Disney is opening the El Capitan Theatre's red carpet to a creator-made film for the first time in its 100-year history. On September 17, Sticks' short 'The Technoblade Movie' premieres to kick off Created in LA, a two-day summit convening 350 of the world's top creators between the El Capitan and the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank. Dana Walden opens the theatre. Josh D'Amaro takes the stage the next morning. The legacy studio system is publicly conceding that the creator lane is now peer entertainment.
⚡ Key Takeaways
- Disney is opening the El Capitan's red carpet to a creator-made film for the first time in 100 years, with Sticks' 'The Technoblade Movie' premiering September 17.
- 350 creators convene across the El Capitan and the Walt Disney Studios lot September 17-18; Dana Walden opens night one, CEO Josh D'Amaro takes the stage on day two.
- Roster includes Dude Perfect, The Try Guys, Zach King, Dhar Mann, Jordan Matter, AdamW, Mindy Kaling, and Disney Animation CCO Jared Bush.
- Separate project alert: 'Technoblade Never Dies,' a feature doc, is financed by Riot Games and Hypixel Studios with 100% of profits going to charity.
- The creator economy sits at roughly $250B and is projected to hit $480B by 2027, per Goldman Sachs. Disney is chasing the audience, not leading it.
- The ceiling moved. Creators with the receipts are the ones who own the monetization stack, not the ones renting it back at 15% to 20%.
What actually happened?
Disney and creator Jon Youshaei announced Created in LA back on July 16, pitching it as the premiere creator event for the next generation of storytellers, per Variety. The full programming dropped September 3: Sticks, a two-person filmmaking duo with a combined 1.2M social reach, would debut 'The Technoblade Movie' on the El Capitan's big screen, marking the first premiere of its kind in the theatre's 100-year run, according to the official Disney announcement.
The speaker roster reads like a cross-section of the current creator A-list: Dude Perfect, The Try Guys, Zach King, Jordan Matter, Dhar Mann, AdamW, Mindy Kaling, Adrian Per, Jenny Hoyos, and Sam Eckholm. Add Disney's own Asad Ayaz (CMO) and Walt Disney Animation Studios CCO Jared Bush. Dana Walden delivers opening remarks on the 17th. CEO Josh D'Amaro welcomes creators to the Studios lot on the 18th.
One thing to keep straight: the Sticks short is not the same project as 'Technoblade Never Dies,' the feature-length documentary announced the same day. That one is financed by Riot Games and Hypixel Studios, produced by Candle Media's Candle True Stories, with 100% of both funders' profits going to charity. Two Technoblade projects, one week. Technoblade's channel still has nearly 23 million subscribers, more than three years after his death.
Why does this matter for creators?
The El Capitan has premiered decades of Disney tentpoles. Handing that stage to a two-person creator duo, for a Minecraft tribute, is not a marketing stunt. It is a rank concession. Hollywood's most legacy institution is telling creators that the ceiling has moved, and that a 23-million-subscriber gamer commands the same cultural weight in 2026 that a live-action blockbuster did in 1996.
The Goldman Sachs number underneath all this is the tell. The creator economy sits at roughly $250B today and is projected to approach $480B by 2027, per Goldman Sachs. Disney is not opening El Capitan out of goodwill. It is chasing where the audience already went.
"After 100 years, it's surreal to see Disney open two of its most iconic venues, the El Capitan Theatre and the Walt Disney Studios lot, to creators, especially now that the worlds of Hollywood and creators are growing closer than ever."
Jon Youshaei, Host and curator of Created in LA, via The Walt Disney Company
Where does this go from here?
D'Amaro has already flagged short-form as an area Disney is actively leaning into, citing the studio's 'creators collection' pilot around 'Predator' and 'Lilo & Stitch,' per MickeyBlog. Read it in context and Created in LA looks like the opening move of a longer play: Disney sourcing IP, sourcing talent, and sourcing distribution formats from the creator layer.
Watch two things next. First, whether the Sticks premiere spawns a real Disney-backed pipeline for creator-made short films, or stays a one-off ribbon-cutting. Second, whether other studios move to reserve their own venues (Netflix's Egyptian, Amazon's Culver lot, Warner's Village) for creator premieres. If they do, the studio-to-creator handoff stops being a novelty. It becomes an infrastructure story.
What does Fanvault think?
The creators who benefit most from this week's shift are the ones who own their monetization stack, own their audience relationship, and can walk into that El Capitan lobby without giving 15% to 20% back to a middleman platform. That is the exact reason Fanvault exists, on an 8% platform fee, with a storefront, memorabilia auctions, paywalled content, and the Content Capital automation layer built for the world where a Minecraft catalog outdraws a summer blockbuster. Legacy prestige is finally treating creators as peers. Legacy platform economics have not caught up, and creators should stop waiting for them to.
Disney handed over the red carpet. The next century of storytelling is being cut by two people with a camera and a Minecraft tribute. Everyone in the theatre already knew.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Created in LA?
Created in LA is a two-day creator summit hosted by Disney and creator Jon Youshaei, running September 17-18, 2026 across the El Capitan Theatre and the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank. It convenes
Is 'The Technoblade Movie' the same as 'Technoblade Never Dies'?
No. 'The Technoblade Movie' is a short film from the two-person creator duo Sticks, premiering on the El Capitan's big screen to open Created in LA on September 17. 'Technoblade Never Dies' is a separate, feature-length documentary announced the same week, financed by Riot Games and Hypixel Studios, and produced by Candle Media's Candle True Stories, with 100% of both funders' profits going to charity, per Variety.
Why is Disney opening the El Capitan to creators now?
The audience math. The creator economy is roughly
Who is Jon Youshaei?
Youshaei is the creator hosting and curating Created in LA. Before going independent he spent eight years working inside YouTube and Instagram, and today has
What does this mean for creators who aren't in the room?
The ceiling moved. Legacy distribution and legacy prestige are actively courting creator IP, creator storytelling, and creator business models. What used to be an 'if you make it big enough, Hollywood might notice' arc is now a two-day summit with 350 seats and the CEO opening day two. The creators who benefit most from this shift are the ones who own their audience relationship and their monetization stack, not the ones handing 15% to 20% back to a middleman platform for the privilege of getting paid.