TOP 20 TV & MOVIE LOCATIONS IN NEW YORK CITY
We’re turning 20! On June 12th, 1999 we started showing people from all over the world the most iconic locations from TV shows and movies around New York City. While our tours feature hundreds of locations to everything from the original King Kong to the new Avengers franchise, let’s count down the 20 most popular filming locations you can find in the Big Apple.
- Veniero’s
Tour: East Village TV & Movie Sites Walking Tour
This family owned pastry shop stretches back to 1984. Not only can you enjoy some yummy treats here but it’s also been a filming locations for shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Village. You might remember it recently from the 20th season of Law & Order: SVU when Olivia Benson goes to talk to an employee there to find out more about a kidnapping.
- Holly Golightly’s Apartment
Tour: TCM Classic Film Tour
While most of the interior shots were filmed in Los Angeles, the exterior shots of the apartment were right here in NYC. The beautiful white brownstone can’t be missed.
- Queensboro Bridge
Tour: TCM Classic Film Tour
Probably recognized from the poster of Woody Allen’s Manhattan, this is where him and Diane Keaton watch dawn break. It was also featured in 1936’s My Man Godfrey where Irene convinces Godfrey to marry her.
- Puck Building
Tour: East Village TV & Movie Sites Walking Tour
This building will be instantly recognized by any Will & Grace fans, as it is the exterior shot for Grace Adler’s office. It’s also been seen in When Harry Met Sally, American Psycho, and the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Carrie’s Brownstone
Tour: Sex and the City Hotspots Tour
Although Carrie Bradshaw lives in Upper Manhattan in the HBO series that also celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, this apartment is actually located downtown in the West Village. Like most TV shows, the inside of the apartment is actually a studio, but you’ll recognize the outside from the many times Carrie comes and goes for a night out.
- Daily News Building
Tour: The Super Tour of NYC
The Daily News Building stands in for the headquarters of the Daily Planet in the original 1978 Superman. Walking in and seeing the big globe will instantly make you remember when Christopher Reeve did the same as his alter ego Clark Kent.
- New York Public Library
Tour: NYC TV & Movie Tour, Sex and the City Hotspots Tour
You might remember the devastating scene from the Sex and the City movie where Carrie throws the bouquet of flowers in Big’s face… or you might remember the library from the gang’s hideout in The Day After Tomorrow. Or maybe from Gossip Girl, Spiderman, Law & Order, Network, Person of Interest… we could go on!
- The Dakota Building
Tour: TCM Classic Film Tour
The Dakota stands in for Branford Apartments in Rosemary’s Baby, where Rosemary and her demon neighbors live in the film. It’s also featured in Hannah and Her Sisters as Sam Waterson takes Diane West and Carrie Fischer on a tour of this building.
- Hook & Ladder 8
Tour: NYC TV & Movie Sites Tour
This firehouse is featured in every single Ghostbusters film, from the 1984 original to the 2016 reboot. Here’s hoping it makes a cameo in the next chapter!
- Flatiron Building
Tour: NYC TV & Movie Sites Tour
The Flatiron Building plays the role of the Daily Bugle in the original Spider-Man trilogy, but it also appears in This Is Us and Armageddon.
- Katz’s Delicatessen
Tour: East Village TV & Movie Sites Walking Tour
Here you can sit in the very spot where the line “I’ll have what she’s having” was uttered in When Harry Met Sally. The diner was also featured in 2007’s Enchanted.
- Rockefeller Center
Tour: NYC TV & Movie Sites Tour
Not only the home of the studios for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Saturday Night Live, the building is the main location in the series 30 Rock.
- 7B Horseshoe Bar
Tour: East Village TV & Movie Sites Walking Tour
This bar with a red door is the setting of the scene where Tony ambushes Frank and “Michael Corleone says hello” in The Godfather Part II. It’s also the setting of one of Nadia’s (many) deaths in Russian Doll, the Life Cafe in Rent, and Luke Cage’s bar in Marvel’s Jessica Jones.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Tour: When Harry Met Seinfeld Tour, Gossip Girl Sites Tour
A favorite among Gossip Girl fans, this is where Blair the Queen B sits to eat yogurt with the girls. It’s also the location of the main heist sequence in Ocean’s 8.
- Tom’s Restaurant
Tour: When Harry Met Seinfeld Tour
This diner (the exterior, anyway) is known as the hangout for the main characters of Seinfeld throughout its lengthy run.
- Grand Central Terminal
Tour: Gossip Girl Sites Tour, TCM Classic Film Tour, The Super Tour of NYC
From classic cameos in films like North by Northwest to the opening scene from the very first episode of Gossip Girl to the climactic battle scene from The Avengers and the inspiration for Madagascar, Grand Central is one of the most popular landmarks for TV and film.
- Central Park
Tour: Central Park TV & Movie Sites Walking Tour
The most filmed park not only in the country but in the world, characters stroll around here in Enchanted, Home Alone 2, Broad City, Kramer vs. Kramer, Isn’t It Romantic, and more.
- Times Square
Tour: NYC TV & Movie Tour, The Super Tour of NYC
Times Square was famously emptied out in the Tom Cruise movie Vanilla Sky, and was famously recreated in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It also appears as Michael Keaton’s nightmare in Birdman as well as Steve Rogers’ reality in Captain America: The First Avenger.
- Washington Square Park
Tour: NYC TV & Movie Tour, The Super Tour of NYC
A romantic spot in When Harry Met Sally, an empty wasteland in I Am Legend, a battleground in Avengers: Infinity War, a protest space in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and a friendship meeting spot in Someone Great, this park has truly seen it all. As nearby NYU doesn’t exactly have a campus, this is the closest thing to it so you will be sure to see some students milling about.
- Friends Apartment
Tour: NYC TV & Movie Tour
Seen in every single episode of Friends, this building has been on our tours since the beginning all the way back in 1999. The common theme is that the show was filmed in LA, but this is indeed the building from the hit series!