Great news for film buffs who love to travel! A new report from HawaiianIslands.com lists each state’s most filmed location, so you can do a movie/trip tie-in. For instance, California’s location is Griffith Park, so you can sit down with La La Land ahead of time, since its climax takes place in that beautiful historic site. New York’s most filmed location is Central Park, so after a viewing of When Harry Met Sally, Spiderman and Night at the Museum (to name just a few), see if your walk in the park is similar. California and New York are the most filmed states in general, but every state has had movies filmed in it, and perusing the list gives an interesting perspective on what each locale has to offer.
The list also provides sidebar listings like the most filmed national parks (Grand Canyon wins), beaches (Venice Beach in L.A.), museums (Kennedy Space Center in Florida), buildings (Union Station in L.A.) and sports stadiums (Madison Square Garden in NYC).
In several states (Michigan and Minnesota), the airport is the most filmed location, so use that as a jumping off point to knock several film sites off the list. And just in time for Powder Szn, the only ski resort on the list is in Vermont.
How’d this list get compiled? HawaiianIslands.com used IMDB’s advanced search settings to pull data for all movies and TV shows from Jan. 1, 1900 (a heyday of silent films? Maybe. Motion pictures began in the mid-1880s) to Dec. 31, 2020 and stripped out locations that were not in the US or were devoted filming ranches or studios. Some manual clean-up and narrowing of the lists transpired, such as limiting buildings to those on the American Institute of Architects’ list of “America’s Favorite Architecture.”
At any rate, look for your state and enjoy trip inspo based on movie night. May we suggest sprinkling M&Ms on top of your warm popcorn?
The most filmed locations in each state:
Alabama: U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville
Alaska: Denali National Park
Arizona: Sonoran Desert
Arkansas: Little Rock Central High School, Little Rock
California: Griffith Park, Los Angeles
Colorado: Buckskin Joe Frontier Town & Railway
Connecticut: Yale University, New Haven
Delaware: Dover Air Force Base, Dover
District of Columbia: The White House
Florida: Walt Disney World
Georgia: Agnes Scott College, Decatur
Hawaii: Pearl Harbor
Idaho: Sawtooth National Recreation Area
Illinois: Wrigley Field, Chicago
Indiana: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis
Iowa: University of Iowa, Iowa City
Kansas: Old Cowtown Museum, Wichita
Kentucky: Churchill Downs, Louisville
Louisiana: Bourbon Street, New Orleans
Maine: Acadia National Park
Maryland: United States Naval Academy, Annapolis
Massachusetts: Harvard University, Cambridge
Michigan: Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Detroit
Minnesota: Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport
Mississippi: Mississippi River
Missouri: Busch Stadium, St. Louis
Montana: Glacier National Park
Nebraska: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln
Nevada: Hoover Dam
New Hampshire: Dartmouth College, Hanover
New Jersey: Princeton University, Princeton
New Mexico: White Sands National Park
New York: Central Park, Manhattan, New York City
North Carolina: Biltmore Estate, Asheville
North Dakota: Badlands
Ohio: Mansfield Reformatory, also known as The Ohio State Reformatory, Mansfield
Oklahoma: The University of Oklahoma, Norman
Oregon: Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Rhode Island: Brown University, Providence
South Carolina: Boone Hall Plantation & Gardens, Mount Pleasant
South Dakota: Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Keystone
Tennessee: Ryman Auditorium, Nashville
Texas: NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston
Utah: Zion National Park
Vermont: Killington Ski Resort, Killington
Virginia: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington
Washington: Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument
West Virginia: New River Gorge National Park & Preserve
Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison
Wyoming: Yellowstone National Park
To read the full report, click here.