Great Movie Ride Closing???

Rumors are swirling that the Great Movie Ride which is inside of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Disney’s Hollywood Studios could be closing in the very near future.

The Great Movie Ride is a dark tram ride that takes you through many scenes of Hollywood movie history that include “Wizard of Oz”, “Alien” and “Indiana Jones”.  The ride is currently licensed through Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

Disney is currently moving away from licensing rides through 3rd party companies and instead using Disney intellectual property, i.e. changing Tower of Terror (which was licensed through CBS) in California Adventure to Guardians of the Galaxy (which is Disney property.)

The current contract with TCM for The Great Movie Ride expires in 2018 and will not be renewed according to sources.  Disney, instead, will re-theme the ride to something Disneyish (is that a word?).  Rumors are that The Great Movie ride would close as early as August of 2017, with construction of a Mickey Mouse ride that was designed several years ago which uses trackless technology, such as the “Winnie the Pooh” ride in Disneyland Paris, and would take you through a video history of the Big Cheese himself.

The exterior of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre most-likely would not change due to the amount of money that Disney has spent on the Star Wars and Disney Movie Magic projection shows that have become very popular.  Also it is used to direct people down Hollywood Studios to the center of the theme park.

This rumor does seem plausible due to the fact that Toy Story Land will be opening in the Summer of 2018 and Star Wars Land in the Summer of 2019 (maybe…) and these new Hollywood Studio features will reduce the amount of riders to the already low attended attraction.

I would love to see a new attraction replace The Great Movie Ride.  This is one of the Disney dark rides that you go on just to get out of the Florida heat and to rest your feet for about a half hour or so.  Don’t get me wrong, the first time that I went on this ride, it was fun, but after that it became boring very quickly.

Announcements are expected to be made about this and other Disney enhancements at the upcoming D23 Expo which is being held July14-16 in Anaheim, CA (Home of Disneyland).

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