Hollywood Studio Tours, Ranked. Universal's Famous Tram Finishes Last.

The order follows one test: how much time on a working studio lot each tour's posted base ticket actually buys.

The best Hollywood studio tour for the money is the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. The most famous one in town, the Universal tram, finishes dead last.

The test is simple: what each base ticket costs against the time it buys on a working lot, using prices posted Sunday. Do that division and Warner Bros. comes out at about $26 an hour, a hair under Sony. Paramount charges the most per hour of the three that sell a tour by itself. Universal doesn't sell one at all.

1. Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood, Burbank. The standard Studio Tour starts at $79 and runs three hours, partly guided and partly self-guided, through soundstages, backlots and sets on a lot where the studio says real filming goes on around the visitors. It runs daily from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., except Nov. 3–5 and Nov. 26. Children 5 and older are allowed in, which matters once you see Sony's rules.

2. Sony Pictures Studio Tour, Culver City. At $55, Sony's two-hour walking tour is the cheapest standalone ticket on this list. It goes past stages that once housed "The Wizard of Oz," "Men in Black" and "Spider-Man," then by the sets of "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune." Parking in the Overland Avenue structure is free.

This is the placement I'm least sure about. Sony only runs tours Monday through Friday, at four standard times, reservations are required and nobody under 12 gets in, so a Saturday trip with a third-grader is off. On price per hour, it still beats the next tour by $8.

3. Paramount Pictures Studio Tour, Hollywood. Paramount's $71 tour runs daily for two hours and stops at the places a movie fan would ask for by name: the Bronson Gate, the New York backlot, the soundstages and a prop warehouse. That works out to $35.50 an hour, about $9 more than Warner Bros., and you get an hour less on the lot.

The upgrade menus show what the base tickets leave out. Paramount's weekday Premier tour costs $160 and runs three hours, with VIP access to the studio archives and backlot. Warner Bros.' Studio Tour Plus also starts at $160, adding the property department's props and set pieces and lunch at Central Perk Cafe. Two studios landed on the same price to open the rooms where the history is kept.

4. The Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal City. Ranking the tram last is the hot take on this list, and I'll defend it. The roughly hourlong ride is only sold as part of theme park admission, Inside the Magic reported, so a seat costs whatever a full day in the park costs. That's why Universal is the only entry here without an hourly figure.

The tram rolls past Jaws and King Kong 360 3-D. Photos are allowed from the seat, Inside the Magic noted, but the tram is in motion through much of the loop, so a rider may get mere seconds with some sets before it rolls on.

Universal's fix is to sell the stop. Its Backlot Photo Experience, announced in August, takes groups of up to 12 by van for as long as 90 minutes. They get out at spots such as the Hollywood sign replica and Courthouse Square, the town square from "Back to the Future." At that point Inside the Magic reported that Universal hadn't set a start date. In 1964, the first trams cost $2.50 a ride. Getting off one will start at $75.95, on top of the park ticket, once Universal sets a date.

Source: wbstudiotour.com, retrieved October 25, 2026. Other sources: sonypicturesstudiostours.com, paramountstudiotour.com, insidethemagic.net.