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UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD
Hollywood, CA (Abbreviation: USH)
NBC Universal / Comcast
---- THE LATEST NEWS ----
(6/24/2026) Universal Studios Hollywood Completes Total Change To Security Envelope
(6/22/2026) A Strange Fast & Furious Occurrence While Testing
(6/21/2026) Get Ready To Get Fast & Furious
(6/17/2026) Stranger Things 5 Is Coming to Halloween Horror Nights
(6/6/2026) Universal Studios Hollywood Drops More Fast & Furious Details
Ride Rehabs - These dates are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as refurbishments are subject to change.
Nothing is known to be planned at this time…
Read the Official Review of Halloween Horror Nights 2017 - CLICK HERE
Read the Official Review of Halloween Horror Nights 2016 - CLICK HERE
Read the Official Review of Halloween Horror Nights 2015 - CLICK HERE
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem - THE GRAND OPENING
 General Park News - (6/24/2026) If you're planning a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood soon, expect a completely different arrival experience. The park has officially finished a massive refurbishment of its main entrance, effectively moving the security checkpoint all the way to the outer edge of the property. As a result, the entire CityWalk shopping and dining district is now located within the security perimeter, which is essentially exactly how things have been run at Universal Orlando for many years now, by placing the security checkpoint between the parking structures and Citywalk. Much like how it works in Orlando, this gives the theme park guests the freedom to pass between the park and Citywalk and back again without having to endure extra security screenings. Depending on where you park or how you arrive at Universal Hollywood, you’ll have to pass through one of three main security checkpoints: located in the middle of Citywalk for those taking shuttles or parking in the surface lot or Jurassic structure, along the eastern edge of Citywalk for those who parked in the Curious George structure, and for those in the King Kong or Frankenstein structure you’ll use of the old security checkpoint by the rotating Universal globe outside of the park entrance and western entrance to CityWalk.
 (5/30/2026) Universal has dropped the details for the return of the "Mega Movie Summer" promotion, which will run daily from June 13 through August 9. This will include a number of specials, but look for details about a special Buy-A-Day, Get-a-2nd-Day-Free ticket promotion. Other new items for Mega Movie Summer include an interactive Minions & Monsters experience and merchandise, new treats at the Minion Cafe, some cool movie props from the upcoming film, The Odyssey, including one of the massive ships on display on the Backlot Tour and look for the 34 foot tall Trojan Horse on display in CityWalk! Wicked fans will flock to see the return of the Glinda and Elphaba character meet and greets, and keep an eye out for a whole bunch of limited-time Jaws themed merchandise and food additions, including the return of a number of specials at Mel’s, including the return of the Shark Bait Burger, Amity Island Funnel Cake and more.
Meanwhile the park is also hyping up some new content in development around the launch of the new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster. No… we don’t have an opening day yet, but considering how furiously they are testing the ride with a multi-train setup, I think we are getting pretty close to an opening day. When that time comes, look for an assortment of other related F&F content to be added throughout the park, including an assortment of authentic star cars from the movie series to take pics with, live DJ music, and a hip-hop performance by the "Street Racers" dance group. Oh… and food! The popular Hollywood & Dine eatery will be converted into the "Drift & Dine" for the summer with new special racing-themed menu items.
(3/31/2026) Universal Studios Hollywood has announced an all-new Dining Pass option. Guests can purchase a way to enjoy meals and snacks throughout their visit to the park for a single price. The new Dining Pass serves up a menu of curated items, including two eligible entrées and four eligible side, snack, dessert or beverage at participating in‑park food and beverage locations.
The dining pass can be purchased on-site during your visit, or ahead of time on the official park website.
(3/8/2026) Butterbeer Season has begun (Mar. 1 through May 31, 2026) in Universal Studios Hollywood and that means all new Butterbeer flavored treats that you’ve never seen before are now being sold within the Wizarding World.
You can find new Butterbeer Waffles and a Butterbeer Cream Puff now, but only for a limited time.
(2/2/2026) Oh boy… some guests on the Universal Studios Hollywood Backlot Tram Tour got a little extra bit of a show on Saturday. Apparently a guest on one of the trams, who may have been under the influence of something, exited the tram in the middle of the tour and began taking his clothes off. He was also said to be rolling around on the group, taunting the staff from the ground, and then when he got back on the tram, he began to take the rest of his clothes off in front of the other guests on board.
Who had that on their bingo card for 2026? And that was just on January 31st! Security arrived about 15 minutes into the strip show to handle the situation and remove the rest of the guests from the area.
(11/6/2025) Universal Studios Hollywood posted a list of their 2026 planned events, which revealed one special surprise. The list included things like Butterbeer Season from March to May and the second Universal FanFest Nights on select nights from April 23 to May 16. It also revealed that Halloween Horror Nights 2026 will be expanding to open a week earlier than before, starting on Thursday, Sept. 3rd, as an early start to Labor Day Weekend and run through to Nov. 1st, 2026.
For the past few years Universal Orlando has been opening their HHN a week prior to the Hollywood event, with a Labor Day Weekend opening of their own, so now it looks like they should be opening around the same time next year.
(9/14/2025) Just a quick heads up, but as being reported around Social Media this week, Universal Studios Hollywood just increased their parking prices this weekend across the board, to all tiers. General Parking is now $35, Preferred parking is now $60 and if you want to park at the very front, it is going to cost you $80.
(9/6/2025) While the latest Evolution plan map for Universal Studios Hollywood had the current site of the WaterWorld show marked for future development, Universal has reached out say that they are not planning on removing the park’s popular stunt show. While nothing lasts forever, the park simply shows where future work or even just enhancements may take place over the next few years, so the inclusion of that location on the map could simply be a sign that the show itself may receive some kind of upgrade or remodel for the future as well.
(9/4/2025) Universal Studios Hollywood has filed a new long-term planning document (part of the ongoing Evolution Plan) that includes an overhead map layout of the park showing off the locations where new projects are being planned.
A number of interesting locations are highlighted to become new theme park attraction locations, but as the park is fairly developed, often something has to be removed to bring a new project to life. One item noticed by the local news is that the current site of the Waterworld show has been now marked as the site for a “New Theme Park Attraction w/ Food & Beverage Retail”
A total of five locations are marked on the legend for new attractions, but I’m only able to locate four of them. In addition to the site of the Waterworld show, the other three sites are all in the backlot: T-11 located where the current Tram Garage currently is, next to the Backlot Tour loading/unloading station, T7 located half-way down the hillside where I think the old mid-point tram stop for the original version of the tram tour was once located, and T6 down the hill from there, just to the west of the long closed Fast & Furious dancing cars installation.
I’m surprised more by the fact that the now closed Fast & Furious: Supercharged attraction site is not one of the spaces marked for a future attraction. It’s on the map, just colored is as an existing attraction like the rest. The one location I wasn’t able to spot is supposed to be marked as T2.
You’ll also notice a H2 location set between the One Universal building and the parking structure that is also home to Despicable Me on top. That is the location of a proposed 500-room Universal hotel and parking structure. Me? I would have put it in that flat parking lot location to the south of the center of Citywalk, but hey… what do I know.
Halloween Horror Nights 2026 - (6/17/2026) It’s official, Universal has confirmed that Netflix's Stranger Things is returning to Halloween Horror Nights this year as an all-new haunted house entirely themed around the series’ fifth and final season. Guests will be transported straight to Hawkins where the barrier to the Upside Down is collapsing, where you’ll visit the Wheeler House, Hawkins National Laboratory, the Abyss, the MAC-Z military base, and face off against Demogorgons and Vecna himself.
This year’s Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood will take place on select nights from September 3rd through to November 1st, 2026.
(5/21/2026) Universal has now confirmed that SINNERS is coming to this year’s Halloween Horror Nights 35 event in Orlando and to Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood as the Smokestack Twins defend Club Juke from vampires!
2026 - Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift - (6/22/2026) Testing on the Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster hit a small “speed bump” this week it seems. Various reports on social media report that one of the panel of plexiglass built as barriers around the Starway lifts had cracked. Universal is currently investigating the mishap to determine if it was just a rare defect of the glass, or if something may have flew from one of the trains to strike it.
(6/21/2026) As everyone waits for Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift to open, check out this great cinematic style preview video I came across below… just to get you a little more excited to see this sucker in action, especially in the sunset and twilight hours!
(6/6/2026) Universal Studios Hollywood has revealed a few more details about the upcoming Hollywood Drift roller coaster. Pulling back the curtain on the queue, they’ve revealed that riders will snake through a highly authentic recreation of a working movie studio garage, packed to the brim with iconic, screen-used stunt vehicles straight from the multibillion-dollar film franchise. And new for Universal Hollywood fans, in order to keep things moving super “Fast”, the park is introducing its very first double-sided locker system. Guests will pass through metal detectors right before boarding to make sure no loose articles have been brought on board and that everything that can fly off has been left in the safety of a locker. The double-sided lockers have started to become more common at Universal’s Orlando parks, where I believe they were first put to use on the VelociCoaster there.
(6/5/2026) Universal Studios Hollywood fans got excited earlier today when a page on the park’s website was discovered to have added a June 26th opening date for the new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster. This was quickly taken down however, and Universal has posted to social media that “an opening date was incorrectly posted” and they “apologize for the confusion.”
So in the meantime, they do say that they look forward to posting the correct date very soon… whatever it will be. It just won’t be on June 26th.
(5/24/2026) Some sweet footage of the Hollywood Drift coaster testing at night with the headlights on on the cars can be seen below.
(4/11/2026) Universal is said to be very close to being ready to open the new Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift coaster, and as a nice piece of proof… ACN has posted video footage of the ride testing with some actual HUMAN riders in various seats. As you can imagine, these are most likely Universal Creative staff, and for whatever reason they’ve gone back to using a train covered in that digital zebra camo vinyl wrap again, minus the fancy chrome wheels.
I don’t know if this is a second train that just hasn’t been unwrapped, or the first train they started testing with long ago. As I recall, when they began testing last fall, the trains not only had no fancy chrome wheels, but didn’t even have the faux disc-brakes installed. This train at least appears to have installed most along with some brightly painted brake calipers to stand-out, which is a nice visual touch I had not noticed before when they revealed the fully themed trains previously.
Officially, Universal is still hanging onto the more general “Summer 2026” opening date, but at this rate, if all goes well with the human testing, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t open by Memorial Day weekend, if not maybe a little sooner. And who knows… maybe those attending Universal Fan Fest Nights may be in for a little extra surprise late one evening…
(3/7/2026) Universal Studios Hollywood has finally pulled the zebra camouflage wrapping off those Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift roller coaster cars to reveal them in their full glory as Dom’s Dodge Charger in the lead along with cars themed to Mazda RX-7, Nissan Skyline GT-R and a Toyota Supra.
These have got to be the most highly themed roller coaster cars of all time and if you thought that Universal’s promo was just “sick” looking, just wait until you see them in action in the next few clips.
(2/7/2026) Universal Studios Hollywood has confirmed that the new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift roller coaster will be opening this summer with an all new video teaser promotion, showing off the new attraction in action. Buckle up!
(11/18/2025) Intamin revealed a full scale roller coaster car for the new Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift coaster at IAAPA earlier today. It is safe to say that this is probably the most highly detailed roller coaster train of all time, bringing to life Dom’s classic black Dodge Charger, complete with working headlights, supercharger and an on-board audio system. It is safe to say that if you visit Universal Studios Hollywood in the Summer of 2026 you’ll be drifting through the Hollywood hills in style!
(11/12/2025) Some fun video footage of the new Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift coaster making test runs was posted by the local news on Tuesday. Check it out below.
(10/18/2025) Fans who can’t wait to see the new Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift themed roller coaster open at Universal Studios Hollywood next year will be happy to know that testing of the coaster has now begun. Some pictures of the train loaded with water dummies and camera gear can be found over at Blooloop this morning. I can’t wait for Universal to release some sweet POV footage from the ride to show off what we’re in store for.
(7/31/2025) Universal Studios Hollywood fans can expect to see the new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster continue to make pull-through testing along the track throughout the month of August along with “Powered Ride Vehicle Movement in Station Area”. This is all according to an email sent out to local residents around the park to let them be aware of the construction and potential noise issues taking palace 7am to 7pm weekdays and 8am to 6pm on Saturdays in August, along with more “Earthwork and Grading”, Sound Wall installation, Prop installs, a sound barrier coming to the Eastern half-pipe along with trees and other landscaping.
So it doesn’t sound like we can expect to see any launch testing until at least September, and I’d expect some of those first early tests to potentially take place at night under the cover of darkness if possible.
(7/16/2025) The pull-through of a car around the new Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift coaster track at Universal Studios Hollywood continues and you can catch up with the latest progress in the video below.
(6/12/2025) Universal Studios Hollywood revealed some new artwork for the Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift coaster coming in 2026, as well as our very first look at one of the themed coaster cars, this one themed as Dom’s Dodge Charger.
(2/20/2025) The latest construction update for the Hollywood Drift coaster comes from an unexpected source… franchise star Ludacris. Some very up close and cool shots of the coaster to be sure… check it out below.
(11/28/2024) A fantastic aerial view of the Hollywood Drift coaster construction site was shot by helicopter and posted by a local news station, giving us an epic view of the attraction from an angle we haven’t seen before. The camera lingers for quite some time along the station building which features a complicated mix of switch tracks to allow train access to the maintenance barn tracks as well as the dual-sided loading station.
(5/4/2024) Universal issued a small press release along with the new 2026 opening date for the Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift roller coaster that also confirms that the attraction will feature cars that are able to rotate 360º.
“The state-of-the-art ride system is being uniquely designed to immerse guests within the high-speed Fast & Furious universe. Highlights will include groundbreaking 360-degree rotation of the individual ride vehicles as they rocket along an elaborate track meticulously constructed with sound reduction technology for a breathtaking, superior experience. These attributions will create a seamless sensation of drifting cars as guests spin in motion at furiously fast speeds.”
““Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift” will be located on the Upper Lot of Universal Studios Hollywood. Guests will queue up within a large, red brick, garage-style structure before settling into the ride vehicles, modeled after several authentic cars featured in the films, and catapulting along an aerial track that winds its way over parts of the theme park.”
(10/29/2023) While Screamscape has already reported that the new Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift coaster will feature more than one launch and vehicles that can spin, we’re now starting to hear just a little more about the ride vehicles themselves. As this is a Fast & Furious themed ride, the theming of the coaster trains themselves as F&F style cars is said to be of the utmost importance to the project. As such, look for these car themed trains to look unlike anything you’ve ever seen before on a roller coaster.
(10/18/2023) It’s kind of funny how all the news stories this week about the upcoming Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift coaster are suddenly all excited about the fact that the cars will be able to rotate. Sorry, I’ve got to say something here about that, because Screamscape posted that the cars will rotate way back on 5/17/2022 (scroll down) when we first broke the story revealing the coaster and the early concept artwork.
As we posted back then… “The Gringotts comparison is apt, because just like we saw built for Gringotts, these cars will utilize a controlled spinning system.” At the time, back when the early layout included that crazy C-shaped spike track, the cars could clearly be seen rotating on the spike in the concept art.
Ok… just saying.
(7/5/2023) ParksFans has posted some drawings of what appears to be the Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift coaster project in the works for Universal Studios Hollywood. As we indicated on Screamscape when we posted the early concept art, the layout was said to have changed, including the removal of that giant “C” shaped spike track on the one end in favor or something more traditional.
They’ve even posted a rough animation of what the ride experience might be like, with the trains taking advantage of the hillside terrain in this area of the park. This is all early speculation of course, but it does look like they are trying to create a terrain style ride that can offer something along the thrill levels of the VelociCoaster in Florida.
(10/9/22) Just before Summer Screamscape revealed the details about a launched roller coaster in development for Universal’s Hollywood park called Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift. At the time this was the big concept the park was looking at as their next big attraction to come after the opening of Super Nintendo World.
The word going around is that some early building permits have been filed for this project, which would seem to indicate that it has gone from concept to being greenlit. While I’ve been told that the overall concept has changed just a little bit, the same basic idea of having a launched roller coaster with with sports-car themed vehicles able to spin to create a “drift” sensation is still very much alive and well. Like most coasters we’ve seen Universal build as of late in North America, Intamin is said to be providing the hardware once again.
So since this project seems to be moving forward, I thought it was about time to share with everyone some early concept artwork for the Hollywood Drift attraction that was shared with me. Remember, this is early concept artwork, so the final product shown once Universal is ready to announce it will be a little bit different, but this will give you the basic look and feel of the concept, as well as the location just to the left of the top-side of the Starway.
(5/17/22) There has been some early talk about building a new Fast & Furious ride at Universal Studios Hollywood. Screamscape dug a bit deeper into these rumors and apparently it is true that something Fast & Furious themed is indeed planned. The interesting thing is that the new ride planned will be a roller coaster unlike anything we’ve really seen before. And no, this won’t be the drifting dark ride/coaster system developed from Dynamic Attractions.
Now before I get too far into the details on this thing, know that this is simply an attraction concept. No construction has started, so the concept can be changed, the concept can be canceled entirely and replaced with something entirely different. I make no promises that this will be built… but dang if it doesn’t look interesting.
That said, this particular concept is being called Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift, and on the land side of things we are looking at the removal of both the Animal Actors show and the Special Effects Show on the upper deck to make way for this new coaster concept from Intamin. I believe the overall track layout to still be somewhat fluid at this point, but the idea would be to use a dual-sided loading station, not unlike Gringotts at Universal Orlando, with the roller coaster trains made to look like a set of four Fast & Furious style cars.
The Gringotts comparison is apt, because just like we saw built for Gringotts, these cars will utilize a controlled spinning system. From what I understand the trains will pull out of the station and onto a multi-launch track area where they will spin to launch up into a rather bizarre looking half-loop shaped spike track. The best I can describe it is that the trains will enter the element as if going up into a loop but by the time they reach the vertical moment, the track will have rotated 90º sidewards for the remainder of the element which will look more like a giant letter “C”. During this rise, stall and eventually fall back down the individual cars will spin and rotate to be facing the opposite direction by the time they enter the launch track and are boosted out at a higher speed to soar up and over the pathway leading to the Starway to the lower level, and then drop down into an unknown roller coaster section that I’m assuming will go around to the hillside behind the Simpsons ride building before turning around and heading back for a return run towards the station again.
Again, this is just a concept, but one that should prove to be nearly as fun to watch from the ground as it would be to ride if Universal were to go ahead with it. I’ve no idea what this means for the longevity of the current Fast & Furious - Supercharged attraction on the Backlot Tour. They could keep it as is for those not into roller coasters who still enjoy the “Fast” films, or perhaps they could turn it into something new further down the line as well.
2027/2028 - Future Attraction Concepts / Replacement For The Simpsons Likely -
The Ongoing Evolution of Citywalk -
(4/27/2025) There has been some activity inside Citywalk outside Universal Studios Hollywood. I’m told that the former Dongpo Kitchen restaurant across the pathway from the theater, now has signage up confirming that a Raising Cane’s chicken restaurant will soon be arriving at the location.
(4/13/2025) An article posted by SFGate this week looks over a lot of the big changes that have been taking place at CityWalk outside Universal Studios Hollywood. In short, we’ve been seeing a lot of closures lately, with some claiming that their leases simply were not up for renew by Universal, preventing them from staying, even if they wanted to.
So what’s going on at CityWalk? The answer may be more apparent if you look at all the changes that have taken place at CityWalk in Orlando over the past decade. The original slate of venues in Orlando’s CityWalk has changed quite a bit, with Universal themselves taking over a large number of sites that were previously leased out to other retailers. Instead we’ve seen Universal take more charge to bring a new vision to that CityWalk, adding more restaurants of every size and shape, as well as bringing in more of their own Universal branded retail experiences, along with a unique Universal branded Escape Room attraction and two Mini-Golf courses.
The changes have been very successful for the Orlando CityWalk, but that location also caters as evening destination for the many on-site Universal hotel guests as well all guests departing the theme parks at night. Hollywood has no on-site hotel, and there is only the one park to cater to. Unfortunately, a huge road-block that prevents the locals from enjoying the CityWalk location out west comes in the form of a huge parking fee. If only they would take a lesson from Orlando’s CityWalk and offer free parking after 6pm in order to allow the local market to come in and enjoy the venue but for unknown reasons, they just haven’t gone that route yet.
There are plans in the works to finally build a Universal branded resort hotel that would be attached to CityWalk that can only help things, but in the meantime, I’d keep an eye on just what is coming and going, as I do think there is some kind of vision in place that will slowly transform and update Hollywood’s CityWalk for the future.
???? - Resort Hotel - (11/30/2024) Apparently Universal Studios Hollywood is FINALLY developing plans to build their very own resort hotel just outside the entrance of the theme park, taking over a small flat parking lot area that was used for premium parking, handicapped permit parking and I believe valet parking along with some longer slots possibly used by tourist busses, along with the site previously used by the Saddle Ranch Chop House before it closed in 2018. I guess this explains why the Hilton Universal City suddenly relaunched their own expansion plans once again that would add an new 18-story tower, after letting them fall into limbo for much of the past decade.
???? - Hilton Universal City Expansion - (1/26/2025) According to the local news the City Council of Los Angeles approved the expansion plans for the Universal Studios Hollywood Hilton to build a new 18-story tall hotel tower, adding almost 400 new rooms to the resort. For those counting, this new tower will actually be a little shorter than the existing 24-story tall tower.
(9/23/2024) Keep your eyes peeled for a new construction project to take place just outside of Universal Studios Hollywood. Proposed for years, the 24-story tall Hilton Universal City resort hotel located the street from the entrance of Universal Studios Hollywood has been given an approval recommendation to build a new 18-story / 395-room tower. The existing hotel is said to have an average occupancy rate of 92% over the past year, and if the local city council gives their final approval on the project, the expansion could be up and running in about 30 months. The goal would be to have it all ready in time to take advantage of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games that will take place across Los Angeles.
(10/6/20) While not owned by Universal Studios at all, it is worth mentioning that the nearby Hilton Universal City hotel now has a timeline to begin construction on a new expansion tower in 2023 that will add an additional 395 rooms and a parking structure to the property by the time they finish in 2025.
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