8 NYC Locations Hollywood Uses Over and Over Again | Movies Insider 

Living in New York City sometimes feels like living in several movie 🎬 sets. It's exciting when you're walking or driving around and you immediately recognize a place from a movie or a TV show

0:00 underpass, 0:55 prison, 2:05 navy yard, 3:11 meeting room, 4:06 subway, 5:17 bar, 6:07 alley

The lobby entrance of the Empire State Building can be seen in Elf, Independence Day, Sleepless In Seattle, How I Met Your Mother, Gossip Girl, Superman, and countless classic films before the 1970's.

As someone who’s born and raised in Queens, the way she said Sutphin really made me uneasy 😬

fun fact: they filmed the Michael Jackson Bad Music Video at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station as well

I used to live near Cortlandt Alley pre-COVID. It's true. That alley is so damn atmospheric. It has everything you would ever need. Then there's another little alley just a few blocks east, but that one has all these Chinese signs. So if you want gritty Chinatown scenes, that's a perfect alley too. I also used to go to this very "New York" cafe right next to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in Dumbo when I tried to be a freelancer. I would simply walk from my apartment, cross the Manhattan Bridge, and then end up in this cafe. It was so atmospheric that once in a while whole busloads of tourists would get off and just take pictures of the cafe and us, the cafe denizens. For some bizarre reason it was almost always French tourists. Anyway, living in the very downtown part of NYC was a lot of fun. I lived close to so many iconic movie scenes. Now I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which has its own atmospheric little corners but these are far less famous.

That line about alley ways and LA Writers puts my question of "where are the alley ways" to rest. My whole life in New York, I know about 5.

The critical thing about these particular locations is they are generic. Washington Square Park appears in a million movies, but it’s so identifiable it’s crying out for the audience to identify with it. Same obviously with Central Park. Sometimes a location can be as important as a character in the movie (think Grand Central Terminal in North by Northwest) and sometimes you just don’t want that.

I've been blessed to randomly walk outside my building and see a crew working those colorful no parking warning signs are always exciting to read seeing a few blocks changed to fit a set is a cool experience West Side Story was the best one yet

This is very impressive, i'd love to see more of these videos.

When I moved my acting career from NYC to LA, one particular day on set I heard this one guy in background going on and on about how the studio where we were working was inadequate in so many ways. It wasn’t inadaquate at all, he just wanted everyone to know that he had a lot of experience-though honestly nothing could paint you as inexperienced more than essentially bragging about how much experience you have. Finally I interrupted his diatribe by saying, “Wow, you would hate to work in New York!” He asked why, and I said, “We are almost never in a studio; the city itself is what you see in most scenes; we work on real locations nearly all the time.” Didn’t hear another peep out of the guy.

I knew about Hoyt-Schermerhorn (pronounced "Skemerhorn") Cortlandt Alley, and Riverside Drive, but not the others. Interesting.

This needed to be longer. Well done Insider

I work as a background extra in nyc and usually get booked for law and order svu and we film in that subway station alot

Can you do this for Atlanta? So many movies are filmed in the same exact spots in Georgia. Of course, the movies don't take place in Atlanta, so it's a little different but I'm tired of seeing the same few blocks of Peachtree Street portrayed as Los Angeles and New York.

Thank you for speaking to location scouts and not critics.

Horseshoe Bar on 7th & Ave B is a legendary NYC film location.

Another NYC location they use a lot is Toronto.

I love how they didn't mention that the Joker stairs was in the Bronx

I visited the Irish Haven over a decade ago with New York friends, and it looks just the same in your video as it did then - really cool!

I knew about the Hoyt-Schmerhorn subway station. I actually saw Law & Order SVU being filmed there while I was riding on the A train.

I'm surprised more films aren't shot in Bronx.

It was amazing to watch joker and then realize that the stairs seen is one building down from my friends place and we had been there a thousand times.

I used to work in the 11 Madison Park building. Weekend at Bernies was filmed there. I didn't realize that until I watched it years later.

you can do a whole episode just on Central Park locations 😉

The Bronx is that Bad, they didnt even say where the Joker stairs was :)

the narrator is clearly not from New York. totally said Schermerhorn wrong 😂

The flatiron building is used a lot too

You know they not from Brooklyn when they say SHERMERhorn 😂😂😂 for anybody that doesn't wanna sound stupid it’s pronounced SKIMMERhorn

They didn't include Doyers St and Pell St in Chinatown, which are also in countless movies.

one of my favorite things to do is when watching movies or shows that are based in New York City is literally spotting out certain spots that I know exactly where they are

Norfolk, VA has 'Magazine Lane' in the Neon District, Downtown. It runs between the old newspaper and TV station with connecting duct work. Both are Art Deco styled buildings. A few movies and commercials were shot there. Our main local production company focuses on crime re-enactments for shows like "America's Most Wanted". Our main local moving arts school produces the '700 Club', so TV is their focus as well.

fun fact about the joker stairs: the local residents avoid them due to all the crime that happens in that area

Michael Jackson video for the song bad was filmed at Hoyt also

what an amazing video idea! please make more like this

Only film buffs notice the little details. We audiences are none the wiser.

The way she pronounced "Schermerhorn" and "Sutphin" is killing me

I worked in Cortlandt Alley and was blessed to see a few films being made… was able to be an extra in one also… Insider actually filmed this piece while my job was operational… wish I would’ve gotten to see them

You missed Horseshoe Bar, aka Bar A. Used in a lot from Godfather 2, Crocodile Dundee 2, Mrs. Masiel, and many more.

I spent alot of time as a kid in Soho and was always by the Ben's Pizza on Spring and Thompson where they did Men In Black, BIG had the handball court scene in the neighboring Park, and another thing from back in the day is standing on Thompson Street and Spring facing WTC you could see the Towers clearly. Soho, Greenwich Village and Chinatown are my favorites

A studio in Atlanta, Toronto, or Vancouver could not duplicate this. New York is always a good idea!

Hoyt-Schermerhorn -- remember the city was settled by the Dutch. In "Schermerhorn," the "ch" is pronounced like a "k."

The way she says Hoyt-Schermerhorn and Sutphin has me so tight. Hoyt-Skimmer-horn + SUT-fin 😑

There is a Diner on the border of queens and Brooklyn on Conduit Avenue that I would pass driving to my job site several years ago. It was in many scenes in Goodfellas. That were Robert De Niro kicked over the pay phone and started crying. It was cool to casually drive by a classic piece of Movie history driving back and forth to work. Goodfellas is also my favorite movie of all time.

IT"S PRONOUNCED "SUTT-FIN"

That bar they all use was also in "A Bronx Tale" that's cool, where all the motorcycle guys get beat up.

When the subway line Hoyt Schermerhorn is one was built, there was a new thinking in subway design. The line, the Fulton Street Subway, was built by the city as part of the Independent City Owned Subway System (which was usally just cut down to "Independent"), which was not connected to the two privaelty owned and operated subway networks, hence Indepenandt of private interests. when the lines were merged under city ownership in 1940, the network gained the three letter initialism IND to match the existing IRT and BMT. The city built the IND network on the idea that trains who were purley local would not cross the east river. So the two closed platforms at Hoyt and the two outer most tracks were for the local trains, while the tracks in use by the A and C were for the express. Local trains were to terminate/ originate at Court Street station several blocks west. That station was only open for about a decade and is now the New York Transit Museum. The line was incomplete when it opened, due to the depression and the coming of WWII. The A ran local as far east as Rockaway Avenue Station and Court Street was a shuttle, the HH (until 1985, lettered subway lines that were pure locals had double letter names). The filming location is the operational "southbound" track (the entire subway system only has "Northbound" and "Southbound" directions) with trains running westward (technically Northbound) towards the museum if possible. This track is also used to bring trains in and out of the museum, and is often used by paid "Nostalgia Train" rides, which often start at or visit the museum. The operational Northbound track is blocked off for storage of museum equipment in the tunnels. Hoyt's popularity as a filming location grew in the late 2000s when another useful location was lost. futher up the A and C trains is 42nd Street Port Authoirty Bus Terminal, part of the Times Square super complex. (a transfer complex so huge, the 7 line now stops TWICE in the same fare control area) the 8th avenue subway at that point had a single track lower level platform. Idealy it allowed the E train, coming off the line from Queens, to stop at 42nd street in the peak hours without causing a traffic jam, but it also prevented the 7 train from being extended westward... until they got the idea to extend it anyway, to the line's new terminus at 34th street Hudson Yards. The 42nd street platform, most famous for it's appearance in "Ghost", was punched through in the middle, allowing the 7 train to pass by.

Don’t forget the Dumbo section with the Brooklyn Bridge in the backdrop, as well as the triangle in Manhattan, the row of Street in bed stuy Brooklyn with the old brownstones, as well as most back drops along the east river overlooking all the bridges going to Manhattan

The warriors is such an awesome movie

Hoyt-Schermerhorn is pronounced “skemmerhorn,” btw.

This was a nice video. Thanks 😊

They forgot Central Park: KEVIN, YOU SPENT 967 DOLLARS ON ROOM SERVICE!!!!!!

That bar was also used in Rescue Me. God I miss that show.

awesome series . keep going guys .

A lot of the times Toronto stands in for NYC. Our old T1 subway trains have stood in for NYC subway trains

Can you talk about next on why Toronto is often used to showcase as NYC in film! Or Vancouver as SF? Thanks!!

Fun video. They actually missed so many famous spots, like Bethesda Terrace (John Wick and many others), the overpass north of Grand Central (I Am Legend, Avengers), Sheep's Meadow, etc...

They use the outer tracks at Hoyt-Schermerhorn because they are out of service. They lead to the Court St. station, which is now the NY Transit Museum. And before it became the Transit Museum, it was used as a subway set.

I live 3 blocks from Irish Haven! What a cool fact to learn from this.

I can attest to the Brooklyn Public Library, I worked at that location in 2015 for Cafe Society as Steve Carell's LA office and found myself right back there again for Paterno and a PA office

The fact there is almost no alleys in NYC blew mind

Irish Haven is only a block from where I lived in Sunset Park, very unassuming on the outside, especially during covid, but I love the ambiance. It's also not far from where the subway shooter opened fire

4:38 I love 'The Warriors' "CAAAN YOOOU DIIIIG IIIIIT?"

The lobby of The Edison Hotel in the theater district has been used many times. It is a good example of the Art Deco style of architecture and works in many movie genres.

much needed one

Hey, in LA they have this bridge Sixth Street Viaduct. And it appeared in countless movies and music videos!

I think the Joker's dancing stairs was also used in the film A Walk Among the Tombstones

4:44 i think it was also used in Croccodile Dundee, that subway platform. Towards the end scenes where his woman was trying to find him

Pls do other places… like LA, LV, etc…. HK, Paris, Dublin, London.. etc.

There's a street in Manchester, UK called Dale Street! Captain America and many other Marvel films used it! There always seems to be film crews around. It kind of resembles New York in the 50.s so that could be the reason. It's another feather in the world renowned cities' cap!

I love videos like this

I came here after i saw that Thumbnail The Warriors 1979 . god i miss this movie

thank you!

Fascinating.

Irish Haven was my local bar for awhile. So weird to see it transformed like that.

Vancouver has the same type of under-the-bridge viaduct below the Granville Street Bridge, it passes as New York or LA, the first FF movie used it. The Lion's Gate Bridge passes for a few NY bridges but is used mainly as the Golden Gate stand-in.

I’m from Washington Heights so I will mention a location from my neighborhood. United Palace on 175th and Broadway. Used in In The Heights, John Wick 3, Luke Cage S1 and countless music videos.

Wow I live right by the underpass in Harlem I’ve noticed the areas been in a lot of movies but I never knew Spider-Man was filmed here that’s so cool

When I was first staying up in NYC my hotel was just opposite the building they used for Oscorp in the first Spider-Man movie.

Do this with Los Angeles

Pretty sure I recognise cortlandt alley from Casey Neistat’s videos too! Behind his office

More videos like that pleaseeeee

6:42 Not "New York was designed according to the grid system" but "most of Manhattan between 14th Street and 116th Street was designed according to the grid system".

Only one I had no clue about was the Brooklyn Public Library office. Now that I know, I have to see it in person. Off to Grand Army Plaza I go!

Could you make more videos on commonly used locations? Los Angeles and Vancouver come to mind.

I live in North Kent, UK, which is highly unremarkable except Chatham dockyard is just down the road and it's various bits are in SO MANY films and TV shows. Children of men, sherlock Holmes, the golden compass, call the midwife, just off the top of my head.

Irish Haven! Spent many late nights there.

I work in the bk navy yard. The amount of movies that are filmed there and the amount of celerities ive seen is pretty cool

Hoy Schemerhorn is my fave subway station!!!

4:13 I used to think that they are also using the lower Bay station in Toronto for subway scenes.

I second everything they said in this video

it's simple , The underpass is a timeless location you can do a shoot in 1930 and show em 1950 1970 1990 2010 Just change the cars on the street and you have a different era.

I've seen that bar in person or interest the last few eps of carter on season 3 when the rookie takes her to a bar,

Being from Toronto, the city is in everything. I'm so tired of seeing Roy Thomson Hall again and again. I would randomly ride in the Rouge area and come across film shoots every summer.

Definitely want to see another done in LA!

Just wow

I'd have to imagine that several sets of Batman's parents have been murdered in Cortlandt Alley.

Me arriving in NYC: "say, dude, where are all them alleys they promised?"

Would like to see a similar video about San Francisco locations

You could do a companion piece on the streets of downtown Los Angeles that double for other US cities.