Universal Studios Hollywood
On a hillside in the San Fernando Valley, Universal Studios Hollywood does something few places manage: it functions as both a working film studio and a theme park simultaneously. The tram that carries you through the back lot isn't a replica — it rolls past active soundstages, real props, and the kind of unglamorous infrastructure that actually makes movies.
With 8.7 million visitors in 2024, this is not a quiet place. But the Studio Tour, a 60-minute ride through the back lot, separates it from every other park in the world. Nowhere else do you cross the same asphalt where productions are still shooting.
💛 What travellers fall for
Regulars book the VIP Experience for the guided back-lot access and the complimentary valet — worth it if you're skipping the general parking structures, which feed you through CityWalk before you've even reached the gates. The Metro B Line from Hollywood/Highland drops you closer to the entrance than most people expect, for $1.75.
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How Universal Studios Hollywood came to be
In 1914, Carl Laemmle, a German Jewish-American immigrant, bought the Taylor Ranch in the San Fernando Valley and built Universal City from scratch — complete with its own zoo, police force, and mayor. On March 14, 1915, he opened the gates to the public: five cents got you in, with a boxed chicken lunch included. Around 10,000 people came. The tours stopped around 1930 when sound films made open sets impractical.
After MCA took over Universal Pictures in 1962, executive Albert Dorskind persuaded MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman to invest $4 million in trams, food courts, and restrooms. Buzz Price's feasibility study set the location, and on July 15, 1964, the modern tour launched — pink-and-white striped GlamorTrams, $2.50 a head. The Lower Lot opened in 1991, connected by a quarter-mile escalator system, and CityWalk followed in 1993.
Who and what shaped it
People who shaped it
Landmark buildings
Plan your visit
On the map
When to go
Right now
Background & history adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) · specs from Wikidata (CC0) · weather from Open-Meteo · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · photos from Wikimedia Commons / Unsplash with per-image credit. No third-party reviews or social posts reproduced.