Disney Opens the El Capitan and Its Studio Lot to Creators for Created in LA

Disney is putting digital creators on a Hollywood red carpet and opening its Burbank studio lot for a new two-day gathering called Created in LA. The event, which Disney describes as its first dedicated creator-focused event, is set for September 17 and 18 and will bring together roughly 350 creators, storytellers, and executives.

The news has more weight than the partnership announcement that first circulated on LinkedIn. In its official announcement, Disney lays out a format built around two pieces of company real estate that carry real symbolic value: the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood and the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank.

Created in LA is conceived and hosted with creator and journalist Jon Youshaei. The event is not a film market or a conventional studio premiere. It is Disney creating a staged point of contact between its entertainment infrastructure and an audience that increasingly produces, distributes, and finances its own work.

A creator premiere at the El Capitan

The first day takes place at the El Capitan Theatre, where Disney says creator videos will receive the venue's first red-carpet premiere. That is the clearest signal in the announcement: a theater long associated with Disney’s own tentpole releases will be used to present work made for creator audiences.

The second day moves to the Walt Disney Studios lot. Disney says the Burbank program will include talks, performances, and keynotes, bringing creators into the same physical setting that has long been reserved for the company’s film and television operation.

The basics:

• September 17-18, 2026

• Roughly 350 creators, storytellers, and executives

• A creator-video red-carpet premiere at the El Capitan on day one

• Talks, performances, and keynotes on the Disney lot on day two

Attendance is application-based through Created in LA. Disney says applications are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis, rather than positioning the gathering as an open public festival.

Disney is making a physical bet on the creator economy

Hollywood studios have spent years trying to figure out where independent creators fit: as marketing partners, as talent pipelines, as competitors for attention, or as future production partners. Created in LA does not settle that question. It does show Disney treating creators as an audience worth convening inside its own venues, with executives and established storytellers in the room.

That distinction matters. Creator-economy announcements often arrive as software launches, ad-sales initiatives, or content deals. Disney’s choice here is experiential and highly visible. The company is lending the El Capitan's premiere ritual and the studio lot's institutional cachet to work that usually premieres on social platforms or creator-owned channels.

It also comes as Disney is exploring new ways to engage audiences around its intellectual property and digital creation tools. VP Land previously covered Disney’s plan to explore generative-AI creation tools for Disney+ subscribers. Created in LA is a separate initiative, but it fits the same broader question: how much of the next entertainment ecosystem gets built with, rather than simply distributed to, digital creators.

More than a one-night brand activation

The event has enough structure to be more than a red-carpet photo opportunity. A premiere, a studio-lot program, and a capped group of 350 people give Disney a setting for relationship-building across creators, storytellers, and executives. That could lead to little beyond a successful inaugural event, but it could also become a repeatable model for how a major studio identifies talent and tests new creator-facing partnerships.

For now, Disney has announced a date, venues, format, and application process. The more important story is the invitation itself: the company is bringing creator work into one of Hollywood’s most traditional premiere spaces, then bringing the people behind it onto the Disney lot the next day.