I’d like to just chime in here. Yes, as a filmmaker and cinephile it is very sad to see some of the studio’s history go for advancement and more park space (as a parks fanatic tho, I’m a little excited haha.)
But, to be fair, almost all the historic sets on the lot are not the originals. The buildings in Six Points Texas are not the ones Audie Murphy, Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne strolled through. Those sets rotted away and fell apart, some burned in fires. A film studio is about catering to productions, not preserving history, as unfortunate as that is. Even Little Europe burned down and had to be rebuilt. Most of those sets were not completed buildings like we see today. They were bare minimum facades built for a few dozen films that they made over a decade. They were turned into permanent structures that would be able to handle the elements and the passage of time to serve two functions: to have a permanent variety of standing sets to attract an array of different productions, and to satisfy tourists on the tram who want to see those sets for themselves. Stage 28 wasn’t even the original stage. The phantom stage was completely rebuilt, I can’t remember when, but it’s not the same stage Lon Chaney Sr. worked in. The sets were refurbished and those still live on in history just not apart of the lot. I said this in another thread, that as historic as those stages are, they are not great for modern filmmaking. And really, when it gets down to it... why keep the four walls of a soundstage because so many films were made in there, when the lot itself is where the history lives and new history will be made. And if USH is able to take advantage of it and expand their footprint, while the studio updates to become the industry leading state of the art lot it deserves to be... then I’m all for it. The problem is competition: universal was able to stay a “historic” lot for years, but with many new boutique studios popping up all around Los Angeles County, they are pulling huge productions away from Universal. Most of the new Marvel movies, the Mandolorian, and the Avatar sequels were all shot at Manhattan Beach studios, one of the most state of the art facilities I’ve had the opportunity to be in. And universals new stages are almost an exact copy of the ones that exist at MBS.
History and nostalgia speak to our hearts, but the business side of things speaks to our (and more importantly executives’) brains, so it’s safe to say there will be some major changes happening at all the old “big five” studios. The word bittersweet comes to mind.
Now, with that being said, I’ve always dreamed of USH getting a hotel and a second gate, but honestly is there really any logical place to put a whole new park at their current site? I just don’t see where it could be feasible. Unless the Lower Lot is swallowed up into the second gate, the upper lot is expanded as the studio park... but even then that’s seems like the wrong move. If anybody knows the space and can show me on a map, id love that