot in 2026, along with Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Starring Baby Yoda. Having the ‘minor’ half of Monstropolis also coming in 2026 seems unnecessary, if not actively counterproductive.
Walt Disney World has likely learned its lesson about doing phased openings after this area’s next door neighbor, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, fell flat upon its partial opening in mid-2019. My best guess is that Monstropolis is still coming after 2026, with the only question being whether it’s now a 2027 project or still 2028. I could see both Tropical Americas and this debuting in 2027, especially given how quickly work on Monstropolis has been moving.
No matter how you slice it, though, Muppets Courtyard probably did not need to close as early as it did. As we now know, demolition of the MuppetVision gift shop took a grand total of 3 days. That could’ve happened 3 days this week or 3 days a year or more from now. What’s going to happen in the interim? Progress on the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster will undoubtedly move fast, while the rest of the conversion crawls along.
To end on a positive note, demolishing Stage 1 and further opening the courtyard leading up to the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster looks good! I mean, not necessarily right now with a bunch of rubble from overhead, but this is probably a net positive. As much as I loved the quirks of this gift shop, its placement was not ideal.
Stage 1 made the whole area feel cramped, which was probably the point at one time to make it feel like an alley in New York, but foot traffic back here likely suffered as a result. Opening up this courtyard and having a longer approach to the Monsters, Inc. factory is probably a net positive.
Setting aside the whole MuppetVision closure component, Monstropolis as a whole should be a net positive for Disney’s Hollywood Studios. While this is not a ‘pure’ expansion, that roller coaster will be a huge capacity-adding new build that should be an asset to the park. Although DHS could really use a few lower-profile family-friendly rides (not shows), this should still be a big win. I just wish it weren’t at the expense of Muppets.
The Door Coaster building is bigger than expected, which might also explain why this spot was chosen over Animation Courtyard. There is a lot of space back there, but not the ability to add as much buffer. There was already a lot of fan backlash about the gigantic Cosmic Rewind gravity building being built in the EPCOT parking lot.
Imagine that instead plopped into the middle of the park, which would’ve been the case at Disney’s Hollywood Studios if Monstropolis were placed in Animation Courtyard. That could’ve messed up sightlines from Sunset Boulevard all the way to Toy Story Land. Speaking of which, let’s take a look at progress on the building for the Door Coaster…
The pavement has been torn up indicating the footprint of the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster gravity building, which is consistent with previous GIS mapping from the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.
There’s also what appears to be a new road going behind the gravity building, which should finally provide clarity about what will happen to Cypress Drive, the backstage road that circles the park and currently cuts behind the former Muppets Courtyard and the future Door Coaster. The road being re-routed was always the most plausible and cost-effective outcome, but this should come close to confirming that’s what’ll happen.
This also confirms that the gravity building for the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster is truly monstrous! For comparison, that’s Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance immediately above and to the left. The gravity building is a bit bigger than that–or any other show building at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s among the largest show buildings at Walt Disney World, almost on par with the big blue box for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT.
It’s also likely to be a tall and efficient show building, as it’s a suspended coaster with a lifting ride mechanism at the load and unload area of the attraction. This means that, at least in theory, there could be a lot of queue and pre-show that is literally under the roller coaster track. This is not the case with Cosmic Rewind, which is a combination retrofit in the old Universe of Energy building and a detached gravity building.
Between the massive size of the building and this potential efficiency, we’re now optimistic this will be a meatier attraction than first suspected. Hopefully this coaster will clock in at over 2 minutes longer–one of the (many) big advantages Cosmic Rewind has over TRON Lightcycle Run is a much more satisfying duration. It’d be nice if that’s also true of the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster. While I don’t love some of the decisions that have led to Monstropolis, my perspective is: what’s done is done. I’m looking forward to the new land and its marquee attraction, and really hope Imagineering knocks it out of the park. (Figuratively, since the coaster is already located outside the park!)
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Theories as to why work started in Muppets Courtyard this summer as opposed to mid-2026 or early 2027? Think it’s a simple cost-savings measure, a more elaborate project, or phased opening? What do you think of the massive Monsters, Inc Door Coaster building? Hopeful that this plus its efficient load mechanism means this coaster is longer than 90 seconds? Are you looking forward to Monstropolis? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!