Aiming at the problem that the traditional video monitoring method can not divide the dense foreground objects accurately, a multi-target video monitoring method based on Adaboost and codebook model was proposed. Firstly, the Adaboost human head classifier was obtained by training, and the background model was established for the vertical elevator image by the codebook algorithm. The foreground image was extracted and heads were detected and tracked. After that, the pedestrian targets were removed to get the object targets, and the object targets were tracked. Finally, the movement of pedestrians and objects was monitored. The experimental results on 12 entrance area videos show that the method can track pedestrians and objects accurately and stably. It can accomplish the monitoring tasks of retrograde detection, passenger statistics, pedestrian congestion and object retention. With the processing speed of 36 frames per second, the tracking-accuracy rate is above 94% and the monitoring-accuracy rate is 95.8%. The proposed algorithm meets robustness, real-time and accuracy requirements of the intelligent video monitoring system.